vinegar/iron black leather dye - how long does it last?

[redcollective]

After running out of leather dye a week ago i decided to experiment with this leather dye method seen on this forum - just popped a handful of fine steel wool in a half bottle of distilled malt vinegar for a week - it worked really well and I was surprised with the depth of colour achievable (total black - although to my eye I thought there was a touch of a blue tinge to it - pretty nice).

How long should I expect the solution to last in the bottle?

Stuart

 

[ESpy]

Iron acetate seems to be a fairly stable complex - I have a solution that is now 3 or 4 years old that still dyes quite happily. I keep it out of the light & airtight, other than that no real precautions.

 

[jojo]

So depending on the amount of steel wool in the vinegar you can get some shades of brown as well? How about the smell of vinegar, does it wear off?

 

[redcollective]

Glad to hear it lasts so long.

I don't know about brown - I've seen a sheath on here or british blades - can't remember which - dyed with it and it looked distinctly brown - but I've never read any 'recipes' to get different effects.

Just a thought - would condy's crystals (aka potassium permanganate be an effective brown dye? Anyone tried it?). I mean it turns skin brown with ease! and is used to dye some woods.

Does anyone know any other DIY dyes for leather?

 

[Toddy]

Theoretiocally copper ought to give a sort of green on light coloured leather.......it certainly does on wool, linen, wood, etc..
Just treat like the iron wool, but please be aware that the liquid is*very* toxic.

The recipe for the iron dye is pretty similar to old ink recipes, and some of that has lasted over a thousand years If the mix is too strong though we endup reading the holes in the papyrus or velum where the words were written

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Eric_Methven]

The vinegar and steel wool solution, when applied to new wood makes it go grey like it was really old and weathered. It's a technique used to make wood look distressed. If you add some powdered black walnut husk to the solution you'll get a deep rich brown.

Eric

 

[ESpy]

So depending on the amount of steel wool in the vinegar you can get some shades of brown as well? How about the smell of vinegar, does it wear off?

Not really, more of a lighter grey - it is forming iron tannate in the leather (or wood, in Eric's example), which is black. As Toddy says, it is not all that different to old ink recipes (got one somewhere involving oak galls & iron). The smell of vinegar takes time to fade, but you can improve things by sluicing it with a solution of sodium bicarbonate (about £3/3kg at my local Chinese grocers).

Not too sure about using potassium permanganate on leather, I think I'd shy away from the oxidation damage that would be done to it - but it gets used on wood & antler happily so all I'd suggest is to experiment with it.