I'm dyein' over here! or, Metamorphosis of an A-2

[Fletch]

An abortive stitch-hole filling experiment involving a cheap goatskin jacket last summer left me with an almost full bottle of Kelly's Cobler seal brown leather dye. I recently got the courage up to apply said dye to my Willis & Geiger horsehide A-2, which suffers from an icky, sheeny acrylic finish in an unappealing hazelnut brown.

Here are a few snaps from the process, now about half complete, after lots of stained fingers and a kitchen that smelled like a dyeworks.

One front panel with one coat. It was a bit streaky in places, so I went for two coats.

Original finish, close up.

One coat of seal.

Entire front with two coats. I figured I'd better do all I could of the front out of one dye bottle. 3 oz covered all but one strip of the right front sleeve panel. In case the next bottle isn't quite the same shade, it'll be a lot less noticeable front/back than it would be left/right.

Some comments on masking:
The seams where leather rolls over knit (ie: cuffs) are easiest to mask. I've been using waterproof first aid tape, which tucks nicely into the channel between the hide and the knit.
Where the knit lies higher than the leather, you have a trickier problem. The tape won't stay in the channel and bleed thru can occur, as seen at the left edge of the knit in this lower inside zip panel.

The lining fabric cannot be masked off neatly at the seam, as evident at the top of the panel. Should I do another dye job, I plan to mask off a few mm of leather and leave it undyed. Here's what happened inside the collar seam.

If the results of the dyeing please me enough, I may have the jacket relined using some tobacco colored calico I have on hand.

I left the edge of the right zipper seam undyed, because it's not conspicuous at all.

At this point, it's back to the shoe repair for more dye and a new dauber. Believe it or not, I did everything you see here with ONE of these.

When it's all done I'm going to rub it down with a hard surfaced cloth to take down the sheen. This should also mask some minor overlaps and variations in dye absorption here and there.
After that I'll rub in a coat of cream polish and she'll be ready for a test flight.

 

[Boris K]

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Looking good, Fletch.

A little rubbing alcohol may help dissolve the dye from your fingers...

 

[Fletch]

It works as well as anything. Dilute acetone stuff like nail polish remover is another option.

When I resume, I may wear surgical gloves and save my skin repeated scrubbings in this dry steam heated environment. Besides, the less dye I absorb onto my skin, the better.

 

[Boris K]

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When I resume, I may wear surgical gloves and save my skin repeated scrubbings in this dry steam heated environment. Besides, the less dye I absorb onto my skin, the better.

You're right about that. When I've used surgical gloves they have allowed some dye to bleed through, but it does definitely reduce the staining.

 

[aswatland]

Reminds me of a wartime depot job. Certainly has improved the rather bland W&G finish.

 

[MrBern]

sticky fingers

Thats quite an improvement.
Good work.

are u happy with it so far? Do u think u'll wear the jkt more often?

 

[Peacoat]

It looks as though you have done a really good job on that jacket. It's a real improvement.

You are right, surgical gloves allow bleed through of the dye. You could try some rubber gloves I believe one brand of rubber gloves is Kitchen Maid. I have used them for dyeing with better success than the surgical gloves.

 

[James Miller]

Lookig good

Hello'

Not to bad. I have done several jackets myself and I know what your going through. when I have dyed mine I usually take the lining out because the dye will bleed on to the fabric. Just a little hint some times the dye comes off on your clothes so you might want go to your local Tandy Leather store and purchase some Satin leather sheen and apply it over the jacket ( two coats) be for you put any conditioner on it this will help keep the dye from rubbing off and will help seal the dye in. good luck! If could figure out how attach my pictures I would show them to you. Hint hint if any could help I would be happy to show some of my jackets. I just got a new aero jacket to day but don't know how to load the pictures to show anyone.

 

[Peacoat]

To post pictures, you will probably need to use a remote site, such as PhotoBucket. I do it so infrequently, I just have to fool around with it until I figure it out. Don't think you can download directly from your hard drive.

 

[Boris K]

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... If could figure out how attach my pictures I would show them to you. Hint hint if any could help I would be happy to show some of my jackets. I just got a new aero jacket to day but don't know how to load the pictures to show anyone.

You need to have the images on a server somewhere, like Peacoat noted. Then place tags around the web address to display the image such as:

 

[carter]

If you use YAHOO, Flickr works just fine.

 

[SamReu]

Spokes Man

By God, Fletch, that looks good! My dad has a W&G A-2 with that same icky sheen. Maybe I should fix it for him.

 

[Fletch]

Update: aaargh

Went back to shoe shop. Shop out of Kelly's dark brown. Was sold Fiebing's.

Fiebing's (not a professional dye, just a consumer product) needs more coats to cover, does not penetrate as evenly, takes longer to dry, and even then is not as dark-dark brownishblack as Kelly's.

:rage: Fooey on Fiebing's.

Kelly's on order. Will report back when I have it.

 

[Fletch]

Re-dye complete!

I had to wait a couple of weeks for my new bottle of Cobler to arrive and do the back panel and undersleeves. It turned out to be a little "blacker" than the old batch, as you can see where the sleeve top meets the undersleeve (next photo down), or the back panel meets a front panel (photo below that). That is actually somewhat exaggerated by the flash photography, as is the sheen, which is subtler than the old acrylic gloss.

There were some "seam" areas where I left off dyeing or began a new area on a big panel. These covered up nicely when I worked in Meltonian #120 Brown Shoe Cream over the entire jacket with a polish brush, then brushed the surfaces with a large horsehair shoe brush.
(Note that Meltonian #120, "Brown," is actually a good bit darker than #10, "Dark Brown.")

I then rinsed the whole jacket in warm water, resulting in lots of pink runoff, and hung it to dry overnight in the shower cabinet. There was some mottling in the finish, but over all it stayed very even (except for the old/new dye lot difference).

This morning I went over it all lightly with saddle soap, still trying to remove excess color that wants to rub off on hands or clothing. It's getting better, but I think the finish may have to cure for a long period before it's really stable. Or James's hint about Leather Sheen or similar product may be the solution.

 

[James Miller]

If iit still rubs off.

If the dye still rubs off, try the satin sheen two or three applications should work. I have done a few now and one of the horsehides that I re-dyed kept rubbing off so I tryed the sheen and BINGO it worked. Your jacket looks fine. keep up the good work! Oh one thing try wearing a white tee shirt if the shirt gets stained you know it will come off in you nice car seats.