Finish questions.

Tod Lowe

Tod Lowe

Well-Known Member
I have only made a few leather pouch sheaths but have got better with each one.
Im wet finishing them and then submerging them in the die . The last one looked pretty good but after just a little use it loses the tight fit I had to start.
Is there any way to tighten these back up a little like with a dehydrator or something?

Also: I bought some antique finish for leather and I dont have any idea when to apply this stuff. Do I use it on top of the die or just use it by itself? Its Fiebings finish.

Also: I bought some neatsfoot oil to protect the sheaths when finished. Is this really needed with the way im saturating the leather with the die?I didnt use it on this one.
 

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I've got a buch of ideas for you, but my eyes are rapidly closing so I'll do what I can now and fill in the blanks tomorrow if all goes well.

You can re fit the sheath by wetting it down under a warm tap will its pliable and working it around the knife. Let it dry slow at room temp. Its a very slow process but it will come out much better that way. Over night will usually do the trick.

I would caution about immersing a sheath in dye. That will cause over saturation and the excess dye will transfer to other materials that are in contact with the leather. That includes knife handles, and blue jeans.

Antique finishes are best done over a coat of dye for the best results, if done on undyed leather the results can be a bit lackluster. Saddle Tan and light brown are good base colors. I haven't tried yellow yet, but hear its good.

Neatsfoot is an excellent conditioner, especially under coatings like lacquer and acrylic based products as they seal up the pores of the leather.

sleepy............ :p
 
I checked out your link and you do some amazing work. That Hell raiser sheath and the Mottled Brown are my favs.yea!

I wasnt sure about rewetting the sheath after the dying but now I know..thanks.

The antiquing finish I have is dark brown so it will look good over light brown....thanks.

Now are you saying put the neatsfoot oil on before dying the leather?
 
When I am done wet molding a sheath, I put it into a food dehydrator to dry at 145F degrees. Hide glue comes from the casein in leather and when you get it wet and than heat it to 145, the casein changes to hide glue and when it dries out it hardens. This is going to help you keep the snap in your sheath. If you get any hotter than 150 to 155, the leather starts to shrivel.
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Shankmaker said:
I checked out your link and you do some amazing work. That Hell raiser sheath and the Mottled Brown are my favs.yea!

I wasnt sure about rewetting the sheath after the dying but now I know..thanks.

The antiquing finish I have is dark brown so it will look good over light brown....thanks.

Now are you saying put the neatsfoot oil on before dying the leather?
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Thank you. :)

You want to apply the neatsfoot after the dye job, if you do it before you will get an uneven color.

BossDog, thats a good way to quick dry a sheath! The temp is critical at that level, any hotter and you get a leather jalapeno. ;) In those dehydrators its easy to keep that temp stable.
 
Great info from Dwayne.

If you're using alcohol-based dye it will dry out your leather. I strongly urge using some type of conditioner on your leather after dying to increase its longevity. Neatsfoot works, or Lexol, or any other conditioner you like. I use both of those listed, but not together on the same piece. Neatsfoot oil can darken your piece, whereas Lexol does not.

On dying, you can add additional coats after the first coat of dye has dried. This will of course darken the piece and the desired color will be more saturated, if that's what you're going for.

You can do a lot with dye and stain (antique). It is an art unto itself. You can use just one or the other, or of course combine both to get wonderful finishes. My primary experience using stain over dye is when doing carving or embossing and filling the carved or embossed areas with a darker color stain to greatly enhance detail. The darker the dye color you use, the less prominent your stain will be, unless you are using a light color like gold, silver, yellow, etc.

On coloring, you can also use Super Shene, or Block Out, or any other kind of acrylic sealer as a "resist" to prevent stain from penetrating the pores of your leather and in so doing you can achieve additional levels of highlighting, or prevent certain areas from taking too much additional color.

Note that if you've used stain on a piece, if you wipe your sealer on you will likely wipe off some of the stain at that time. You need to be careful and practice this.

Edit: you can also play around with using Neatsfoot oil before applying your dye. You may find your dye saturates less, and that might be desirable.
 
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Welcome Mikeymoto! Good to see you here. :)

This is looking like one of those places that has a feel of its own. :D
 
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