Dried out after Coffee

[mtgelaude]

Hello everyone.
So I am working on a Gunbelt, after I screwed up the last one by making it about 4 inches longer than I needed.  I was prlaning on a possible coffee dye color, but I decided to try it on a regular belt first.....Glad I did.  It is junk now.  Cracks all up and down it, uneven color, stiff.  What the heck did I do.  I made the dye of concentrated coffee, 1 LB to 1.5 Galons of water.  Let it boil for 3 hours, let it sit a day, then boiled for one hour.  Then I let is cool, and then droped a belt in it, after taking the finish off of it with denatured alchahol.  I let the belt sit for 48 hrs, and pulled it out.  I let it dry a bit and tooled it up.  Waited for a day, and then added a few coats of EVOO.  then I realized that it was cracked every inch of it.

Help!

[LoneRider]

Alcohol? Why, I'll bet that's what dried it out too much!!

[mtgelaude]

I use that to take the glaze finish off of the factory leather.  I read that from a article by Chuck Burrows.  I think the same thing, but am not sure.

[GunClick Rick]

I'll take it if you aren't gonna keep it.. I like "em" cracked.. How muchy

[santee]

I think maybe you got a bad chunk of leather. Either that or a cow that was not partial to Starbucks.

[Mogorilla]

The isopropyl alcohol will inhibit mold growth in the coffee, which the natural oils in the coffee will promote.  I usually put about 20% by volume isopropyl to the total volume, then add a little more if I have to skim some mold.   I would say leather was not the best and there is the possibility depending on the bean used for coffee that it reacted with the natural acids in coffee.  Add a little baking soda to your dye, if it bubbles, you have a fairly acidic bean.  I use coffee dye lots and have never had that problem, but I have had cracked leather with other dyes.  Figured out the pieces that cracked all came from the same hide, I think that was the determining factor. 
When I am not a cowboy, I play this game where I am a chemist, play it way more than I like    
Look the the acidic level and the leather quality.

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

   When I dye with my coffee dye, it only takes an hour or two, and then I remove it from the dye, my dye is always cold and never warn or hot, warm and hot removes too much of the natural oils in the leather, after the leather is almost dry, I will apply LEXOIL Conditioner, then later my oil of choice, all my coffee dyed pieces are supple an rich in color, leaving your piece in the coffee dye too long is most likely the problem, there is a lot of acid in coffee, and that might have removed the natural oils making the leather way to dry, IMHO

          tEN wOLVES 

[GunClick Rick]

Try my friends at Mavericks


http://www.relylocal.com/visalia-tulare-california/business_listings/mavericks-coffee-house-roasting-company

[KidTerico]

I have never used it but listen careful to what TW has to say. I have 4 rigs he made for me and the leather and color is fit to kill for. It just dont get any better than what he turns out. KT

[Johnny McCrae]

Listen careful to what TW has to say. I have 4 rigs he made for me and the leather and color is fit to kill for. It just dont get any better than what he turns out. KT

I'll give that a hearty second!

[Dalton Masterson]

Rick or KT,
Do you still have a pic of that cracked belt I made into an oldie? Can you post a pic?

You might be able to save it and make an antiqed belt out of it. I had one crack on me, and it turned out pretty good after some aging.

This all depends on if it is still structurally sound, of course.
DM

[KidTerico]

Dalton I have 6 belts like that. Rick wanted one so I gave him one. I will not change anything on yours or the others. There perfect like they are. You did a GREAT job on it. KT

[GunClick Rick]

  Here ya go   Ain't it bueatiful

[Dalton Masterson]

Thank you guys! I dont quite know where the pics I had of it went.
DM