Starting to get into restoring some old pipes and been doing my research - it appears Fiebings Leather dye is the way to go. One problem, I live in California where you cannot get the good stuff. They have the Fiebings LeatherColors at my local Michaels. Does this work as well? Any other suggestions?
What Dye Can be Used on Briar?
- Thread starter bannyc9
- Start date
Fiebings leather dye works great, but you’ll want to experiment with thinned batches of it before committing the whole stripped pipe to it.
Fiebings alcohol is the go-to for most guys. It works well, behaves and is cheap. Ive been having fun fixing up some old pipes and playing with contrast staining.
Fiebings seems to be readily available online. I’ve ordered it from Amazon and eBay. Even Walmart carried it the last time I was looking for some.
All the Fieblings I’ve used are Alcohol based.
I keep plastic drinking bottles with various dilution strength of a couple different colors around-initially I had it for leatherwork but it’s what I use on briar as well.
Works great for dings in cabinets, etc as well.
Would love to order some of the regular dye, but they will not ship to California due to regulations.
I used this to dye this corncob. Shipping was good into California.
It was the all natural Moonshine x Missouri Meerschaum Cob. Didn’t dig the natural cob so I painted it.
The all black cobs are really nice. I was lucky enough to grab a couple. Hope they reissue them soon.
Oh right I forgot about the natural versions. I just remembered the black and tan/orange ones.
Yeah I'd like to grab one too.
As to California and Fiebig's, I readily bought some 5-6 years ago without problem, in Oakland IRRC.
Where do you live? If near Carmel, you can have some of mine.
Where do you live? If near Carmel, you can have some of mine.
Feibing’s is certainly the go-to. A lot of stains used for guitar making are compatible too and some nice colors like vintage Amber by color tone at StewMac though a bit pricier. Of course I’m sure others have said what you need to know. Good luck with it! - Pete
Fiebings is my go to. It works very well and is very similar to the stains alot of pipe makers use. It matches the Peterson colors very well. Heres a pipe I restained with Fiebings, it was brown when I bought it. 
