Fiebing Leather Dye Bleed Through

[Kirk Amidon]

Having an issue where the USMC Black leather dye is bleeding through the coats of wipe on poly on a couple of finials. I applied two coats of the dye, let dry overnight - it was dry to the touch. Covered it with wipe on poly. The rag used for the first coat turned black, which I suspected might happen. I've now applied 3 coats of wipe on poly, with plenty of dry time, even on the last coat just applied, there was still some black on the rag.

Is this normal? Did I not let the dye dry enough? Fortunately, the amount of black on the rag has been reduced each time.

I'm really glad that my decision was to finish the finials before gluing to the box they will be on, as this bleed would be catastrophic.

 

[hockenbery]

Good practice to get a fish coat on finials before assembling

With all dyes I try to put a light seal coat on with my first finish application no wiping.
I always give dyes and finish coats overnight to dry.

What happens is the solvents in the finish will often be a solvent for the dye. The finish will bring the dye pigment particles up into the finish.
The dried light finish coat makes a barrier unless you wipe it off. A heavy first finish coat brings particles into suspension in the finish and can add a cloudy look as well as moving the particles where you don’t want them.

I suspect you flooded the surface with wipe on poly then wiped it off taking the dye suspended particles with it. And left little barrier build up.

With a thin first seal coat you still might get a little dye transfer to the wipe off rag but it won’t be much and not enough to move dye to other rasas of the form.


With alcohol base dyes- they can be lightened by repeatedly spraying with alcohol and wiping.
This is the mechanics of wiping off a heavy first finish coat.

 

[Greg Just]

Having an issue where the USMC Black leather dye is bleeding through the coats of wipe on poly on a couple of finials. I applied two coats of the dye, let dry overnight - it was dry to the touch. Covered it with wipe on poly. The rag used for the first coat turned black, which I suspected might happen. I've now applied 3 coats of wipe on poly, with plenty of dry time, even on the last coat just applied, there was still some black on the rag.

Is this normal? Did I not let the dye dry enough? Fortunately, the amount of black on the rag has been reduced each time.

I'm really glad that my decision was to finish the finials before gluing to the box they will be on, as this bleed would be catastrophic.

Whenever I dye wood I spray with a clear coat to seal the color in then apply my finish coat. For me this avoids bleeding of the colors

 

[Kirk Amidon]

Sounds like I need to add a can of spray poly to the arsenal. Thank you.