Leather dye/faux leather

I know there's some folks here that have dyed leather before....will regular leather dye work on faux leather?
Thanks,
Karma

 

Leather dyes are for use only on vegetable tanned leathers (such as tooling leather). Leathers such as those used for garments are tanned in a different manner, and should not be re-dyed as the leather fiber will not "hold" the dye...and the risk of "bleeding" is very high.

Any man-made "faux leather" such as vynil or naugahide should not be attempted to be re-dyed. These products are essentially polymers, and are dyed during their initial formulation...so it would be like trying to dye plastic. Some staining may or may not occur, but the risk of "bleeding" would be profound.

My advice on man-made "faux leathers" would be simply to purchase the material in the color you want, or a close enough approximation. No attempt to re-dye them should be made. Same thing goes for natural leathers that have been chrome tanned (ie. any pliable, soft leather for garments, chaps, etc. that are pre colored).

~Kai Rhann

 

Thanks Kai.

I found that shoe polish worked OK on some small pieces of faux leather I had, but they haven't dried yet so I don't know how badly they will smudge or anything.

My problem is I found some faux leather in a pattern I absolutly love, but the color is not as dark as I'd like.

-Karma

 

The shoe polish might indeed smudge... If it's a tone and color you can live with, I would leave it be. If not, you might experement on a scrap of the material with various spray paints, etc. such as Krylon Fusion (for plastics...supposedly bonds molecularly to plastics...) which I've not used as of yet...so I don't know about the flexibility of the finish. Also, Nu Life spray for leather...should be nice and flexible...

~Kai Rhann

 

Hi there,
I have the same problem, being that faux leathers are rarely the exact colour you need them in ;-)

I will soon give spraypainting some leather a try, to see if i can somehow alter the colour a bit. Although it might be a good choice to use a spray paint on a water base, nothing with too much solvents in them, like most acrylic paints have. But I do fear that the paint will rub off.

On dyeing leather, your local tandy (man, i´d love to have one of those shops over here in germany, we only get their tools in select shops ;-) ) may carry undyed leather hides, and should carry an assortment of dyes. I havent tried dyeing myself yet, but also will do that in the future.

Michael

 

what about dying high-quality leather boots?

 

Dying the boots MAY be an option, but it depends on the type of leather they are made from. And what color you want to dye them... painting may be an option. I'll try to be as thorough as possible in explaining a bit further...

This may be a lengthy explaination, but I feel it's necessary...so bear with me.

Not all leathers are created equal. Specifically, there are two main tanning methods for the creation of leather. VEGETABLE TANNING, and CHROME TANNING. This is what dying, or re-dying, the leather will depend on.

VEGETABLE TANNED leather is tanned with vegetable matter, specifically tannic acid found in certain (oak) trees. Hence, it is sometimes referred to as BARK or OAK TANNED. This type of leather CAN BE DYED after it has been tanned (tanning being the process of making leather out of animal hides). The fiber of this type of leather is "open" and can therefore be altered in such ways as carving, stamping, embossing, tooling, modelling, and so forth, as well as dyed and finished using a variety of dyes and stains, wax-, acrylic-, or laquer- based finishes. This type of leather can also be "re-dyed", AFTER REMOVING THE FINISH (called "deglazing"). Finishes "seal" the surface and must be removed before re-dying. NOTE that you can only dye DARKER than you started off with. IE you can dye something that is brown to black, but not black to brown. Other than that, painting would be the only option (ie. black boots to brown, or anything to WHITE, as white is lighter than the leather's natural color and can only be achieved with paints). Special paints ARE made for leathers, such as Fiebing's Saddle-Lac and Nu-Life leather spray (available at shoe repair stores). Bear in mind: Paint is not Permanent...Dye IS (without radical action).

CHROME TANNED leathers are tanned with chemicals, primarily chromium sulfide. This method produces leathers for garments and other "soft" leathers. The fiber of the leather produced with this method is "closed" and cannot be used for carving, stamping, embossing, tooling, modelling, and so forth, nor can it be dyed . Any of this must happen at a point DURING THE TANNING PROCESS. Hence, you can have chrome tanned leathers that have been embossed with patterns (such as aligator print). These are indeed dyed during the tanning process. Thus, you buy the color of leather that you want.


I hope that helps out...

~Kai Rhann

 

yes that helps very much....luckily I have my eyes on a pair of boots that is the first type......is it tough to deglaze/re-dye leather?....can I do it with no experience and little expense?

Thanks a lot for your response!!

 

Deglazing is more time consuming than difficult. Essentially, it's just a matter of using a product from Tandy called "Deglazer". It's acetone base (like fingernail polish remover) and is harsh. I recommend wearing rubber or latex gloves, and absolutely do it outside or in an EXTREMELY WELL VENTELATED ROOM. But, outside is best... the stuff is harsh.

Directions are on the bottle of the Deglazer, and really just involves applying the Deglazer to a cloth and "scrubbing" away the old finish.

I strongly recommend a leahter conditioner after this process as the acetone can dry out the leather, and conditioning always makes the leather look better. Dr. Jackson's Hide Rejuvinator from Tandy is the best I've ever used...it can practically bring leather "back from the dead". Great stuff.

~Kai Rhann

 

Something you may want to try - In the military we use men's shaving cream to take the finish off our boots. Just spray a good foam into your hand, lather up the boots, and let them sit until the foam goes down. Wipe off, then repeat until no more black flecks come off.