Leather dye

[john wood]

Mornin all,
I'm lookin for a good home brew leather dye. What do you all use??

........capgun

 

[omarick1948]

You can do a SEARCH on this forum and see all types of recipes!

 

[john wood]

Yeah, I figured this has been covered before. I don't know how to do a search though.

.......capgun

 

[john wood]

OOPS!!!..............I just figger'd it out. THANKS!!!!........capgun

 

[groundhoginwv]

I use a vinegar with some rusty iron thrown in. Let stand a couple of weeks. Produces a nice charcol grey on vegetable tanned leather. Finish with black shoe polish.

 

[john wood]

I was going to try that but I had a friend use it and it turned the leather a deep purple. Wonder what went wrong??

 

[MSW]

purple, you say? that's very off... perhaps there was something other than iron in the nails... my daughter the leather worker asks if here was any walnut in the vicinity ... dunno ...

i use Fiebings with good results (actually, i just filch the kids dye, with good results)

 

[SpottedBull]

Never had purple either. I use shredded steel wool in my vinegar. And I use Fiebings too, for anything other than black.

 

[groundhoginwv]

yikes :barf: I have no idea what went wrong. Vinegar and iron will give you a dull blackish blue finish but I have never seen purple. I would guess there was some contamination of the dye but I really dont know.
GHOG