Dying leather with RIT?

[Doug C]

This is sort of related to the post I made in the jacket forum..I found a place that sell deerskin (work) gloves. I love the texture and grain, the gloves are more stretchy and comfortable than other work gloves that I own. I am picking up a pair of the black ones to wear through out the winter. The other color that they are available in are a very hard yellow. I'd like to get a pair of these too if I could darken them to an (undetermined) shade of brown. What do you think my chances are of getting RIT dye to work for darkening them up..seems to me like it would work fine since the leather is so porus. What do you think?

Doug C

[Hemingway Jones]

It may work. Let us know. Have you considered shoe polish? That will work absolutely.

[Michaelson]

I don't know either. I was thinking RIT was made specifically for dyeing fabric and the like, but not tanned leather. It may not take! Better read the directions closely. You may be making a bad situation worse.

Regards! Michaelson

[Doug C]

I used shoe polish on my goatskin Wells Lamont gloves and didn't like the way they came out, I basically screwed them up. The color would be more consistant if the glove could be submerged in a solution. Or perhaps use a dark Pecards, assuming it's a much softer texture than the hard shoe polish in the small can.

Doug C

[Doug C]

Michaelson, I had considered that but then thought about other things that will tint the leather like spilling cool-aid on them or something..same difference I would think. Besides these things are 'relatively' cheap and if I screwed them up colorwise I guess I'd have another pair of yard work gloves. This is me trying to talk myself into it, can't you tell.

Doug C

[Nicht Storen]

What about leather dye from Tandy's??

[Doug C]

Elaborate please.. I've never really tried to dye anything. Does Tandy's have a site?

Doug C

[Nicht Storen]

Yes Tandy Leather does have a website. www.tandyleather.com. They do sell leather dye. I've dyed a couple of leather belts and some old leather pouches. You might try that on your gloves. I don't know how it will work to dye over yellow though.

[Michaelson]

Come now, we ALL know Kool-Aide is made from depleted uranium, and can't really be used in comparison to RIT, now can it?
Regards! Michaelson

[ShanghaiJack]

Before you dye the gloves you might try using rubbing alcohol or another solvent to help remove some of the yellow color. I distressed a pair of cheap yellow work gloves using rubbing alcohol and wound up removing most of the yellow dye. The gloves are very faded with almost no yellow tint at all.

Regards,
SJ

[Swindiana]

I put my gloves in the sink with some detergent for white laundry. That really took a lot of the yellow out too. Remember to use some nice leather treatening product after they have dried.

Regards,
Swindiana

[DanielJones]

Some neatsfoot oil will definately darkent the leather. It takes the raw leather that one would get in a hide shop which has a sandy shade of pink to it and darkens it to a nice honey color. I've done this with several shooting pouches that I made for my flinlock rifles. The Book of Buckskinning IV has a good formula for a natural walnut hull (skin) dye that works quite well on fabric as well as leather. Anyway, that's my two cents.

Cheers!

Dan

[Michaelson]

Problem with neatsfoot oil is that over time it can and will turn rancid. It also attract bugs if the treated item is stored over a period of time, like a season. Just depends on where you live....the more humid it is, the worse it can be. I used to use neatsfoot oil on all my gun leather and the like, but stopped once I moved to Florida. My leather gear mildewed something awful. I changed to Redwings products (later discovering they were just Pecards in disguise! ), and have never looked back.

For it's time, neatsfoot oil was THE way to go, and I used it liberally, but after time and use, it's pretty hard on leather, and eventually causes it to break down.

Just be aware.....

Regards! Michaelson

[schorsch]

Hi folks,

I also got a pair of Wells Lamont buckskin gloves (basically the Indy gloves in a different leather) and they are bright yellow.

Any of you who have dyed your gloves, or washed out the yellow, how did that effect the leather? Is it still soft? Anyone try anything on buckskin/deerskin?

=jp=