using wood dye on leather?

H

hobbitling

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Aug 16, 2013
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I just stitched together my first sheath, and while the damp leathe dries, I'm wondering how to dye it.
I have some Trans-Tint aniline dye concentrate (made for use on wood) and I was wondering if It would work on leather.
The color is "Dark Antique Maple" if that matters to anyone.
It's in a little 2 oz dropper bottle, which the directions say to mix with alcohol or water. Which would you recommend mixing it with?
 
I don't know the answer to your situation from personal experience, but I would suggest you use some scrap leather and test the two recommended mixing techniques and base your final decision on the results.

If it works out good, or bad be sure to come back and share the information.

Paul
 
Well, it looks like it worked pretty well. I experimented with a few recipes on scraps of leather before trying it on the sheath. This was wet formed tooling leather, by the way.

I mixed it with cheap 100 proof vodka (so basically 50/50 water/ethanol, although I'm sure diluted denatured ethanol would work fine) at 30 drops per oz of solvent, in a tiny little spritzer bottle. I used "Dark Mission Brown" TransTint liquid. It produced a nice dark chocolatey brown stain on the leather. I just spritzed it on and gently spread it with my nitrile gloved finger to keep the color even, until it soaked in. Very easy. There were a few slightly blotchy areas, but that was probably due to my application technique. I just waited for it to dry a bit, then added a little extra on the lighter areas to even it out. I ended up applying a few coats to get it dark enough.



I let it dry for a few hours, then treated the leather with sno-seal (using a heat gun on low to melt it in deep until it couldn't take any more). Then I buffed it with a shoe shine brush. It ended up with a deep glossychocolatey brown color that doesn't seem to rub off, and the sno-seal should make it pretty much moisture proof.

I did notice that the areas around the stitching turned out a tiny bit lighter than the rest. I wonder if it's because of the stretching and tension of the leather in that area, or possibly wax rubbed off from the waxed thread I used to stitch the seam. I don't mind it much. honestly, it gives it a slightly patina'd antiquey look.
 
In the words of the OLD A Team "I love it when a plan comes together". Thanks for taking the time to come back and share your experience. I'm sure the recipe for the "Vodka cocktail" will be useful to others.

Paul
 
Who da thunk it! Vodka. Bet a guy would get a nice even golden brown with some single malt!
 
Here's a photo

IMG_1297c.JPG


This one shows the slightly lighter color around the stitching.
IMG_1298c.JPG
 
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