Dying a Bullwhip?

[Castor Dioscuri]

So one question I've always wondered about is how would we go about dying a bullwhip AFTER the fact.

It isn't so far fetched an idea, I mean if you want to be utterly screen-accurate, technically the KotCS whips were dyed by the production team to achieve that distinctive CS look.

Direct from the main Indygear site:

Some of these screen used bullwhips appear with darker knots this was a result of dyeing. The responsibility of ageing and weathering the whips went to whip coach Anthony De Longis at the request of the films prop master Doug Harlocker.

“Terry's whip (the one's that Colin Dangaard arranged) were lighter in color and Doug said the whips needed to look old and worn and to match the colors of the prop whip he had initially given me. I used two coats of a leather dye that Colin gave to me; the one he uses to dye his excellent saddles.

I dyed all the Jacka whips the same so they would look aged at the request Prop Master Doug. I don't know whether they did any additional dying on set (to darken the knots) or whether just the normal wear and tear and dragging them through the dirt during filming and adding Dubbin to keep them moisturized changed the color slightly. The latter seems most likely." —Anthony De Longis

With that said, I've been planning on dying an upcoming bullwhip for the CS look, but I don't know where to start. For complete screen accuracy, I suppose I should go with the dye that Colin Dangaard provided De Longis, but any ideas what that might be? Or any specific dyes that would work well on a bullwhip for that matter?

I'm surprised nobody has asked this question before, but in a quest for complete screen accuracy, enquiring minds have to know!

[Canuck Digger]

Here's the problem with dying a whip after the fact, especially a new one; you have grease on and in the leather which will affect how well the leather absorbs the dye, and you also usually have one or more coats of shellac on top of the leather.

Now shellac can probably be removed with alcohol or a de-glazer but I've never done this so this is merely conjecture based on theory. But in theory, it should work.

Last but not least, is the grease in the leather. On a new whip this will often only be plaiting soap, while on an older whip it will probably also be leather dressing. Now even on a new whip which hasn't received leather dressing yet, or minimally, the leather used may have been drum-stuffed which means it ALREADY had oils IN IT when the hide arrived at the whipmaker, not to mention the plaiting soap used to plait the whip. Even though we call it plaiting soap, as technically it IS, it really is so greasy that you really wouldn't want to wash anything with it, you'd just be greasing things up instead of cleaning them. Now there ARE de-greasers out there, but they do tend to dry out the leather and it may only deal with the leather superficially and whether or not this will be sufficient for the leather to hold the dye I'm not sure. You'd have to test it out first.

As for dyes, there are basically two main types that I know of; an alcohol-based dye and an oil-based dye. I believe the oil-based one tends to be more in natural tones than flamboyant colors, which is fine for this project. So my guess would be, and you really should confirm this idea with someone who is more used to dyes than I, to use a de-greaser first then use the oil-based dye and once the dye has dried, buff the excess off with a lint-free cloth and finally, re-grease the whip with leather conditioner.

Again, I would talk to the folks at Tandy, for example about this, and if possible, do a test on an inconspicuous area (though where this might be I'm not sure...). Lastly, don't forget film props only need to look good for the duration of the take, how they age or maintain that appearance over time is a non-issue with production because only what is on screen matters. So if it only stays on a week and they have finished filming, it really doesn't matter to them, which is not your case. So their methods and the products they use are going to be different than yours...

Anyway, good luck.

[Castor Dioscuri]

All excellent points Canuck, I'm a bit torn between utter screen accuracy and longevity... But you're completely right, I do need to remember that so long as it lasts a single take, it'll be good enough for a production, which rarely is what we collectors want anyway. All this talk about alcohol and degreasers scare me, since it is a Jacka- one of the most prized of my gear- that I'd be applying it to. If anything, I'll probably just order a whip somewhere down the line with two separate colors as a special request.

With that said, I did reach out to DeLongis to see if he could ID the exact dye used, but it looks like it's nothing terribly special:

I believe Colin Dangaard of the Australian Stock Saddle Compnay used a pretty standard leather dye available from Tandy leather or most good leather supply shops.