Can anyone tell me how to lighten Fiebings oil dye. What to dilute it with? Help!!

LARRYZ10

LARRYZ10

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Feb 6, 2010
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I have been using light brown fiebings oil dye on my leather sheaths with a wool swab and it comes out almost black. What can I thin it with trhat will lightene it up a little?
 
I am not 100% sure but I believe you can use alcohol. You may want to ask this in "sheaths and such"
 
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A trick I use is to use it full strength then sand almost all the way off...leaving it dark in the grain(I use a lot of maple) then mix a little stain with alcohol to lighten it...apply till you get the look you want...then oil.
Hope that helps some.
Mace
 
LARRYZ10 said:
I have been using light brown fiebings oil dye on my leather sheaths with a wool swab and it comes out almost black. What can I thin it with trhat will lightene it up a little?
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Make sure after applting you rub it with a cloth so the excess is taken off and not slowly soaking in.
 
I personally wouldn't use the wool swabs, i have found that i get streaks when using them. Usually i wet the leather before applying my dye, in fact i pretty much drench it and then wipe off the excess, then apply my dye with a cotton cloth (t-shirts work well). Also, forgot to mention, before doing all this i wipe the leather down with denatured alcohol to deglaze.
 
Fiebing's Dye Reducer contains methyl alcohol; not sure what else it may have in it.

"Description: Use to thin Fiebing’s Leather Dyes for spray dyeing or color dilution. Also use to thin or dilute Professional Oil Dye."
 
You can thin with alcohol. Also, if you dampen the sheath a fair amount and then dye, it will cause the dye to not be as dark.
 
I haven't been happy with how dark my dye comes out either. Can you use alcohol to dilute Fiebings regular non-oil dye as well?
 
I want to thank everyone who replied to my request. The rubbing alcohol worked great. I put a little in a plastic cup then sprayed rubbing alcohol into it with a spray bottle and stirred while checking the color with q-tips. I applied the dye and let the sheath dry for 2 hours and it lightened a little bit so I repeated the procedure and got the shade of brown I wanted and then shot a thin coat of satin clear laquer over the sheath and it looks professional. I have not been wetting the sheaths before staining because after I form them I wanted the sheath to remain shaped from the forming. They look great and fit the knife contours perfectly. Thanks to all for the suggestions. Larry in Bakersfield
 
Show us some pictures of what your making Larry. Glad you got the results you were after.
 
Just another perspective.
I used to do a bit of leatherwork.
I only used a dauber to apply dye to the edges.
To dye the surfaces would use a piece of an old t-shirt to apply the dye.
That way you can apply additional coats to get as dark as you like.
If you wipe on the dye with a light touch the lower wrinkled ares will not get dyed for a cool natural look.
Or you can double dye by applying a heavy coat of a light color and then a light wipe of a darker color for contrasting colors.
Too much alcohol in the mix may affect the colorfastness of the dye.
 
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