Staining or Dying Rawhide

[Chaa Duu Ba Its Iidan]

Hello everyone,

Does anyone know of a good, effective way to stain or to dye rawhide?  I am asking for the dye-stuffs you use and your process.

In the past, I have only taken  a run or two at trying to dye a finished rawhide item.  The results were not too gratifying.  Typically, the dye just does not "take".  It dries on the rawhide, but flakes or wipes off, wtih little of the dye pentrating the rawhide.  I used a good, "spirt" type dye (Feibings's, as I recall).

Now I am trying to dye a piece of rawhide to make into narrow strips for a project I'm doing and I was thinking that if I soak the rawhide in alcohol, then soak it immediately in the dye before it can begin to dry out, that the dye might "take".

Have any of you been succesful in your attempts to dye rawhide?

[ChuckBurrows]

You've got to do it when the rawhide is wet through with water and temepered (tempering = the same as casing leather), which it needs to be in order to work it anyway.
Fiebings works good as does RIT, walnut, coffee, etc. how good depends to several variables and it's mostly trial and error.

Once youve finished dying and fitting the rawhide you need to seal with something like good oil based spar varnish (traditional) or any kind of varathane......

[buckskin billy]

i'm certain there are others here that can give you better details of what they use and how and why.
but from my experence with raw hide the grain side( hair side) does not take the dye at all. but the flesh side( meat side) will take the dye.
  i make a pile of raw hide a year i generally leave it natural and will trim it with brain tan or veg tan leather to make it stand out better.

hope this helps good luck

[buckskin billy]

chuck responded while i was typing my response.
i'd listen to him

[GunClick Rick]

John Cohea has an excellent DVD on rawhide makins.I got one and i am gonna get another...Gave the one i had to a buddy...Better hurry i don't know how long it will be available,has to cost a pretty penny to make those DVDs.I gotta get another pretty soon.

http://jmcknives.blademakers.com/

[ChuckBurrows]

...from my experence with raw hide the grain side( hair side) does not take the dye at all

Billy's sort of correct but it's more a matter of leaving the dye (at least with Fiebings) sit on the grain side for at least a half hour or so.
Also a lot depends on what type of rawhide you use - cow is not only the toughest to work with but the hardest to dye - that's why I use deer, elk, or buffalo almost excusively.

Also when using walnut, coffee, RIT,  or any other water based dye I just soak the dry hide in it instead of using plain water tis may take quite a while - just be sure and leave it long enought to soften up completely through. After that wipe off any excess water or water based dye and then let it temper ie. dry back to a pliable but not sopping wet/swollen consistency - it should feel kind of like playdough when it's right and not be too stretchy.

[Chaa Duu Ba Its Iidan]

Chuck, Billy & Rick,,

THANK YOU very much for your suggestions.  I will do some test pieces to see how well it goes.

Chuck, I had not even considered Rit dye, and that sounds like it might be interesting.

I will also do a small sample test of soaking and tempering a very small sample of rawhide in alcohol, then soaking it in the Feibings to complare to the result obtained by water soaking.

Thanks again guys!

[Mogorilla]

I followed Chuck's method.  If you can find a post I did (page 274 of the closed show us your stuff thread), I have a carbine saddle scabbard with an inlaid rawhide star.   The star is grain side out and was soaked in a mixture of a little brown dye (~ 2 tablespoons) and 2 cups of REALLY STRONG COFFEE.    I cut the piece I wanted (the rawhide is from one of those dog chew bones which is a cheap way to get small pieces of rawhide, but they are bleached and probably treated in otherways that I and my dog do not want to know about.  He is picky and won't touch them, so it was no waste to use them.   Also, if you go to this topic, I made a parfleche from the dog bone rawhide.  The two that are shown are a little whiter than I wanted. The third one I made, I just soaked it in a really strong coffee solution.   The base colour of the parflech was a nice tan, that looked more natural.   

[JD Alan]

Chuck, could you (or someone) recommend a source for Rawhide other than cow, which is all I can find locally.

Thanks, JD

[Mogorilla]

Moscow Fur and Hide out of Idaho-
http://www.hideandfur.com/
I have orderd Elk leather from them and an antler or two, great customer service

Crazy Crow has some rawhides other than beef as well.  Also great customer service

[ChuckBurrows]

Moscow Fur and Hide out of Idaho-
http://www.hideandfur.com/
I have orderd Elk leather from them and an antler or two, great customer service

YEP! That's where I get most of mine as well as a couple of individuals. BTW - If you're doing smaller items the less expensive stuff with holes in it is a pretty good deal........

[buckskin billy]

i make deer raw hide as well as brain tan, and i have a few hides left that don't have any ones name on them.

feel free to pm here

thanks,
  billy

[ChuckBurrows]

Billy's one of those "individuals" I mentioned     

[Don Nix]

Siegels has some goat rawhide tretty cheap as does Tandy. Small skins about the size for a drum head. They were on sale for $25 a couple weeks ago.

[will ghormley]

I just got my first Buckskin Billy brain tanned deer hide.  I couldn't be happier.  If I don't take enough deer this fall to make the mountain man and First Nation saddles I want to make, I'll be knockin' on Billy's door again.

Will

[buckskin billy]

thanks for the kind words will. i hope you enjoy the hide.

i got some of will's fancy buckles and if'n yall ain't  had the priviledge to see these yall sure be missing out. they are mighty fine

[JD Alan]

For some reason this thread slipped past me. I appreciate the info on the rawhide source. I've found that Oregon Leather in Portland sells large pieces of elk or deer rawhide, but that's a lot of rawhide, and at $145.00 for elk too much money for me. Then I discovered my local Tandy has smaller pieces by the pound, just what I was looking for to line the top-throat-mouth (heard it called all of those things) of some holsters.   

Thanks guys, JD

[Mogorilla]

JD, if you get a big piece of Rawhide, make a parfleche.   The Plains tribes made flat ones, envelope ones, box ones, and cylinder ones for their bonnets.  They were really used as a carry case, the envelope ones were especillay used to carry pemmican.  While modern jerky is a far cry from Pemmican, big style points to pop  a parfleche out and offer Jerky all around.   Here is a thread I did on making a parfleche from a dog bone.

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,4705.0.html

This is one I made to carry a cartridge box

[Marshal Will Wingam]

I remember that post from before, Mo. Very nice work.

[Chaa Duu Ba Its Iidan]

Looks good.  Thanks again for the insight!