Natural leather dye

[CBJ]

Hi Folks,

I was wondering if anybody has experimented with DIY or natural dye for leather,

I have heard of onion skins doing ok but will fade pretty quickly unless its fixed properly. Also steel wool and vinegar, I have seen results but does the colouring stay fixed??.

I have a few different colours I got from Tandy and would like to compare results

Any ideas would be much appreciated

Thanks

Craig

 

[Toddy]

Steel wool and vinegar does fix. The iron binds in tightly. Can be very, very black it needs care though because old ink was iron based and now on old parchments often what we're reading are the holes in the page where the ink has eaten through.

Iron rots wool, and 'can' weaken leather. Needs care, but is very effective.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[CBJ]

Thanks Toddy,

Very interesting. I was thinking of bees wax over the top if it was suitable.

atb

Craig

 

[jojo]

I have recently re started to use natural dye. I have began to dislike the oil dyes so I have been playing with a mix of iron oxide and neats foot oil. That produces a nice mellow brown. Followed by some antiquing paste, that darken it quite nicely. You can follow that with some shoe polish too. The iron in vinegar, I have used before: just watch it if you use wire wool: some of it is stainless...useless! Come to think of it, I am going to try some of that iron oxide I've got with some vinegar and see what happens.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k270/mollygypsy/DSCF5431.jpg