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This month I wanted to share with you all an experiment Hubby and I conducted over the winter.  I’m always looking for ways to deliver quality product at an affordable price.  We also make leather armor for use in the medieval combat society we belong to.  All of this means we’re always looking for ways to cut costs without cutting corners.  I don’t want to deliver a product to my customers that wears down quickly or breaks. My husband definitely doesn’t want that happening to his armor on the battlefield.  That’s why, when we heard about an affordable homemade black dye, we had to give it a try!

It all started when Hubby read about something called vinegaroon and we both felt extremely skeptical at first.  It promised to be a black leather dye alternative that we could make with simple household ingredients for literal pennies.  I was blown away by how many people swore up and down that this was an actual thing.  I figured everyone was inflating how amazing it was or that it would be far more complicated to accomplish than they were implying.

What the heck is vinegaroon??

Ok, I’ll admit it, I thought Hubby was pulling my leg at first.  Or perhaps he got the name wrong because it just sounds so silly.  It makes me giggle a little to think about the name vinegaroon, mostly because it makes me think it should be the name of a cartoon character.  Anyway, what is it?  Silly name or not, it is a combination of two household ingredients that create a chemical called ferric acetate.  When this chemical comes into contact with the tannins in the leather, it changes color.  Once it's black from this substance, you can cut, scrape, or carve the leather and it will be black throughout.  The best part?  It doesn’t dye your skin.  No need for gloves and you won’t ruin your clothing with this because it needs the tannins for the color change.  Fun fact, if you’ve got wood with a high amount of tannins (think redwood) it’ll work on it too!

Once I started researching this dye, I was surprised to find that this technique has actually been used for centuries.  Variations of this have been used as an ink or inexpensive and durable dye for books, clothing, and armor in much of our recorded history.

How do you make it?

As I said before, it’s made from two household ingredients you might have laying around.  The number one ingredient is vinegar, which is (obviously)where the vinegar in vinegaroon came from.  Plain old vinegar from any store will work, I couldn’t find a more affordable price online at this time. We picked up a gallon at Walmart for less than $3.  The other ingredient we used is steel wool.  I’ve seen variations, especially if you find historical recipes, that call for everything from bolts to metal shavings.  We found that super fine steel wool, like this, has a lot of surface area to it, which allows the vinegar to really get into all the nooks and crannies. First, wash the steel to get rid of any oils that may be leftover from the manufacturing process.  You don’t need much, a little goes a long way (you’ll have tons left for your next batch!). Mix those two ingredients in a container without a lid and put it somewhere at room temperature and let that baby soak!  Every couple of hours give it a little stir and make sure the steel wool is still fully submerged. The longer you leave it, the more staining power we found it to have.  Early on it produced a light grey, but after about 12 hours it stained the leather a nice deep black.  Once your solution is ready, remove the steel and store it. For a total cost of about $7 you can make a gallon of black leather dye. That’s a heck of a lot better than $100 for the same quantity of Fiebing’s U.S.M.C. Black (or $120 for their pro dye)!!

Yeah, but how good is it really?

This was the part that we were most skeptical about.  It may have worked in our test run, but how is this going to hold up with normal wear and tear, let alone the abuse armor is put through on the battlefield.  So, we put it to the test.  We did a variety of dyes including vinegaroon, Fiebing’s USMC Black, and Fiebing’s Pro Black.  Then we used several finishes including Resolene and Saddle Lac.  Hubby attached the pieces to a piece of lumber, and we let it sit outside in the Chicago winter/spring for two months straight.  Occasionally he went outside and knocked the snow off of it and put it on top of the snow mound.  It sat through sun, rain, wind, and snow.  As you can see, the swatches are all remarkably similar and all did spectacularly with the abuse we subjected them to.  We’ve asked several friends to give a blind vote for which they preferred.  The overwhelming response was something along the lines of, “they all look pretty much the same, but if I had to choose it would be the v/f.”  The combination of the vinegarroon and the USMC black created the deepest darkest black out of them all, but only by a small margin.  The one coated with saddlelac ended up with odd creasing when the leather is bent, that wasn’t present in the others.  That fact earned it the lowest marks in our blind test.

Conclusion

I’m really impressed with the performance we got out of these test pieces.  Without proper care, cleaning, and conditioning they’ve managed to maintain their original beauty.  I’d say the saddlelac finished swatch did slightly poorly than the rest, so I would be more inclined to use Resolene in the future.  While the combination of vinegarroon and Fiebing’s turned out the darkest, I’m not sure it’s worth the extra cost of the dye, mess, and time for the slight shade difference.  I will be fair and point out that not all of the leather pieces included in the test were the same thickness and they were not cut from the same hide.  Variations in performance and acceptance of dye are quite common from hide to hide.  With that said, I think I feel confident moving forward with using vinegarroon for my future black dye needs!

Thank you for joining me today, and as always, life’s better with leather!

jess

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