I have been trying to achieve decent colors on white bone using Fieblings leather dye which is what, I understand, to be the dye of choice for this task. Well....I have completely failed so far....everything turns green...and ugly green at that! Perhaps I need to double dye the bone? I have used Cordovan(reddish green), dark brown(really really green), English tan(light green), black(gray green), ad nauseum. If I dyed red..then dyed another color...?? Or tan...then another color? How would one achieve dark amber? Any help here is certainly appreciated and if anyone needs some plug ugly green bone scales..I've got em.
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Dying White Bone??
- Thread starter John L
- Start date
ken erickson
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2004
- Messages
- 2,701
Hi John,
Welcome to the frustrating world of bone dying!
Maybe Ken Coats will add something here. I have learned most of what I do from him. I have been suggesting that he do a bone dying tutorial here in this forum.
I assume that your using cow bone? In my experience there are a few keys to success.
1. The quality of the bone. I used some that was fresh from the butcher that had blood streaks in the bone. Not good.
2. Preparing the bone before going into the dye. I cut and shape my bone scales for a particular knife, The bone is no more than .110 thick and I will then put a radius on the one side. I will jig my pattern in. I then normally will pre-soak the bone in some medium. I use olive oil. After pre-soaking for a while you will start to see a translucency when held up to a bright light. I then go into the dye and if everything goes well I end up with the color and uniformity that we all like to see in bone. I use two colors pretty much, medium brown oil dye and dark brown oil dye.
I do not know the secret to get that amber color that is popular right now and available from Cullpepper's and others.
This is not the whole answer by any means, just works for me.
Ken
Welcome to the frustrating world of bone dying!
Maybe Ken Coats will add something here. I have learned most of what I do from him. I have been suggesting that he do a bone dying tutorial here in this forum. I assume that your using cow bone? In my experience there are a few keys to success.
1. The quality of the bone. I used some that was fresh from the butcher that had blood streaks in the bone. Not good.
2. Preparing the bone before going into the dye. I cut and shape my bone scales for a particular knife, The bone is no more than .110 thick and I will then put a radius on the one side. I will jig my pattern in. I then normally will pre-soak the bone in some medium. I use olive oil. After pre-soaking for a while you will start to see a translucency when held up to a bright light. I then go into the dye and if everything goes well I end up with the color and uniformity that we all like to see in bone. I use two colors pretty much, medium brown oil dye and dark brown oil dye.
I do not know the secret to get that amber color that is popular right now and available from Cullpepper's and others.
This is not the whole answer by any means, just works for me.
Ken
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2007
- Messages
- 1,361
Google potassium pergament it will turn the bone brown depending on how its used and to what degree. A word of caution it turns evrything brown skin, hands, clothes and it will not wash out, if you get it on you it's wash and wear.
It is used as an oxyidizeder in cleaning up wells and ponds.
I had a couple of sites bookmarked and as soon as figure out where they are I will post them.
Found it, here is one of the links, it is getting hard to find because no one wants to ship it!
Ok google has added a new feature called alot andf it will not allow me to post the link correctly, so I will attempt to hand type. If it doesn''t work google The Science Company.
www.sciencecompany.com/patinas/patinaschems.htm since I can't seem to make this an active link copy and paste and then scew down to the P's.
It is used as an oxyidizeder in cleaning up wells and ponds.
I had a couple of sites bookmarked and as soon as figure out where they are I will post them.
Found it, here is one of the links, it is getting hard to find because no one wants to ship it!
Ok google has added a new feature called alot andf it will not allow me to post the link correctly, so I will attempt to hand type. If it doesn''t work google The Science Company.
www.sciencecompany.com/patinas/patinaschems.htm since I can't seem to make this an active link copy and paste and then scew down to the P's.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2007
- Messages
- 1,171
potassium permanganate, can usualy be found at a good plumbing supply place.
- Joined
- Sep 26, 1999
- Messages
- 4,486
Iodine will give you a amber color...You need stronger iodine than you get at the local wal mart,think you have to get it through a pharmacist.
Bruce
Bruce
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2005
- Messages
- 2,348
The dyes I use to dye bone are fiebings oil leather dyes, this is NOT the normal spirit
based leather dye they sell. As Ken Erickson said above the degree of translucency
in the bone before hitting the dye is important.
Get the bone to the thickness you're after, do the jigging on it then either soak it in
lemon oil furniture polish, xylene, or and I've had my best luck with this, with gasolene overnite.
Take it from the gas and check to see that the scales have about equal translucency,
paper towel them off and let sit about 10-15 min, you don't want the surface to start
looking chalky before going into the dye. Go directly into the oil dye usually overnite though sometimes to get a lighter inner color I'll only let them soak 10 min. Take the scales out of the dye and let dry, don't wipe the wet surface dye off ,after about 2 days
of drying go into the lemon oil for about five min. take out and let sit for 2 or 3 days.
The finished product is thru and thru with a full look from the lemon oil. I know this sounds complicated and maybe dangerous to some, there are actually a lot of ways to dye bone this is just the method I've had the best luck with. Without making a bigger novel of this than it already is. Good Luck.
Ken.
based leather dye they sell. As Ken Erickson said above the degree of translucency
in the bone before hitting the dye is important.
Get the bone to the thickness you're after, do the jigging on it then either soak it in
lemon oil furniture polish, xylene, or and I've had my best luck with this, with gasolene overnite.
Take it from the gas and check to see that the scales have about equal translucency,
paper towel them off and let sit about 10-15 min, you don't want the surface to start
looking chalky before going into the dye. Go directly into the oil dye usually overnite though sometimes to get a lighter inner color I'll only let them soak 10 min. Take the scales out of the dye and let dry, don't wipe the wet surface dye off ,after about 2 days
of drying go into the lemon oil for about five min. take out and let sit for 2 or 3 days.
The finished product is thru and thru with a full look from the lemon oil. I know this sounds complicated and maybe dangerous to some, there are actually a lot of ways to dye bone this is just the method I've had the best luck with. Without making a bigger novel of this than it already is. Good Luck.
Ken.
- Joined
- May 14, 2009
- Messages
- 69
Hello: Not that I know much about this but I have just been soaking my bone in alcahol based wood stain. I also use it for leather dye as well.
As a bone dye I can mic about any colour I want and I just let it soak for 24 hours then let it air dry.. Not all that hard to do..You can also get creative with dying by using overdyes and other neat little things...
I do stabilize using cyanoacrylate under a vacuum after it is dry...
NVHammerHead
As a bone dye I can mic about any colour I want and I just let it soak for 24 hours then let it air dry.. Not all that hard to do..You can also get creative with dying by using overdyes and other neat little things...
I do stabilize using cyanoacrylate under a vacuum after it is dry...
NVHammerHead