Leather dyeing questions

[Yosemite Sam]

Hi all,

Two quick leather dyeing questions:

1) Is it possible to get good results dyeing (darkening) finished leather? I have a nice quality belt that is just too darn tan to wear with anything. I've got access to good quality leather dye. Would I ruin it by attempting this? By "finished" in this case I mean its already dyed tan and polished. I don't believe it has been sealed in any way.

2) I have a knife sheath which is exuding great amounts of black dye. I've cleaned a bunch of excess off, but it still bleeds. Is there any way to "fix" the dye, or should I just keep cleaning, at times taking a swipe with denatured alcohol?

Thanks in advance,

-- Sam

 

[KnifeHead]

Hi all,

Two quick leather dyeing questions:

1) Is it possible to get good results dyeing (darkening) finished leather? I have a nice quality belt that is just too darn tan to wear with anything. I've got access to good quality leather dye. Would I ruin it by attempting this? By "finished" in this case I mean its already dyed tan and polished. I don't believe it has been sealed in any way.

2) I have a knife sheath which is exuding great amounts of black dye. I've cleaned a bunch of excess off, but it still bleeds. Is there any way to "fix" the dye, or should I just keep cleaning, at times taking a swipe with denatured alcohol?

Thanks in advance,

-- Sam

On the belt, I would try cleaning it with denatured alcohol in a spot on the back and try the dye of your choice as a test. The alcohol should strip off anything that might be sealing it. It's a crap shoot though because you don't know what has been done to it in finishing.

on the sheath, you might try Lexol to help seal and condition it. Any place that carries horse tack would likely have Lexol in stock.

There's a couple of ideas.

 

[M. McCord]

1) Is it possible to get good results dyeing (darkening) finished leather? I have a nice quality belt that is just too darn tan to wear with anything.

If the leather was dyed then you should be able to dye it black. However if it has a top coat (surface finish) you'll need to strip it off. Fiebings makes their #12 Degreaser which claims to strip off all existing finishes. Don't know if it would remove the existing color. But you can always use one color as a base coat and a separate dye to color the leather. An example is using blue dye then black dye to get a true "black".

I have a belt that was "oil" dyed using only Harness oil. It was light to medium brown. After a couple years wear I decided to line it and refinish it. I used Fiebings Dark Brown spirit (alcohol) dye. It turned out well enough but has more of a Cordovan color than brown.

2) I have a knife sheath which is exuding great amounts of black dye. I've cleaned a bunch of excess off, but it still bleeds. Is there any way to "fix" the dye, or should I just keep cleaning, at times taking a swipe with denatured alcohol?

Black tends to be the worst offender for color bleed off. I don't due too much finishing with black but in the past I have used Fiebings Black Oil dye. What worked for me was to apply the dye and let it dry completely. Then buff the leather. The dye will start to shine a little. Then a second coat was applied and the buffing repeated. After that I would buff it a few times before putting on a sealant. I have used Neat-Lac in the past but I try to avoid it anymore. But it will seal the leather, too well in fact. Now I'm using Fiebing Leather Sheen or their Resolene. They don't seem to dry the leather out as bad as Neat-Lac.

Hope this helps. I'm sure other people have other methods but this is what's worked for me.

 

[Yosemite Sam]

Thank you both for the responses. I'm not as far off track as I feared.

I first noticed the bleed off on the sheath after I applied Lexol the first time (my favorite conditioner, too). I've since used some denatured alc, a lot of buffing, Lexol cleaner followed by the conditioner, and it is bleeding far less now. I'll let it sit up an cure for a while and buff some more.

-- Sam