Water Based VS Alcohol Based
Water vs. Alcohol
Leather dye is a coloring product that deeply absorbs into the leather, bringing out the gorgeous grain and natural beauty of the material. Choosing the right dye can be challenging, as no single product suits all applications. Today, I’ll walk you through the benefits and pitfalls of some of the dyes available.
All dye is pigment in liquid form, and the type of liquid is the basis for the names of the dyes.
Water Based
Water-based dyes, as the name suggests, are water-based. The significant advantage of these dyes is their ability to be thinned down with plain water, allowing for color dilution or creating washes without the need for additional products. Water-based dyes can achieve watercolor-like effects without drying out the leather, and I’ve found they work better than alcohol-based dyes for techniques like the popular shaving cream method of dyeing.
Due to the way water-based dyes settle into the leather, achieving even coverage over large areas is easier, and light areas can be touched up effortlessly. This forgiving nature makes water-based dyes ideal for beginners, yielding fantastic results.
While all dyes will stain anything they touch, water-based dyes are more forgiving to clean up than their alcohol-based counterparts. A spill on a white t-shirt may be irreversible, but quick action can often salvage drips on a tabletop, and the dye washes off skin with a few hand washings. This makes water-based dyes my go-to choice when teaching leatherwork to kids. When applying water-based dyes, using artificial applicators like sponges or acrylic paintbrushes is recommended.
Another significant advantage is that water-based dyes are readily available everywhere, though precautions should be taken to avoid freezing during transport.
As for drawbacks, water-based dyes can be somewhat water-soluble on the finished product. Properly top coating and sealing colors in can prevent bleeding during wear. Oil and water famously don’t get along, so water-based dyes may not sink well into oiled leathers, and they are slightly less color-safe in UV light.
Some of the best water based dyes on the market are
Tandy’s Eco Flo Dye
Fiebing’s LeatherColors ™
ALCOHOL BASED
The other type of dye is alcohol-based, or solvent based. Alcohol-based dyes offer a more traditional coloring method and are familiar to many seasoned leatherworkers. “Oil dye” may be encountered, but it’s essentially a misnomer, as oil dyes are still solvent based, just formulated differently.
In my personal experience, alcohol-based dyes penetrate the heart of the leather better than water-based dyes. The pigments in alcohol dyes tend to be deeper, and the colors fade less from sunlight compared to water-based dyes.
While there is a learning curve to using solvent-based dyes, mastering them opens up numerous possibilities when combined with other products. I recommend alcohol-based dyes for re-dyeing already colored products, but this comes with its own pitfalls, which I’ll cover in a future blog entry.
Applying alcohol-based dyes works best with natural products. Daubers, applicators, made of real wool or red sable brushes release the dyes well and are not harmed by the product.
Pitfalls of alcohol-based dyes compared to water-based ones include: the need for thinner to dilute dye longer-lasting staining on hands (so wearing gloves and old clothes is advisable), quicker evaporation, and skin dryness for both the leatherworker and the hide it’s applied to.
The major drawback of alcohol-based dyes is availability. Many places are phasing them out due to flammability and their classification as higher VOC products. They are unavailable in places like California and have shipping restrictions, including international shipping.
Some of the alcohol based dyes available to you are
Angelus leather dye
Fiebings Leather Dye
Regardless of the dye you choose, a bit of artistic work will result in a gorgeous finished product!