How do I get an even finish with leather dye?

[Toots]

Have just finished making a bag fro SWMBO from veg tan leather. Nothing too flashy but I am unsure of how to get a good even finish with the dye. I have made quite a few sheaths and dyed them successfully in the past (Fiebings dyes) but never anything with a substantial surface area. Kind of hoping there is an easy way to not get a tiger stripe kind of finish. Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Rik.

 

[g4ghb]

dampen the surface with water so the stain 'floods' the surface quickly so you get a quick even coverage. That and a number of layers evens things out too

 

[Toots]

How damp does the surface need to be? Will a quick dip in the sink do it?

 

[g4ghb]

Should be fine Rik - what you are trying to do is slow the penetration - if it is already damp / wet the dye kinda floats on the top then slowly gets absorbed

 

[Gailainne]

Thats interesting, cause I've actually tried to get stripes, and failed, bloody stuff evens out on purpose I tell you thats dry btw, I've never bothered wetting the leather, however I must admit to doing at least 2 coats.

Stephen

 

[jojo]

I bought some cd some while back now on making gun holsters (should have got the making sheaths one, but pressed the wrong button and didn't notice ) The guy just dipped the whole thing in dye! I don't seem to succeed in getting a very even finish, I have tried dry leather, wet leather but never get a flat colour, which is just as well, cos I prefer a degree of variation

 

[Toots]

Job done. Will try to get a pic up of the finished results when it's dried out and gotten a smothering with carnauba cream. Cheers for the advice lads.

 

[nickg]

A bit kate i know but as well as wetting the leather you should try applying the dye with a pad of cloth about the size of a golf ball or slightly bigger, Y find that using the cotton wool on a wire that comes with the dye dumps the stuff out too fast & makes it streaky, The cloth pad (called a rubber by french polishers) doesnt feed the dye out quite so fast so it flows out at a more even rate FWIW

Cheers
Nick

 

[Tor helge]

I wipe down the leather with a little alcohol to get rid of fat (fingermarks an so on).
I have also been unsuccesful making stripes when dying the leather.

Tor

 

[clcuckow]

Slightly OT but how do you guys handle excess dye? I just tend to spend ages with a clean cloth rubbing down after the hot dip so it does not rub off and mark my(or anybody elses) cloth's.

 

[ZDP-189]

I've been saturating the leather in the hope of getting it even. I wonder if you can airbrush it on?

 

[ForgeCorvus]

Leather can be spray dyed, dilute it down and don't breathe the mist
I'm assuming that airbrushes work the same way....never played with one

 

[brancho]

I now dilue the dye with meths (denatured alcohol) and apply to damp leather and build up in a number of layers now.

To do stripes use undiluted dye on dry leather. Use a paint brush to aply some stripes but leave gaps allow to dry and repeat leaving to dry between applications until you the coverage you want. to look like this.