Belegarth

After doing some digging, It does not seem that Tandy has a dark grey dye. I'm trying to make the armor look like its made of Iron/steel. I have a couple hundred 2x3 scales to dye as well as larger pieces.

I had also wanted to edge and put some basic basic designs in silver and copper. Would paint and sealer be the best bet or to leave some areas undyed and dye them those colors? Basically whats the layering process.

Lastly, given the amount of things I need to dye, best method. Ive seen the sponge/brush/rag method is one, and airbrush is another good one, im just worried about the piece looking "painted" rather than dyed with the airbrush.

Thanks again Bel community.

If you want everything to look grey, you're going to need to seriously dilute black dye (or paint everything). Dye will be much easier, but harder to get the color you're looking for effort-wise.

I'd say get some of the USMC black Fiebing's spirit based dye. Dilute the **** out of it with rubbing alcohol and test on scrap leather. You're probably going to need significant dilution. I'd hazard a guess of like 20:1 alcohol:dye, but you'll need to play around with it.

With scales, I would follow this process to finish them:

- Cut all scales
- Punch the lacing/rivet holes
- Do any tooling/designing on the leather
- Dip dye in your diluted dye to the appropriate color
- Paint the accents with paint pens (metallic paint pens are usually really good for this)
- Seal with your sealant of choice
- Lace/rivet

For any larger pieces, follow the same process, but either brush on or airbrush the dye. You'll want to run separate tests with this as the dye will be applied quicker or slower depending on method compared with the dip dying. Dye won't end up looking like it's painted on; your only worry will be streaking if you brush it on and don't use enough dye or apply it improperly. If you're brushing, the best method is to apply it using small circular motions. Above all, don't hesitate to test extensively on scrap leather.

One thing I've noticed is that cased leather, i.e., leather that is slightly damp for tooling, takes dye more evenly than completely dry leather. I honestly don't know if it's just my experience, but it might be something to consider.

This is true, though the leather needs to be cased properly. It's simple to explain how to do: wet the leather evenly until it just begins to change color. When it just returns to the 'natural' color, then it's ready. That said, it's actually pretty difficult to get it cased perfectly right without a lot of practice. Most people significantly overwet their leather, I've found, and overwet leather will (in my experience) take dye much worse than dry leather.

How much better does the cased leather accept the dye? I do have some scrap that I can practice casing on, however I had wanted to dye the scales in batches to save time. Questions is is trying to case them worth it?

Ill look into getting that dye, as well as the paint pens. Any specific recommendations/personal favorites for sealers? Also, if I wanted to do larger sections than the paint pen would allow, its just get acrylic paint correct?

My experience with dyeing cased leather is that it took less dye to completely cover the piece and it ended up looking much more even. As far as a sealer, I usually start with a couple of layers of the spray acrylic (keeps the acrylic paints I like to use on designs from running) and then add at least a couple of coats of a paint-on sealer. I've also used acrylic floor wax as a sealer but it may not be good for pieces that bend or flex a lot.