Setting dyes

[rickk]

Just had a wierd thought right after I hit the "Post" button.

If Ivory sucks up dye so easily, does it suck up other stuff just as easily?

Thinking out of the box here, but how about if you put some sort of sealer on the ivory as well? Not sure what to use. Acrylic? Resolene is that. I dunno... just thinking out loud here.

Rick

[Cliff Fendley]

It's not just Ivory, the ivory (paper based) micarta is really bad about the dye staining it. I'm sure it could to stag but never noticed a problem with it and many times I use leather dye on the stag handles anyway if they are bleached out.

It's usually a faint discoloration and only noticeable on a very clean custom knife handle on the light materials, basically anything material that will scrim nice I have to watch when making the sheath. Since I've notice it a few times I've started using the pre-dyed leathers on those or natural dyes. Most of the time it was so subtle that probably I'm the only one that noticed it but enough reason for me to look for other ways of doing things.

I wax all my knives with Renaissance wax, probably the most common thing used on high end knives, a heavy waxing on the handles helps but not a sure thing.

[Pappy Hayes]

So I have another dumb question. To those who have said they stitch their holster then dye it. What do you do about the area under a stitched on belt loop?

[Dalton Masterson]

Mine are dipped in natural dye after I stitch, so no problem with it not getting it all covered.

Otherwise, if I am using spirit dyes, and need to get in hard to reach places, I take a wool dauber, and hit it with a propane torch to make it smaller. Then knock the crusty part off and have a very small dauber to reach in there.
I dont like to have to do that though, and will usually dye that before I stitch.
DM

[Cliff Fendley]

I usually dip dye everything nowadays. Gets it even and in all the hard to reach places. If I want highlights are darker areas for an aged look I come back over those areas later.

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

I guess what I do is similar to others, I dip dye all my finished work in  my natural dyes, and what I mean by that, everything has been sewn, just the final burnishing and finishing needs to be done after, on spirit dyes or oil dyes, which neither is allowed for sale in California anymore, when I used them, I dyed all my leather first before sewing. hope this helps,


         tEN wOLVES