Dying leather

[jaxenro]

I read somewhere, but now I can't find it, that leather used to be dyed by soaking in water with rusty iron in it. I'm guessing the iron reacted with the tannins in the leather from the tanning process. Anyone familier with this method?

 

[tom hargrove]

might work if you add a pack of rit dye to it :hmm:

 

[hornbuilder]

Jax :

are you sure your not confusing the use of apple cider vinegar and Iron to create dyes ? these were mostly used for wood dyes but would probably work on leather as well? sorry never heard of water and iron to make leather dyes :surrender:
good luck in your search of period dies

 

[rabjr]

Nitrate of Iron was and can be used to color leather but you have to submerge and let the leather soak. Depending on the size of the leather your trying to dye, this can mean a lot of Nitrate of Iron or AF. Probably more than what you want to deal with.

 

[Bill Austin]

You can use vinegar with steel wool disolved in it to dye bark tanned leather. It will turn it nearly black in a very short time. I just used a rag and rubbed it on the grain side, it needs to be neutralized with a little water and baking soda afterwards. A lot of modern leather is chrome tanned first and then soaked in tannin solution just long enough to get the color and firmness of bark tanned leather. I have read that this can cause problems with the iron/vinegar dye.

 

[jaxenro]

I remembered where I read it, Will Ghormley's website:

"On the Texas frontier, a saddler made do with what he had. Leather wasn’t dyed black, it was soaked in a water barrel with rusty iron in it. The iron oxide in the water turned the leather black. This process produces a dark patina that already looks old as soon as it dries. It’s an imperfect procedure, but it gets authentic results."

Looks like some testing is in order