Posts: 5,981 Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Mon 08 Jun, 2009 12:37 pm
I'm using Fiebing's leather dye.
http://www.fiebing.com
It's good stuff. The problems were of my own creation. First, I should have rinsed the leather to clear excess dye. Next, I shouldn't have waxed the leather until I was sure I liked the color. Next, after I decided against the red I shouldn't have tried to re-dye the leather in place through the wax. I dyed the wax, basically, and that led to a mottled red-and-black look, with the black easily coming off on the hand or cloth. I don't have many regrets, though. I got the overlap of the grip wrap wrong (I think it should fall under the fingertips and pull in the direction of the wrap) and forgot to position the excess leather at the lower end of the grip so that the tongues of leather to be sewn to the chappe are the full width of the grip. At the time I decided I could live with these flaws, but they were already bothering me. So, there were plenty of reasons to start over.
After dyeing the new grip wrap last night I rinsed it thoroughly. No bleeding problems. When binding it to the grip I noticed that the glue was mixing with some of the red dye left on the grip core, making a pink mess where the cord squeezed it out at the bottom of the grip. So, maybe the red dye isn't quite as stable as the black(?).
I'll be removing the cord tonight, when the leather and glue should be quite dry. If the cord is removed too quickly the leather can spring back a bit, reducing the depth of the cord marks.