Dye?

[Travis Fry]

I just bought some of the Tandy Eco whatever leather dye in desert brown. I applied a fairly even coat but it looks kinda weird, like it just dried on the surface rather than actually dyeing the leather. There were no instructions, so I'm not sure I'm using it right. Anyone use this stuff? If so, what the smash am I supposed to do with it?

 

[P J 234]

I'm just a newbie, but I had terrible results with the EcoFlo dye that Tandy sold me during my first visit to the store. I had problems with poor saturation, bleeding, strange & bizarre colors, etc. I understand it's water based and therefore quite sensitive to moisture. I had better luck with Dark Brown than Black. Things that helped were multiple coats and LOTS of rubbing off the surface pigment after it's dried before top coating.

I bought Fiebing's Pro Oil dye the next time around and it's a night and day difference. I won't ever buy the EcoFlo stuff again...

 

[jkf96a]

My best dying tip is this: wear gloves unless you want funky colored hands for a week.

Word on the 'net is consistent w/ PJ, that the EcoFlo is crap. I've been using the Fiebings.

 

[Josh Dabney]

Travis,

Paul is right, It is widely known in the leatherworking community that Eco-Flo dyes are pretty much junk that give poor results. I too went down this road as a leather Newb and the best results I got without streaking or blotchy-ness came by dilluting with a decent amount of water. This made dark brown more of a "light caramel" color but it did come out even.

Sticking with the pro oil dyes in the future is the way to go IMHO, although I've never tried the spirit dyes personally.

Eco-Flo dilluted-

-Josh

 

[Rayban]

I don't use Eco-Flo but I understand those that do get best results if they wet the leather prior to dying it.

 

[Cliff Fendley]

I like the Fiebings spirit dyes.