I have gone through many, many pages and can't find a similar post.

I have a Tinker Viking and while it's just OK, I'm not real happy with the scabbard. I'm sure someone here has modified a stock scabbard. I'm looking for guidance and direction from those who have done it. I have read some articles on removing black dye from leather. From what I understand, removing black dye only lightens it to a gray. I figure that if it gets messed up beyond repair that I'll just recover it with new leather. I want the scabbard brown or a dark oxblood color.

The mountings are... OK I guess but I'm thinking of doing a little primitive engraving and distressing. That's something I'm comfortable doing.

Any advice/ guidance/ warnings will be appreciated.

Why not make a new scabbard for the sword ?

I might just do that in the the near future. Just getting some ideas. The scabbard is functional, just not aesthetically pleasing in black and highly polished mountings. They almost look chrome plated.

Do you want a dyed oxblood, or would painted be ok?
There are lacquers (spray or paint) for leather. With an opaque paint you wouldn't have to remove the dye.

I'm looking for a finnish that will show the natural leather grain so painting is not an option.

Hi Comer,

I've done it twice on windlass coustille scabbards in the past (actually black to dark brown and to dark oxblood too), see below:

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=16127

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=16742

I rubbed alcool on the leather, removing most of the dye that once dissolved gave the leather a grey appearance that took alcool based dye well (don;t aim at something too bright for the new color though). However these were windlass scabbards, coated with that typical thick glossy dye (or most likely paint). I owned a tinker norman for a while and stripped the scabbard (which is fibberglass with a wooden opening below the guard), and it was covered with thin leather (chromium dyed leather I'd say, such as leather used on clothes) and I suspect an alcool rub wont change anything.

I would say your best option would be to find a piece a scrap leather of the same kind and do a quick re wrap. You could also want to go all the way and use veg tan leather (the risk is that the leather used on the hanwei/tinker is very thin, so you might have to discard your metal mounts because they wont fit anymore).

Hope this helps.

Julien

That is exactly the look I'm shooting for. I suppose you used denatured alcohol? I'm going to try it. If I mess it up it's no big deal. I've found some scabbard mounts I like and I will either recover this one or build a new one.
Thanks to all who responded and sent messages!

Comer, will you show that scabbard's photo?

I used acetone (not the funny smelling kind for nail polish, but the stuff in the hardware department) to strip the paint off of a Windlass coustille scabbard just like Julien did. I went with a light brown (the reddish brown color) Fiebings alcohol based dye which came out very much like Julien's. In fact my hilt also has 4 risers as Juliens (I think I saw Julien's postings before, and subconsciously copying him), it just doesn't look quite as nicely done.
I didn't have luck using rubbing alcohol, and I'm out of denatured/methylated alcohol. And the Acetone seemed to work well, but I used up about a half a roll of paper towels, and it is slow going because the paint cutting ability of the acetone drops significantly as it is exposed to the air. So you can't just saturate a cloth and swab it down like you're washing your car.

Well, denatured alcohol didn't work. It took enough black off to color the rags but you can't tell any difference on the scabbard. Acetone will be next. If that doesn't work, I guess I'll take the plunge and build one.
And yes, I'll post images of the original scabbard and when it's done.

[ Linked Image ]

This is the Windlass coustille I re-hilted and dyed the scabbard. If the cloth with the spirits on it is turning black, then it's probably working. It won't take off all of it with a single wipe down. If you keep applying spirits to an area of towel already saturated with black, you're just moving the paint around. That's why I burned through half of a roll of paper-towels (more like 15 or 20). You have to keep using clean paper towels with more spirts until no black comes off at all. The leather will be sandy to grey when it's clean.
-Terry

I worked on it for about an hour with the denatured alcohol. I'm picking up some acetone Monday.