Fiebings white dye

Gary W. Graley

Gary W. Graley

“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Mar 2, 1999
Messages
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Hi guys and gals, quick question, Fiebings white dye, does it work?

I have this sheath a fellow has commissioned me to make for him for his balisong folder, his request was to have the butterfly embossed as well as the Yin-Yang emblem on there, I felt it was a bit much but after putting it on a piece of leather and laying it atop the sheath's top section, it appeared that it would fit and so I kept going as he requested, plus it will make for an unusual sheath for him to have too.

Now the Yin Yang emblem I used a 1" metal tube to make the circle and used a swivel knife to cut in the dividing portion of the symbol, 'carefully' dyed the black section already, the outer groove of the tube helps to separate the emblem for the rest of the black sheath. I did order a small container of Fiebings white dye but it will be a while before it arrives, of course I will test it on some leather first but wanted to know if any of you have used it and how you made out?

For the dots, I came up with the idea of taking the heads off of sewing pins that I saw in a hobby shop, the white one is now glued into place, the black bead is just resting in the hole I drilled, once I dye the leather on that side, then I'll glue in the black head.

Yin_Yang.jpg~original


It's different, but then, so am I.... ;)

Thanks in advance!
G2
 
Gary, Years ago I tried the "white" Feibings dye and the results were very disappointing (and that's the high point). It goes down hill from there…..for a true white I think the Cava "paint" dye would be the best bet, but I don't use that either because it is really just paint in my opinion. I'll be interested in your results with what is probably generation 10 or 12 of the Feibings white dye. It doesn't look too bad with the colors the way it is now other than I think the outer circle would look better if it was red or blue or some color to clearly separate it from the natural color of the light side of the Yin Yang.


Paul
 
Thanks Paul, and I did send this photo to the person with my concerns and if I stuck with the natural leather, I would probably use saddle tan or something just slightly darker like you say to have it stand out.

I'll report back once that jar arrives ;)
G2
 
Not to derail you here Gary but I had to say that this is one more example of the incredible work you do. WOW!!! That is going to be beautiful.
 
Thanks Ronnie! it's in the rough right now but will even out when all is said and done, I thought using the pin heads was a great idea to really set the Yin Yang emblem, I experimented with one head and it's really stuck fast into the leather well, so barring a catastrophe they should stay in place well.

G2
 
Wow :thumbup:

Gary , that's very cool .
I think I agree with Paul and would maybe try and dye the outer ring different from the centre .
Maybe a tan on the ring and leave the centre lighter that way you are framing the Yin and Yang and have a contrast between the the outer and inner .
Whatever you do , I'm sure it will be great .

Ken
 
Thanks Ken, the outer ring part, IF the white dye doesn't have the affect that I hope, then I plan on dyeing that outer right slightly darker, but the other half of the emblem just needs to be 'somewhat' whiter and maybe the dye will accomplish that and I agree Paul, acrylics or paint I don't think would work well for sheaths, paint is paint :)

The bottle should arrive this week and I can proceed to wrap this up! one way or another.

Problem with trying to dye separate colours is that leather is tricky, be as careful as you may, the dye can weep into areas that you don't want them to. I could put more cuts into the leather which is a good stop for the dye but I don't like to weaken that much of the design with swivel cuts, so I have to go very slowly with very little dye on a tiny paint brush! always fun lol

G2
 
Gary,
I have had good luck with white Cova dye in some of my animal carvings. It does go on just like paint if not thinned so my process is to put a small amount of dye on a piece of cardboard and then dip the brush in water before picking up some dye, every time. You have to keep at it for several coats to get it opaque but it does penetrate the leather this way and has proven pretty durable. I used that process on the elk's butt for this custom XP 100 pistol scabbard.
Randy
 

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Nice work, right now I'm committed to trying the Fiebings as I don't normally do this sort of dyeing
G2
 
It arrived today, pretty depressing, it was Fiebings acrylic white dye and as mentioned, more like a paint, plus the small jar metal foil seal wasn't sealed, which leads me to believe that it had been opened before and returned, but, I can't prove that, plus since I did try a few brushes worth, it's not a new bottle any longer so I wouldn't feel right about returning it anyways, so I now have some small white paint!

And you know how it looks when you try to paint a car with a brush and not a spray gun? yeah, not so great, on the piece I tried it always showed the brush strokes, and you had to really put on the thickness in order not to see through, so all in all, I'm back to round one (not square one since it's a circle ;) ) and I took some saddle tan dye around the emblem and that will suffice, tricky right now to glue in the black bead.

G2
 
Gary W. Graley said:
It arrived today, pretty depressing, it was Fiebings acrylic white dye and as mentioned, more like a paint, plus the small jar metal foil seal wasn't sealed, which leads me to believe that it had been opened before and returned, but, I can't prove that, plus since I did try a few brushes worth, it's not a new bottle any longer so I wouldn't feel right about returning it anyways, so I now have some small white paint!

And you know how it looks when you try to paint a car with a brush and not a spray gun? yeah, not so great, on the piece I tried it always showed the brush strokes, and you had to really put on the thickness in order not to see through, so all in all, I'm back to round one (not square one since it's a circle ;) ) and I took some saddle tan dye around the emblem and that will suffice, tricky right now to glue in the black bead.

G2
Click to expand...

That's a shame it didnt work out .
Just had a thought though , has anyone ever tried bleaching leather to lighten the color ?

Ken
 
Yeah, I was quite bummed about it too :( but I like how it ended up, has a very warm look to it, here's a quick shot, the top is now glued down to the middle section and will put the stitching holes in tomorrow and trim it to fit onto the belt loop section and then start sewing!

yin-yang-butterfly.jpg~original


G2
 
Gary, that looks very good! You certainly know what it represents and the tan circle border and center really sets it off.

Paul
 
Thanks Paul and I think in the long run, wear time, it will prove it was a smarter move than the acrylic ;) and as I say, I wasn't fond of having both the butterfly AND the Yin Yang, I'm even more basic in my thinking and I would have liked to have just the Yin Yang but with the butterfly in black it brings the emphasis on the Yin Yang while still having the 'traditional' butterfly for the balisong on there too :)
G2
 
well all sewn up and edging was done today so it will be heading home tomorrow, quite a rugged sheath as I used a bit extra heavy leather for the top section to help with gluing in those beads, made it a bit tougher to form but worth the effort I think.

Butterfly_Yin_Yang.jpg~original


G2
 
That Yin & Yang is wonderful icing on top of a fantastic cake .
I have always admired the design of your Balisong sheaths , everything just flows .

Ken
 
Very nice Gary! i'm thinking I might like the leather colored ying and yang better.
 
Thanks Ken and Dave I agree too, I won't even show what the white dye looked like on the test piece ;)
G2
 
It looks great as it is.

I think it was already mentioned here, but I was browsing through the Springfield Leather catalog and noticed that they have a Angelus white cream leather/shoe polish which may have worked for your needs.

Take care.

Mike L.
 
Thanks Mike, I will take that under advisement it was a neat thing to attempt to make, so I'm not sure how often this may present itself.

I did email to the folks that I got the dye from, I told them it appeared that it was not sealed on arrival, they checked a few bottles and found some to be like mine and some were sealed, they immediately shipped me out a new bottle, I would have told them not to bother but it was already enroute!

G2
 
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