In the last post I more or less demonstrated the process of
sealing a pattern carved and stamped on a piece of leather. The idea was to
show how I have finished leather for many years. The only difference between
what I had done on the sample and what I used to do was to use an acrylic
sealer on the pattern rather than the lacquer. I am strongly considering
switching to the acrylic sealer after this experience.
If you look back at the photo of the pattern after it had
been sealed, before I put the antique finish over it, you will notice only a
slight change in the color of the leather. This is what most people are after.
They seal the leather so that it will not absorb the colors from the antique
finish or any other product that might be used for a similar result. I am
impressed with the overall results of how the acrylic finish worked and I have
no problems in recommending it to you for use on your leather projects.
If you do go back to the previous post you might also want
to look at the photo of the sample project after it was antiqued. I purposely
brushed over the edge of the pattern when using the acrylic sealer to show you
how it would look. I do not know if I can properly explain to you how difficult
it was for me to do that because it goes against every fiber of how I want my
work to look. Please remember, I did these three spots on purpose.
The photo below is the same one that was on the last post
after the antique finish had been applied. I buffed it again with a piece of
sheepskin and with a rag before the photo was taken. The difference between the
photo then and now is that this version has the spots numbered. There are two
coats of acrylic sealer on the pattern. The spots on the outside of the tooled
area that are numbered have only a single coat. If you happen to find some
others please let me know so that I can fire the brush man who worked on this
job.
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| Miscues with acrylic sealer - numbered |
The number 1 and 2 spots are
not nearly as bad as the one for number three. All of these spots do stick out
like a sore thumb to me but may not be as obvious or as terrible looking to
some. After the antique finish has been applied to the leather there is very
little that can be done to undo the spots of acrylic finish on the outlying
areas. This is because the finish penetrates the surface of the leather to a bit.
The sealer did its job perfectly on these spots without needing a second coat
to make sure they were sealed. This is usually the way it works, the spots you
do not want sealed are the ones that are the best.
If one were to try to use a
solvent, water, or some kind of paint remover I am afraid that it would spell
disaster for your project. A solvent or a paint remover might sound like a good
idea because it might remove acrylic paint from wood or metal, but it will
penetrate the grain of the leather and stain it badly. This can be demonstrated
by placing a drop of water on a piece of leather which has been antiqued and
not finished with a seal coat. The antique finish will become spotted where the
water came in contact with it.
For very small spots of
sealer it might be best to leave them alone and do nothing. I developed a
method for removing the sealer where it is not supposed to be sealed. Please
bear in mind that it is not particularly a great method but it does work fairly
well. This method should be used only on very small, obvious spots. On accidental
sealer spots I used the tip of the knife shown below to carefully scrape it off the surface. This method was
performed using the tip of the knife and very lightly scraping the sealer off
the leather. I would then touch up the spot with some more antique finish.
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| Skiving knife |
The knife shown above came in
one of the first tool kits that I ordered from Tandy Leather Company. It is not
a particularly special knife or a great quality knife, but it has come in handy
for a lot of tasks that I had to perform over the years. This is a skiving
knife that is used in skiving leather. Skiving is done to take off some of the
bulk from the flesh side of the leather. I will be honest, I never really
mastered the use of this knife to skive leather. Probably the most that I ever
skived was the end of a piece of leather lacing so that it would fit better
into the two-pronged needle.
Please note that one of the
side effects of using the tip of the skiving knife to scrape off the spots of sealer
is that it can cause the scraped area to darken much more than intended when
touched up. I would recommend that you experiment on a piece of scrap leather
before you do something like this that you have spent a lot of time tooling.
Below is a photo of the
sample project after it has been sealed with the Tan Kote from Fiebing. You
will not see a lot of shine coming off the leather because because of the
lighting I chose, plus the photo was taken before the Tan Kote had dried completely. Looking at the area that matches the number three shown above you
will notice a bit of a dark ring around the area where I purposely brushed past
the edge of the pattern. I believe that this is because I did not have the
antique finish properly mixed which caused the solvents to add more stain to
the leather.
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| Sample project sealed with Tan Kote |
If you were to dip a brush
into the dark brown liquid in your antique finish it would look darker than the
paste when applied to the leather. To confirm, open your jar of antique finish
and look at the top of the paste. You will see a little bit of this liquid on
the top of the antiquing. Just remember, if you use a good brush to perform
this experiment that you will need to spend some extra time cleaning it!
Below is a photo of the piece
of sheepskin that I used to apply the acrylic sealer. Notice the color that it
has picked up from applying the sealer on to the leather. This is a normal
happening, at least in my experience. Some of the color would come off with the
application of the sealer because there will be some excess antique finish in
the carved lines and the stamped impressions.
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| Sheepskin after applying Tan Kote |
Remember, if you have any
questions comments, please let me know. If you have a good idea to share I
would like to hear about it and share it with others. Let me hear from you!
Have fun!
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