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RIT dye on leather?

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:04 pm
by schreiber
Anyone ever tried this? It works on wood just fine, apparently...
I know that with fabric it loses strength after a couple garments, and figured it would be the same with leather.
Other than that, it seems like it would be a really accessible, inexpensive way to vat dye.

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:10 pm
by Andrew Young
Funny you post this.

I just dyed an emerald green wool houpplande a darker forest green using no less than three scarlet red bottles and three blacks...and some salt.

Seems to worked. Although my objective was to go more of a deep reed than darker green...but I can live with it.

Try the Dharma Trading dyes...I hear good things about them. I would have used them but I was in a bit of a rush.

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:15 pm
by schreiber
Well, I also ask because the wife already has a bunch of dedicated dye equipment, and if I can avoid having to buy new tubs & containers to vat dye leather it'd mean I'd actually be able to do it.

Edit: I just saw that those are fabric dyes, I'll suggest those to her, too!

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 9:52 pm
by Andrew Young
schreiber wrote:Well, I also ask because the wife already has a bunch of dedicated dye equipment, and if I can avoid having to buy new tubs & containers to vat dye leather it'd mean I'd actually be able to do it.

Edit: I just saw that those are fabric dyes, I'll suggest those to her, too!


From what I hear the Dharma stuff is pretty good. Id like to hear about your experiments.

PMed ya btw.

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 11:55 am
by Cat
Procion MX fiber reactive dyes are also very good for fabric. The colors don't bleed like the RIT dye. I hate RIT dye and don't really see much use for it, as it's water soluable and will continue to bleed every time it gets wet. However, I've never tried it on leather. For leather, I recommend Feibings or Angelus dyes.

Cat

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 10:42 pm
by Oswyn_de_Wulferton
Actually, I used it for dying the canvas for my gambeson, and it hasn't run at all. YMMV.