Here’s a comparison shot with a couple jackal masks. A while back I was experimenting with an alternate method of doing black leather. On the right you see the normal black dye I use. The left mask, though, I used a chemical process to color. You rust a bunch of steel wool into vinegar (making a solution I believe is called vinegaroon), then when you brush it onto the leather it reacts with the tannins in the leather to produce a black or very dark brown color. It’s apparently the same chemical reaction that was used to make super long-lasting ink Back In The Day. If you really hit the leather hard with it, it does go quite dark black, or if you’re a bit light with the application it stays a dark brown as seen here.

I ended up not continuing to use it much for a couple reasons. It seemed to change the texture/stiffness of the leather a bit, making it less pliable and more dry, so it seems to want to get oiled or waxed more than I normally do. I also had a couple issues when it touched other masks, where some of the chemical leeched out into the neighboring pieces and got a blotch of black on them. So it’d need to be sealed harder all around the piece, where I usually like to leave the back side of the leather un-sealed for moisture/drying reasons. (The vinegar solution tended to soak all the way through the leather, so only coloring the front surface wasn’t exactly tenable.) But honestly, mostly the issue was just that it was yet another process and option to have materials for and to fuss over, when it didn’t seem that it was going to be substantially different from my normal process, at least from the point of view of the customer and finished product.

The vinegar-iron colored jackal sold at Arisia, so it’s no longer sitting around in a box! Hooray, somebody is enjoying it!