Oh you all are REALLY tempting me.
But… I can’t do the deglazer if I wanted to, not for sale in California. I seem to recall that some of the dye formulas are NFS in CA either 
Is this the stuff you are all using?:
[QUOTE=Appsolute;7957727]
Is this the stuff you are all using?:
Yes. I did the medium brown on most of mine (your link shows the dark brown) and then I added a little dark brown to the medium to do the seat.
[QUOTE=Appsolute;7957727]
Oh you all are REALLY tempting me.
But… I can’t do the deglazer if I wanted to, not for sale in California. I seem to recall that some of the dye formulas are NFS in CA either
Is this the stuff you are all using?:
Yes, that’s what I used.
There are ways to deglaze your saddle without using the actual bottled deglazing solution. It is worth a Google, you might be able to put something together with CA-approved ingredients. 
This is awesome! I actually have a bridle that won’t darken and looks odd on my lovely dark bay boy. I have a project!!
[QUOTE=red mares;7957862]
The bottle of deglazer I had when I did a saddle was just very expensive acetone.[/QUOTE]
I believe that you are correct, but don’t want to lead anyone down the wrong path…so second GoForAGallop’s suggestion of googling about deglazing leather. I think it is good to seek out information elsewhere so anyone proceeding goes in with eyes open (I’m worried someone is going to end up with a tragic failure and come back here and say, you guys led me wrong!!!).
Thats all! Hum good to know about the acetone. I will do some googling. My husband works in an R&D shop, and I know he has access to acetone in various concentrates…
I just saw this thread and I’m feeling sorely tempted to give it a go on my saddle! I bought a Prestige last year, and I love everything about it except for the color. I don’t have a picture of it at the moment but it’s orange. An ugly orange. I would like to try dyeing it, but I’m afraid of it turning out blotchy. Would I need to use a deglazer first? Or just give it a shot? I love everything else about this saddle, so I’m leery of doing something that will make it look worse than it does now. On the other hand, all my other tack is a dark havana, and I’d really love for the saddle to match.
[QUOTE=SteelOnTarget;7962076]
I just saw this thread and I’m feeling sorely tempted to give it a go on my saddle! I bought a Prestige last year, and I love everything about it except for the color. I don’t have a picture of it at the moment but it’s orange. An ugly orange. I would like to try dyeing it, but I’m afraid of it turning out blotchy. Would I need to use a deglazer first? Or just give it a shot? I love everything else about this saddle, so I’m leery of doing something that will make it look worse than it does now. On the other hand, all my other tack is a dark havana, and I’d really love for the saddle to match.[/QUOTE]
Well, there’s two sets of pictures on this thread…one without deglazer, and one with.
I did not use deglazer on mine because it is all calfskin and I didn’t feel like there was anything on it to block the dye absorbing, and I was right. Every “professional” place you’ll read says to use deglazer, so I am certainly not about to tell you NOT to use it on your saddle without even seeing it in person.
My experience with leather dye goes as far as the one saddle that I posted here. So I’m not an expert by any means and won’t dispense advice on what anyone else should or should not do. The reading that I did around the web about whether to deglaze or not indicated that you can go without deglazing and maybe be okay, but if you don’t deglaze and you should have, the dye job will turn out blotchy. I’m also not sure what would happen if you dye, it turns out bad, so then you deglaze and dye again…like, is there a chance for redemption if you screw up the first time? I chose to go with the deglazer for mine and if I did another, I’d probably continue to deglaze first. YMMV.
I did it!
and a bonus martingale
In CA so didn’t use the real deglazer, just used straight acetone from the lab. It was very harsh on the leather so definitely do not use on calfskin. This saddle is very slick so I wasn’t worried. The yellow areas turned red-purple and I had to use a few coats. The finished product has a silvery sheen which was very unexpected. Excited to test it out - it will be a relief to not have the awful yellow showing every single scratch, raindrop, and butt sweat mark. This new color matches my leathers and bridle so I now have a full set of matching tack and I am feeling so spoiled.
[QUOTE=Appsolute;7957727]
Oh you all are REALLY tempting me.
But… I can’t do the deglazer if I wanted to, not for sale in California. I seem to recall that some of the dye formulas are NFS in CA either
Is this the stuff you are all using?:
That is Cordovan, and 2 toned, lovely do not dye it!
Flexion, it looks great! Did you, or anyone else, follow up the dye w/ the Fiebing’s resolene or tan kote “finish coats”? If not, what, if anything, did you do?
[QUOTE=gnu;7975490]
Flexion, it looks great! Did you, or anyone else, follow up the dye w/ the Fiebing’s resolene or tan kote “finish coats”? If not, what, if anything, did you do?[/QUOTE]
I did not use anything special after the dye, but now I’ll have to go look those products up. I just conditioned mine a couple of days later with the usual stuff (Effax or Passier Lederbalm).
flexion, your saddle looks great - I’ll be curious how the martingale does once you use it since it will be exposed to a lot more sweat and horse contact (so will it rub off? hope you don’t ride a gray!).
Sigh… it couldn’t have been that easy… here we are 24 hours later and the dye is bleeding like crazy. Isopropyl alcohol is helping take off the excess but it’s a lot of work. I totally regret not getting a sealant.
[QUOTE=gnu;7975490]
Flexion, it looks great! Did you, or anyone else, follow up the dye w/ the Fiebing’s resolene or tan kote “finish coats”? If not, what, if anything, did you do?[/QUOTE]
Be smarter than me and use resolene if you are applying more than one coat.
horsepoor - luckily I have a dark bay it is rubbing off easily though. I’ll tackle it after the saddle is done.
Years ago when I was a girl, ‘orange’ was the colour of saddles.
Back then that would have been called ‘Light Tan’ and anything darker was 'Dark Tan". Black didn’t exist in riding tack.
You could kill the colour a bit by using Neats Foot Oil.
Now, I indulge my love of colour for my endurance horses - I have purple,red and dark green saddle blankets/reins/bridles. and I wear tops to match.
[QUOTE=flexion;7976687]
Sigh… it couldn’t have been that easy… here we are 24 hours later and the dye is bleeding like crazy. Isopropyl alcohol is helping take off the excess but it’s a lot of work. I totally regret not getting a sealant.
Be smarter than me and use resolene if you are applying more than one coat.
horsepoor - luckily I have a dark bay it is rubbing off easily though. I’ll tackle it after the saddle is done.[/QUOTE]
Bummer about the bleeding. I’m sure there is some variation in types of leather and such that will cause results to differ, as well as what you said about multiple coats of the dye. I have no idea if my theory applies to leather dye, but I was thinking of how paint has to “cure” after applying, so I let mine sit for a couple of days before I conditioned it (and got some color transfer to sponge/rag) and then rode. So maybe some time will help things, if yours is still pretty fresh.
