Using Antique Finish

In the last post, I put an old photograph of a photo album that I made for my parents. This photo shows what can be done when a project is “antiqued.” It is still one of my favorite ways of adding a little more character and patina to a project. The other thing is that it does not take a lot of it to go a long way and for the most part, it is a one-coat application.

In looking back at the photo of the album, it is hard to detect that I sealed the pattern with a lacquer finish to “resist” the antique finish. This is the time consuming part of antiquing a project because it is necessary to brush the seal or resist coat on the pattern. I feel it is necessary to put a second coat of sealer on the pattern to make sure that everything is completely coated. The photo below shows the pattern with just one coat.

Pattern sealed with one coat of acrylic sealer

If you can, look closely at the photo and you will notice that there is a bit of a dull shine on the pattern. This is only one coat of sealer. I used Fiebing’s Acrylic Resolene to seal the pattern. The first coat Resolene soaks into the leather and it possibly will seal the pattern well enough that one can safely apply the antique finish. However, I put the second coat on because I know that I may not have gotten a small section of the pattern covered.

It is worth the time and effort to put a second coat of sealer on the pattern. I did not try to leave an area of the pattern that was not coated with the Resolene. I did not try to leave a portion of the pattern uncoated because I probably would have covered it on the second coat of Resolene anyway. The photo below shows that pattern with a second coat of Resolene. Notice that the pattern has more of a shine with the second coat than with the first. That shine means that the first coat of Resolene is covered!

Pattern sealed with two coats of acrylic sealer

I mentioned that I used Resolene to seal the pattern on this little project. I am impressed with the way that it turned out. In the past, I have used leather lacquers such as Tandy’s NeatLac and Fiebing’s Lac Kote to seal the pattern. Incidentally, I just did a search for Fiebing’s Lac Kote and found nothing about it on the Fiebing Website. I cannot comment one way or the other on this matter. One thing that I will comment on though is that the odors are much less with the Resolene.

Impressed as I was with the Resolene, I have not used it to put a finish coat on a completed project. I will apply it to example piece that I just finished antiquing.  I will try to remember to post a photo of it after I have given it a good coat of the Resolene.

The photo shown below is a little out of focus and I apologize for that. It shows the top of the open jar of antique finish. This particular antique finish is a paste that require some preparations before using. If you look closely, you might notice some small lumps in the paste. I believe that the lumps are unmixed antique finish.

View of the top of the jar of antique finish

 I was in a hurry to get this little project finished so that I could post photographs of the process that I did not take the time to do the job right. I think that the lumps are in there because it is a brand new jar that I had kept in my garage/shop for over a year and it was exposed to a variety of temperatures. It was cool in my shop when I first opened the jar and began antiquing. I probably should have warmed up it up before I attempted to mix it up. I will try warming the jar up to at least 60-63 degrees before shaking it up.

The photo on the left just below this text shows the jar of antique finish prior to shaking. The dark spots are areas where the solvents or liquid portions of the paste have separated. The photo on the right shows the difference after the shaking the jar vigorously for a few minutes. Please let me reiterate, I had this jar of antique finish around for at least a year and it was not at room temperature but it did work very well. I do not recommend that you store your antique finish in this manner. You might not be as luck as I was this time.

                      

   Antique finish before shaking                              Antique finish after shaking

The next thing that one needs to think about when proceeding with antiquing the project is getting the sealer on the pattern. I realize that this might seem out of place now, but I have a bit of a method to my madness. The photo below shows the sealer in a small container, which makes it easier for dipping the brush. The brush shown is a good size for applying the sealer as long as care is taken not to go over the edges of the pattern. Going over the edges is like coloring outside of the lines. It does not look good when it happens. I do have a photo of what it looks like when going over the edges is done. I will include in a later post on antiquing your project.

Brush and cup with acrylic sealer

When applying the sealer to your pattern you will want to decide where you should begin. There are not hard and fast rules as to what part of the pattern you do first. Just try to remember what you have done and what you have not coated. Always work in a well-lit area so that you can more easily tell what you have or have not coated. You can load your brush pretty full if you start in the middle of a leaf. What I like to do is get a bit of a puddle in the middle of an area and then use it to dip my brush in to pull it to the outside edges of that area. I am very careful to keep my brush close to, but not going over the edge.

I like to wear gloves when I am ready to apply the antique finish to the leather project. I have been known to use plastic wrap instead of gloves, but that gets tricky trying to get the job done and not get the paste on your hands. In the beginning, I did not wear gloves because I did not have any and I was not concerned about getting it on my hands. It did not bother me to have the dark brown stains under my fingernails or have the skin on my thumb and fingers a little different color than the rest of my hand. Mind you, I did do my best to get the black out from under my fingernails with file, but the stains were there until they wore off.

I would recommend using either latex or nitrile disposable gloves for applying the antique finish. That way when you are finished you can toss them when you are finished with the project. The problem with using some rubber gloves repeatedly is that the antique finish will stay in the rubber and might cause staining where you do not want it. This would be especially bad if you had already sealed the whole pattern on your project. It would be almost impossible to remove the stain if the pattern had been sealed already. Any product that you would use to remove the stain would more than likely stain the leather where it was used. The photo below shows a pair of disposable nitrile gloves that I used to antique this project. I got them on sale and that is the only reason that I chose these over latex gloves.

Nitrile gloves

I will post more on antiquing a leather project within a few days. Be sure to let me know if you have any questions about what I am doing or have done. 

Have fun!