Leaving Leather Out In The Sun

[NewYorkerInSydney]

Hi good folks,

What effect does leaving leather (with or without oil) out in the sun have on the leather? I'm just curious. Thank you. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sydney girl.

[MADMAX22]

It will darken vegtan leather. If your leaving it natural it gives it a real nice darker color.

[TroyS]

Leather left in the sun will have the same effect as YOU left in the sun. It will BURN!

If you'd like to try an experiment, take two small scraps of veg tan and stack them on top of each other. Make sure the top piece is stacked in such a way that part of the bottom piece of leather is exposed. Leave them in the sun for 2 hours.

When you come back, you'll notice the top piece of leather is slightly redder than before, but not much different.... right?? Now, look at the bottom piece of leather... You'll see the drastic difference in color that 2 hours in the sun will cause.

That will give you the FULL understanding of how the sun effects your leather projects.

The same thing will happen if you leave the leather sitting on a shelf in your shop or work area. If sunlight can get to it, it will change the color. And there's nothing worse than unrolling that beautiful expensive tooling hide and finding out it's now 4 different shades of SUNBURNT!

[BearMan]

Good Morning,

I've used the sun & oil for many years to help color, or deepen the color of leather. Depending on where you live, & the intesity of the sun, regulates how long you leave it out. But, one of the most determining factors is the leather itself. It seems that the lesser quality leathers tan, & darken a lot quicker than the better quality leathers. In the south east, a couple hours in the sun is about all it takes to see a very noticable difference. A good test, to see how sun affects leather where you live, is to cover a portion of a piece, & then set it out in the sun for an hour, then move the cover, exposing a bit more, give it another hour, & so on untill you've reached 5-6 hours. Then take it inside & let it sit for several hours, as there is some continued darkening, even after bringing it in. Then you will have a good idea how long to leave it out , to get the affect you want. Do this with both a un-oiled piece, & an oiled piece, as they will be different. Different areas of the world, & different seasons will give differnt results. Basically though,,, I leave it out, until it's about 2 shades lighter than I'd like, & then bring it in. If it turns out to be too light, I'll put it back out the next day for another 1/2 hour or so. You can always darken,,, but you can't go back lighter.

I hope this helps some,,, Ed the "BearMan"

[Dwight]

Thank you Ed (BearMan) for the insight.

I knew what would happen, . . . but you opened the door to how to use a potentially "bad" outcome in such a way that it becomes good.

I really appreciate it when someone shares those neat little tidbits.

May God bless,

Dwight