Alcohol based vs. water based leather dyes

[chapu]

Hello! First of all, sorry if there's another thread in here somewhere asking this same question. I did my due dilligence by searching using Google but couldn't find anything. Just in case, if it happens I'm wrong, would some moderator kindly move this where appropriate?
Having that out of the way, question: I'm looking to restore some estates I bought in a lot. A couple of them would need refinishing the stain, and I've read pretty much everywhere that leather dyes are the way to go here. Now, everybody talks about alcohol based dyes, but where I live I've only found two colours of those (black and a somewhat nondescript brown). I did, however, find quite a bit more colour variety of water based leather dyes. I know that alcohol based ones are great because the alcohol evaporates fairly quickly (plus you can flame them), but I'd like to hear opinions about the water based ones. Has anybody here used them? Do they do a good job, or should I try finding alcohol based ones?
Thanks a bunch in advance!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

https://www.amazon.com/Fiebings-50-2046-BU-P-Leather-Dye/dp/B000HHNXXM?th=1

There are quite a few to chose from, but yes, there are not as many color options as water-based dyes. You can use water-based dyes, but they do not penetrate the surface as well as oil or alcohol. I have used a water-based yellow, but it just never looked bright yellow on the briar. I hope that helps.

 

[pruss]

Hey Chapu.
I've only every used alcohol based dyes for staining pipes. As a colour carrier, alcohol penetrates the briar really well and, as you've stated, it evaporates really quickly (and almost entirely) leaving the colour behind. These are the reasons I've never attempted to use a water based stain.
This is a link to a wonderful step-by-step on how to stain pipes with an alcohol based dye:

https://rebornpipes.com/2012/05/29/re-staining-estate-pipes-a-pictorial-essay-2/
Here is some light reading from this forum:

http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/fiebings-leather-dye-common-colours
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/staining-a-pipe
Here is a quick and easy way to load up on dye:

https://www.amazon.ca/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=fiebing+dye&tag=googcana-20&index=aps&hvadid=145011020764&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8238965694922015261&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9000834&hvtargid=kwd-2934000972&ref=pd_sl_8bsdo70kk8_b
Good luck and keep us posted with how your estates turn out.
-- Pat

 

[dmcmtk]

Another thing about alcohol based dyes (and there probably is some mention of it in the links Pat posted above)is that they can be thinned/diluted with isopropyl alcohol to get the color tone you want.

 

[stvalentine]

The manufacturers use alcohol based stains and because I like to flame them I stick to them too.

 

[piffyr]

A large selection of alcohol soluble aniline dyes are available at Vermont Freehand: http://vermontfreehand.com/product/powdered-dye/
And even more at Woodworker's Supply: http://woodworker.com/alcohol-soluble-brt-yellow-golden-oak-aniline-dye-mssu-845-541.asp
If you can't get the color you want through mixing and matching those, then it's probably not on the spectrum.

 

[chapu]

Thanks a lot for your responses, guys! Got it: water based dyes are a no-no, I'll stick with whatever alcohol based ones I can find. I didn't mention it, but I live in Argentina: getting absolutely anything shipped here is nigh imposible. I'll have to make do with what's here (still looking for more options besides black and generic brown). At least now I know I can dilute or mix those two to try and make some shades.

 

[stvalentine]

If you can´t get alcohol based stains in Argentina try to dillute waterbased ones with alcohol. As you can dillute alcohol with water this should work. Maybe you can get wood stain in powderform and could try to dissolve it in a water/alcohol micture.

 

[chapu]

Since posting this I found that there actually *is* a nice variety of colours in alcohol based dyes available here -only not for leather. There's a brand of wood finishing products that offers two different types of alcohol based stains, one with teak oil and one without it (and apparently none of them have any of the ingredients that would be harmful to a pipe, which was why I was looking into leather dyes instead of wood ones to begin with). Now I just have to ask a chemical engineer or someone like that if the components in each are in any way dangerous for the kind of use a smoking pipe will see. Maybe I'll get lucky and the fine gentlemen at the customer care department of this brand will answer my emails. I'll keep you posted!