Home-made leather dye?

[flm_shooter]

Nobody in this county seems to have heard of leather dye. Are there any nifty around-the-house items I can use to darken my spiffy new additions?

 

[brushbuster]

have you tried Tandy's or the leather factory ? i am sure any leather shop or upholstry supplier should have what you're looking for. :thumbsup:

 

[Rebel]

Black Walnut Hulls

 

Any place that sells shoes carries leather dye.
Black walnut husks makes an excelleant permanent dark brown dye. Great for dying new traps too. (And your fingers!)
Poke berries make a real nice purple dye.

 

Fillmore Shooter

If you don't have access to black walnut hulls, Tandy and The Leather Factory have a product called Antique Leather Stain. It is nice to work with. Apply it with a damp sponge by working into your leather and all stamping. Let dry for a few minutes. Begin to remove the stain with another damp sponge. You can control the effect very nicely this way. The leather will darken because of the damp sponges so go through the process above and let dry for a minute or two to see how dark it actually is. Repeat as needed. Use Satin Sheen to protect the finish. Apply with a damp sponge. Satin Sheen will also remove a tiny bit of Anitique Stain when applied. This is OK as it tends to balance out the finish color and also highlights the embossing. After a second coat has dried, buff the Satin Sheen with a soft cloth. As a final step, you can add just a bit of brown shoe polish if you want a bit more gloss and a slightly richer color. Be careful not to get too much gloss though.

Tandy and The Leather Factory have several locations in California and ship overnight. LA location is closest to you: 1-800-548-6461. If you have a shoe repair shop nearby, they can probably help you order until you get a catalog. Click here for Tandy's website: Tandy Leather Website

Antique Stains comes in black and 5 shades of brown/tan.

For "quick and dirty" results: black shoe polish will darken tan and brown leather but be careful to avoid too much gloss.

 

[musketman]

Black walnut husks makes an excelleant permanent dark brown dye. Great for dying new traps too. (And your fingers!)
Poke berries make a real nice purple dye.

What if you mixed both black walnut and poke berries, would you get a deep purple??? (the color, not the rock group)

 

[flm_shooter]

Thanks all,

I have the Tandy catalog, but I didn't figure that leather dye was so hard to find. I COULD always drive to LA, but the reason I live here is so that I don't have to drive to LA.

I just started playing with leather this week (ooh, that sounds bad, doesn't it?). Will go to rondy next week and get everything stained and dirty and then try to darken it more.

 

[Dave Poss]

What if you mixed both black walnut and poke berries, would you get a deep purple??? (the color, not the rock group)

Showing your age a bit!! Nobody under 50 even knows who Deep Purple was! :crackup: ::

 

[Musketeer]

I just started playing with leather this week (ooh, that sounds bad, doesn't it?).

Nothin' ta be ashamed of. We's all got our own personal fetishes. :shocking: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :thumbsup:

 

[madstone]

A little oil and "darkened" walnut hulls makes good walnut stain for stocks. Wear gloves and smear in the stain, grasping the hull, walnut and all, then rub with cloth first then linseed oil. I only did this a few times but it made the "manure-wood" stocks of the cheaper ML's look better.
Didn't the tannic acid in oak bark and leaves leave a nice brown hue on leather tanned in the "pits"? It certainly used to stain my hands when working in old time sawmills!
The rough wood wore gloves out too fast! Hickory (hichory) nut husks lend a strange yellow called butternut. B-nut is a kind of "greasy" hichory and often used to dye cloth?
(Remember when all the local kids came to school with walnut stains when in season?)Blackberry too!

 

[2172]

I've had good results using Ritter's fabric dye on buckskin, trying to get the several different shades in a shirt (from several different skins) to be uniform. Hank

 

[broken arrow]

I've been playing around with pokeberry stains, here's what I've found works best...

Mash the berries in a plastic cup, mix in just enough water to make it about grapejuice consistency, add a dash of white vinegar (this helps "set" the color), strain it through a paint strainer, and wipe in/on with a cloth until desired color or until the fabric/wood will absorb no more. Remember to wear rubber or latex gloves unless you don't mind having purple hands.

I'm still "testing" so take this recipe as you will. But so far, on wood, the color is holding well.

 

[frenchfusil]

When working with brain tan, we like to use walnut dye. With this we can get from a nice milk chocolate, to a almost black. Brain tan dyed with walnut hulls ages nicely, darking with age and exposure to light. If you don't have acess to walnut hulls, you can purchase powderd hulls form sevral online sources (www.braintan.com for one). We have also used logwood dye which can give a nice deep purple.

Mkui Medal
A.K.A. That GD injun
Guerre Abenakis

 

[onefeather]

david you told me about that one day and i tried it it worked good untill i got it wet or the sun just took it out but i still got some stuff that the poke berry stain stayed in :results:

 

[tmdreb]

A very cheap and extremely authentic black dye for naturally tanned leather is iron dye, also called rust or nail dye.

I use steel wool (anything that rusts will work) in a container with some water and a little vinegar. Let this sit a couple days or so, and brush it onto the leather. Very simple, very easy and very effective.

 

[onefeather]

broken arrow told me about that i use apple viniger for mine any one else use anything else

 

[broken arrow]

The pokeberry test is done...

If you leave the stained piece laying out the sun will remove about 99% of the color. So I would say it's not a very good idea for stain.

 

[TNtrapper]

Heres a pair of leggins I recently done with Rit dye from wally-world. The leather was commercial braintan but it needed a little darkening.I just added a few drops of dark brown dye to about 2 cups of water, then sponged it on till the leather soaked it in good. Kinda give it a good mottled used look........TN

 

[Marko10thivi]

I too used RIT dye from the local supermarket. I bought a few shades of brown, used some straight, and mixed others. I used it just as you would for fabric, only DON'T HEAT THE WATER TOO MUCH--OR AT ALL,OR YOU WILL SHRIVEL THE LEATHER.
Cut some test strips of your particular leather,and dunk them,allow them to dry as they will appear WAY lighter when dry. After you dye your leathers, and allow them to dry, put them in your dryer with no heat and tumble them with a clean pair of gym shoes to soften the leather to a nice suppleness. I also rubbed in LEXOL leather preservative.
I have been wearing my rit dyed buckskins for the last 20 years and have noticed no fading, but rather a nice lived in look to them