Vinegaroon

[cowboy316]

ok Pards
i know you've told me before but i cant remember is it baking soda or baking powder you use to neutralize Vinegaroon
thanks pards
Cowboy316

[Arizona Cattleman]

Found this statement on the How To area...

submerged them in baking soda/water until they stopped bubbling. After dry, I put a very light coat of olive oil on them.

AZ Cattleman

[cowboy316]

thanks pards i knew it was something like that but my dang short memory fails me now what were we talkin bout i forgot LOL
thanks pard
Cowboy316

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

C316, you can find all this information in the fax/How Too's , it's a great source of information when in doubt. I keep a note book in my shop with print outs of all the information that I might need in my work, it just makes it much more user friendly.

             Regards

          tEN wOLVES 

[Stillwater]

Did you mean Vinagaroon, a species of Whip Spider?

http://www.petbugs.com/caresheets/M-giganteus.html

Bill

[GunClick Rick]

Babies eat pinhead crickets

Must not have any in D.C.

[JD Alan]

If you use baking powder, it might turn out pretty tasty! Being leather, it will probably be a little tough, or chewey

[GunClick Rick]

That's where jerky came from,starvin leather artists

[Freedom]

ok Pards
i know youve told me before but i cant remembere is it baking soda or baking powder you use to neutralize vinagroon
thanks pards
Cowboy316

Cowboy, I tested vinegaroon with PH strips.... I did about everything I could imagine with the test strips and leather/vinegaroon and baking soda.

I found that as Vinegaroon is forming, it actually goes down in PH because the acid is nutralized as it breaks down the nails.... after a month or two  it becomes totally neutral and does not work as dye anymore unless you "Refresh" it, add a little more cider vine to it.

I found that vingaroon has about the same PH as skirting leather is suppose to be... (I believe that it was 4.5) Therefore to reduce the acidity with baking soda you can be removeing the aciidity of the leather that is suppose to be there..

I have several test pieces and holsters out there and the ones that were not baking soda'd are still just fine. One was even dried over my wood stove ...it is still supple as you expect and you can't tell that I cooked it dry.... the neatsfoot and Skidmores have kept it nice and soft...with no surface cracks from the bending treatment that I gave it.

All of these tests were done with Wicket and Craig leather as I found that vinegarron gave very unsatisfactory/inconsistant results when used with import leathers..... I did have one import side that produced  a really cool "ThunderCloud" GreyGhost color with vinegarrron.

Hope this helps, Wes

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

  Howdy Freedom

     That's good information, I'll try some tests of my own, I like the Wicket and Craig too, I seem to get my best colors from it with my natural dyes, and you're right, I had to reactivate my Vinegaroon the same way, by adding more cider vinegar, and a tad more iron, and it all came back to normal.
    When I use the baking soda, I use a 1/4 cup of BS to a qt. of water, and mix it up real well, I only dunk my dyed leather in the Water and BS for just  a few seconds, I have found that too much BS, in the water , or leaving the leather in too long , will actually burn the leather, if you want to check this out, just take some BS and water and put a piece of scrap leather in it, you will be able to watch it turn brown before your eyes, the more BS you use the faster it will turn brown, so far the items I have dyed with Vinegaroon have held up real well, but then like you, I used Lexoil to condition with and then Neatsfoot oil or EVOO, then Skidmores, and that seems to make a big difference.

           Again Thanks Freedom for your input on this

                  Regards

              tEN wOLVES