India Ink vs Fiebling's Leather Dye

[Mudlark]

Picked up some Fiebling's and figured a side by side test would be in order with the Speedball ink.

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The pic sucks, but you can see the ink, left side (2 coats) and dye, right side (3 coats). The shark fin is between them. Click the pic for a larger view.

Note the dye on the binding (I used no tape). The dye sticks quickly, in seconds. The ink would rub off the binding in up to a minute or so. Steel wool will remove both from the binding/frets/inlays if it dries. It'll also remove it from the board, so either method is reversible.

The ink is blacker, but the dye shows more grain. The dye has a slight gloss even though it's the non gloss version. The ink is more ebony looking for sure. Another coat or two may help the dye. I'll do it and post a pic later.

The dye smells...badly. I think it's alcohol based. It wasn't bad on the board, but I did a tan leather guitar strap and I couldn't wear it last night it stunk so strongly. This morning it's better, but still is a pungent, bionic level leather smell. I expect time will ease it. Did a quick, fantastic job on the strap. I'll post a pic later.

As with the ink, I tried a small amount of mineral oil on the dye and it also loosened it enough to stain a napkin. This morning it still stained, but not as bad. In this test the dye stained the napkin worse than the ink. I'll give it more time and to see if they get better and report back.

They both dry quickly, seconds to a minute or two. The ink dries a bit quicker.

I'll update as info comes in.
My initial feeling is the ink is far superior in ease of use/cleanup and blackness. I'll put more coats on the dye to see how dark I can get it, as well as keep an eye on the mineral oil issue. Given some extra dry time I'm hoping they won't shed after oiled.
Considering others haven't had issues with the dye/conditioning, I'm hoping for the best.

[XSvmbraDensX]

Cool info, Mudlark! I got my bottle of the india ink in the mail as well. I'm going to give it a test run on my KV7 and RRX7 and see how they turn out. The Fiebing's looked nice initially on my boards, but it rubbed off on my fingers and once I conditioned the board, it took a good amount of the dye off. Hoping the ink yields good results!

[Mudlark]

My initial findings are the ink will come off with conditioning, too. But, both the ink and dye were oiled shortly after they dried. Next time I'll wait a few days before I oil it and see what happens.

Here is 6 coats of dye, 2 coats of ink. The dye looks black until the light hits it at the right angle. If I were to rate blackness on a 1-10 scale it'd be:
Minwax ebony-6/10
Fiebling's-8/10
Speedball-10/10

Best way to apply both are with a cloth. I takes more, but it's quicker and seems to cover more evenly than a Q-tip or small brush.
Dab a fingertip amount on a cloth and quickly do 1/3 of the board. Should take a minute or less. Then, quickly use a clean cloth to wipe the frets and inlays before it dries.
I wipe the binding by pinching a tiny piece of the cloth under my thumbnail and carefully rubbing the binding as to not hit the wood and cause streaks before it's dried. This isn't necessary, but it saves some cleanup/steel wool time.

Try one fret. Rub it on without tape and then wipe the binding and inlay. This would give you a sense of what's involved.
Remember, steel wool will clean up your messes provided there's a clear coat. I've wool'd my DKMGT binding around 10 times and I still haven't run out of clear coat. Doesn't take much pressure to remove it.

I've done this enough I can do a board without taping the binding. I'm just quick in removing unwanted ink before it dries. What little I miss I get with wool when I'm done. I'd use tape with dye.

2 coats-ink!! 6 coats-dye

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[Mudlark]

The strap was a breeze with the dye...took 1/2 of the 4oz bottle for 2 coats. It was light tan/beige before.
Probably would've used almost a whole 2oz bottle of the ink to do the strap.
The smell is better today. Smells like the inside of a new ball glove today.
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[Guitarkid8]

Good stuff Mudlark!

[Mudlark]

Good stuff Mudlark!

[Mudlark]

Well, it's been a week and a half or so, so I tried some mineral oil.
Here's what came off of the ink after a few minutes.
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Here's the dye a few minutes after oiling:
It's a bit worse than the ink.

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I'm certain it'll dry, so I'll count the days.

[Mudlark]

5 days later (almost 3 weeks total dry time) and it seems to have dried enough that only a tiny amount comes off on a napkin if you vigorously rub it.

Naturally, this isn't great. Since my guitars get plenty of moisture being stored in a room that goes between 50% humidity to as high as 80% if I forget to turn the dehumidifier on, I don't bother conditioning my boards.

To someone that conditions their boards I can only warn you about this.
I personally love the look enough that if I had to remove the ink once or twice a year to condition, then reapply the ink, I'd do it happily.

I'm pretty confident in a bit more time the ink will stop coming off, but most people don't want to wait a month to play in order to keep your fingers from getting ink'd. I should mention, the neck I'm testing isn't on a body, so in actual playing conditions the ink/dye may not come off on your fingers as badly as it does by rubbing the napkin. It's possible after a week the ink wouldn't come off on your fingers unless you played for more than 5-10 minutes.

[Number Of The Priest]

That's fine, but what are you going to do when you need to clean the fretboard with steel wool (because fretboards and frets collect "skin gunk" and get dirty)? That wool is going to slough off the ink. I concede defeat; I'd rather have perfectly clean natural rosewood fretboards and shiny frets than to have gunky ebonized rosewood and gunky frets.

[Mudlark]

If for any reason I need to, I'll just re-apply the ink.
In time I'm almost certain I'll redo my DKMGT so that I can get all the minwax off and start from scratch.

[DanzoStrife]

Wait, so u don't have to mask off the inlays? I got me an Ebony fretboard on my JH600 LTD but it's not black enough. The best pickings I've seen are as black as charcoal, this is more like dark brown.
It would be a pain to try to mask off the daggers and H's!

[Mudlark]

No, wipe over inlays and frets. I'll wipe right off as long as you get it before it dries (1 minute or so).
For those particular inlays I'd use a cotton swab (Q-tip I call them) to wipe them off before it dries. You have to be careful not to wipe the ink off of the surrounding wood before it has a chance to soak in, too.

Even after the ink dries, it'll scrap off the inlays with a fingernail. A pencil eraser may work, I'd like to try one.

I'm about to post a very short, crude video of the process in which I don't even tape the binding.
There's some tiny bits that need to be clean up with steel wool, but even if you use tape a tiny bit will seep. I'm become quick enough not to bother taping.

[Mudlark]

[Number Of The Priest]

Helpful video! Thanks!

[DanzoStrife]

Oh I forgot to reply back! Hey there, so I had a couple more questions.
1. How long does this last until its faded? I tend to clean my fretboard often with lemon oil.
2. How long does this take to dry so I know I can start playing my guitar again?
3. I don't like my wood looking "matte" my ebony has a natural luster to it, can I still get luster with the ink finish?

Thanks!