Thanks for sharing! (nm)

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Posted by MK from adsl-63-194-18-73.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net (63.194.18.73) on Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 2:10pm :

In Reply to: HOW TO DYE YOUR ALDENS posted by schwammy from AC9B3478.ipt.aol.com (172.155.52.120) on Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 10:44am :

: I used Fiebing's leather dye #200 in dark brown, which came from my local shoe repair shop. The label said to clean the leather first and remove the old finish with 'deglazer,' which apparently is nothing more than ordinary acetone. Anyone who's aged their jacket using the MK method will have some on hand, although I made a half-hearted attempt at removing the old dye, but nothing much happened. So I say don't even bother; just start dyeing. (The instructions assume you are dyeing dress shoes, not work boots.) As Yurik stated, the dye comes with this dauber that's like a little pom-pom on an easter egg dyeing wire, and it's a useful thing, though I recommend Q-tips for the 'careful' areas. I masked the rims over the soles with masking tape so as to kep from dyeing the white threads. In this I was only marginally successful - dye did get on the edges a little bit, so it's not a perfect job. Took 2+ coats to cover the boots thoroughly.
: The white threads over the tops of the toes gave me the most trouble; I couldn't figure out how to dye the leather without dyeing the threads as well. Tried masking tape but of course that didn't work. In the end, I ended up dyeing the threads as well, then scrubbing much of the dye off using the acetone and a Q-tip. Enough dye came of to give the thread a reasonably off-white look. (This sounds like a lot of work, I know, but it really wasn't - took an hour at most.)
: The overall end result was a little mottled and at first this kinda bothered me, but once you walk away from them for awhile and then come back for a fresh look, they seem just about right - the reddish undertones from the uneven dye job make the boots look already broken in. Once the dye dried, I buffed with a shoe brush, and then drove out to a gravel road and kicked around some gravel for awhile. Voila! - perfect Indy boots at last!





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