Using Antique Finish - Part II

In the last post, I told you about some of the basic preparations for antiquing a project. One thing that I did not say that you have to seal the pattern in order to antique the leather. The reason that the pattern on the leather is sealed is to keep it lighter than everything else is. I will mention again that I am very impressed with the quality of seal that I got with the acrylic sealer and I would recommend it to anyone who is just starting out. Those of you who have done the antiquing probably have your favorite methods figured out.

Once you have the leather sealed, have your antique finish either shaken or stirred thoroughly, have some rags nearby, and are wearing your gloves you are ready to begin. I like to use a piece of sheepskin to apply the antiquing to the leather. The photo below shows two pieces of sheepskin side by side. The piece on the left is untrimmed and the one on the right has the edges trimmed at close to a 45° degree angle. The angle that the sheepskin edges is trimmed does not matter. I think that it is important to trim the edges so that the solvent in the antique finish does not leach out onto the trailing fibers and leave a trail.

Untrimmed and trimmed sheepskin pieces

The pieces of sheepskin that you see above are approximately two-inches square. I would have used a larger piece if I had been able to cut it from the piece of scrap that I had. I believe that it is probably a good idea to use a larger piece of sheepskin when applying the antique finish to the project because it will probably help eliminate the possibility of streaking as previously mentioned. 

The photo below shows the trimmed piece of sheepskin loaded on one edge with the antique finish paste. This might look like a large amount to have, but you want to make sure that you have a little extra so that it will work into all of the cuts and the background. Having to go back and try to rub antique finish into an already worked area could cause streaking or blotching.

Sheepskin loaded on one edge with antique finish

A piece of sheepskin that is close to two inches square should work very well to apply antiquing if you are making a wallet or a belt. If I am making a belt, I like to load up my sheepskin with the paste and apply it by running the as far down the belt as I can. I am sure to leave excess antique finish in the areas where I apply it. I then go back and begin spreading it out and forcing it down into the knife cuts, the areas where I have used the stamps, and especially into the background. I use small circular motions to force the paste goes into all the nooks and crannies of the pattern.

Be very careful when working the antique finish into the recessed areas of the pattern. I used a product to seal the pattern one time and I evidently overworked it with the sheepskin because the carved edges of the flowers and leaves were stained. I had managed to rub the sealer off by using my normal techniques. This product was not a lacquer or an acrylic sealer to protect the pattern. I am sure that it was a good product but it did not work well for my with my antique applying techniques.

The photo below shows what you want your project to look like after you first finish applying the antique finish. It will look pretty ugly but that is not a problem. What you are seeing is the excess amount of the paste that was not worked into the pattern. You should not have any problems with leaving the paste to dry for a couple of minutes.

Project immediately after applying antique finish - before buffing

Do you remember the rag that I said is needed as a part of this project? Now is the time to use it to remove the excess antique finish from the surface of the pattern. When you get done it might look similar to the photo below. Again, use small circular motions to remove the excess paste from the pattern. Some people will leave the excess paste on the pattern for anywhere from an hour to twenty-four hours before wiping it off. I give the paste about five minutes after applying before I begin to wipe off the excess. I have done it this way for a lot of years and have had no real issues with it adhering to the leather.

One side of the rag used to wipe the antique finish off the project

It is important to allow the antique finish time to set up for a few hours on your project after initially wiping off the excess. I like to let it set overnight at least before applying a coat of finish sealer to the leather. What I like to do at least once during the period of time that the antique finish is setting up is to use a piece of sheepskin to rub off a little more of the excess and buff the antique finish to a shine. I have found that this seems to make the finish coat stick to the leather much better.

The photo below shows how much additional antique finish will come off when using a piece of sheepskin to buff it to a shine. Notice how much of the paste came off with the sheepskin. If you have antiqued a large project, it might be necessary to use more than one piece of sheepskin for the buffing process.

Leather project after wiping with rag and buffing with sheepskin

 It is possible that you will want to repeat buffing your project prior to applying the finish coat to your project. This will be evident if the unstamped portion of your project appears to have a dull appearance to it instead of a slight shine. The dull appearance indicates that there is even more buffing that needs to be done to remove the excess antique finish. Early in my leather working career I completed a couple of large projects and delivered them to my customer only to find out that the lacquer finish that I had applied was coming off the smooth areas. That happened before I knew about buffing the leather after wiping off the excess antique finish.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I did not apply any finish or seal coat to this project as of yet. If this had been a belt, I could have applied the finish after it had set overnight. If it were something that needed to have the edges laced I would have waited to put the finish coat on after the lacing was completed so it would be protected as well. With that being said, caution needs to be taken if a project is to be laced using a lace that is lighter colored than the antique finish. No matter what you do or how you do it, a portion of the setup antique finish will come off on the sheepskin as you are applying the finish coat. It is completely normal for this to happen and nothing has gone wrong.

The reason that I like to apply the finish coat or sealer to the project after completing the lacing is that it allows me to use a one-coat process. I like the one-coat process because it does not offer the chance of having excess sealer build up on the edges where the lacing is done. What can happen is that if the leather is finished before any lacing is done, an overlapping of finish onto the project areas next to the lacing will occur and it might show up quite prominently, creating a real eyesore.

I will post more on using the different finishers that I have on hand in the next post and I will try to have some more photo examples.

Have fun!