Vinegaroon " Homebrew Black Dye"

[church&son]

I've had several e-mails about my "homebrew dyes" this one is the black called Vinegar Black( AKA Vinegaroon). This recipe goes back to Medieval days or the first time someone stumbled and dropped leather in a bucket of rusty water, vinegar just accelerates the process.

Vinegaroon- Apple cider vinegar with iron shavings in it.
Let it sit for a couple of weeks and you have black leather dye that will not stain your hands.
I catch the filings under the vise but instead of iron shavings you can use steel wool. But steel wool has oil in it that you must git rid of. I dip it in acetone and light it off in an old pan . Doesn't hurt to have a lid around 'cause acetone burns big.
I use the plastic coffee containers with the lid, pour a quart of vinegar in, add 2-3 steel wool pads and let it set in the sun to ferment. Poke a hole in the lid to prevent buildup of gases and shake it up every few days. The wool or shavings will dissolve and you have Vinegaroon.

This bucket is about 2 years old, good looking stuff, I add filings and vinegar every couple of months to keep it going.
A scrap of veg-tan

This is 5 minutes later. Gets darker and less purple colored, more of a deep charcoal gray

When it gets to the color you like, neutralize it with baking soda mixed with water and oil it.
This one on veg-tanned

And this one on rawhide

Vinageroon is not actually a dye, it is a chemical reaction with leather. It doesn't work well on chem-tanned or previously dyed or finished leather.
It's fun to mess with and costs very little, most of it you already have.........Randy

 

[Pipeman]

Hi Randy
I use the vinegaroon a lot when I need to match a handle that works well with a grey sheath. I've played with it quite a bit and the colour range you can get is amazing, from pale grey to a few nice burgundy/purples right up to a different black.

Great post

Regards

Robin

 

[church&son]

Robin, it works well on Maple to bring out the wigglys.............RC

 

[Operator1975]

That might be the most awesome thing I have ever seen. Now between trying not to ignite myself on fire while I am covered in clay, I can also try and dye every piece of leather I can get my hands on (wifes purse collection?), and make misc sheaths. Should be interesting, seeing that I have no artistic ability whatsoever.

 

[Pipeman]

That might be the most awesome thing I have ever seen. Now between trying not to ignite myself on fire while I am covered in clay, I can also try and dye every piece of leather I can get my hands on (wifes purse collection?), and make misc sheaths. Should be interesting, seeing that I have no artistic ability whatsoever.

Hi bud
Check my hawk sheath tutorial. You can do it ;-)))

Regards

Robin

 

[pullrich]

Man that is so cool. Would so much rather do this stuff myself with ordinary material than pull something off the shelf. Timely tips for me ..... I need to put together a cover for this beast.

 

[Pipeman]

Man that is so cool. Would so much rather do this stuff myself with ordinary material than pull something off the shelf. Timely tips for me ..... I need to put together a cover for this beast.

Hey pullrich, that is some hunk of steel, very nice piece. Great handle, is it sambar stag, did you make it?

Best regards

Robin

 

[pullrich]

That's an elk antler tine I found way up Mt. Tom creek, off trail, in the Olympic Mountains of Wa state. I paid an Oregon blacksmith named Gene Martin to grind the blade (http://customknife.com/index.html) and put on the guard. He designed it of course, and from his site looks lie he has a smaller version of it available. You'll see him posting on these forums now and then. He did a great job and gave me lots of advice. You can see its a stick tang, not ideal for a chopper, but I really wanted to use this antler tine for this sort of blade. We'll see if it goes "gunny bag" as Gene puts it. Anyway, Gene ground the blade, heat treated and all the other stuff youre supposed to do, then I drilled out the antler, poured 2-hour epoxy in, stick tang in, and finished off with poured pewter bolster and cap. Eye bolt in cap for lanyard. I made a heck of a mess with the pewter but thats what files are for. Brushed on some FC for the patina.

So now for the leather. Lucky for me I have your tutorial on hand and once I find some old leather I'll start cutting and sewing.
Definitely going to dye it like you describe in this thread, C & S.

 

[church&son]

Pullrich, think big cow. The big ones are fun, you really have to get creative or you have a side in one sheath. Someone roll 1975 around on the ground. Vinageroon never fails to amaze me, here is one I'm working on now. This is with no finish yet, just dye.

It gets richer with finish.I have to build me a photo box......Randy

 

[pullrich]

Someone roll 1975 around on the ground.

What does that mean, lol?

How do you do the finish on those sheathes?

 

[pullrich]

But steel wool has oil in it that you must git rid of. I dip it in acetone and light it off in an old pan

I'm on it. Will update.

 

[Bigfattyt]

I have a container stewing right now. I forgot the step for taking the oil off the steel wool with acetone etc. But I got it to dissolve anyway.

Have not tried it yet. I have a new knife coming soon that will need a new sheath, and the handle is Black g10 so I figure a black sheath might look nice.

 

[pullrich]

I'm close to done with the stitching on my chopper sheathe so it will be vinegaroon time soon. Bigfattyt how's yours coming?

 

[pullrich]

I've had a couple of steel wool pads steeping in rice vinegar for a couple of weeks and there is not much sign of change in the pads. Some descriptions of vinegaroon use say you should start the pads rusting first, then steep in vinegar. Also, is the temperature of the steep important?

I pulled the pads out and will let them rust a bit, then re-submerge, to see if that does the trick.

 

[church&son]

Temp. does not seem to make much of a difference to me, it does start it "perking" faster and I've used new wool before so pre-rusting is not required but my question would be the rice vinegar. "Western" vinegars such as Cider are about 5% acetic acid. The rice variant is sweeter and less acidic. Maybe add some Cider to the mix...........Randy

 

[byoffcr]

Randy thanks for all the info. KT

 

[pullrich]

I should have know to stay American for something like this......

 

[pullrich]

Okay I did it, here is Chopper Tom's sheath, part vinegarooned:

Bottom part vinegarooned, as you can tell. The leather covering the top is cut from an old welding smock I got at a yard sale. It must have been died or something because the vinegaroon wouldnt touch it. I swabbed black dye on that part, in the end it gives a nice contrast to the vinegaroon.

Thanks to C & S for all the info and inspiration on the design. You can see I was aiming for something like the sheathe on that big bowie with the blue stone.

 

[church&son]

PullRich--AWESOME--Looks great-- Great addition to that big chopper. It is a long ways around a big one hand stitching.

It must have been died or something because the vinegaroon wouldnt touch it.

Probably was previously dyed. Vinegaroon is a chemical reaction, not really a dye, that is why it doesn't work as well on chem-tanned leather.
The first writings on vinegar dye was in 50 AD in Rome, so you just done something with some history behind it. I'm brewing a batch now with "wine" vinegar and copper( from another old book) let you know what it does......Randy

 

[pullrich]

Today I learned that it is important to store your vinegaroon in a plastic or other non-metal container. Eagerly went out to the shed to die my latest hawk sheathe only to find that the tin can I was brewing it in had corroded and sprung leaks in the bottom. Lesson learned. New batch perking in the apple cider vinegar jug.