Need Help With Bracelet Finishing Problem

[smudley]

Hello to all. I haven't posted in quite a while - haven't even had time to peruse the forum - but I figured with all the knowlegable folks here, someone can give me/us the answer to a major delima. My wife is making some bracelets and is having major finishing problems. She dyed them with the eco-flo dye, then sprayed them with Saddle Sheen (2 coats) as a resist for antiqueing. Here's the problem. After the Saddle Sheen dryed, when the bracelet is flexed at all,the finish cracks...BADLY! The bracelet that is the worst had an almost plastic feel and look to it. When I rubbed my fingernail across it, the finish started peeling right off. One section peeled off in one big piece. We took the bracelets to our local Tandy store and showed them to the manager, since I had no real good idea why they did this. He and I experimented with the same dye (out of the same bottle) and his cans of Saddle Sheen. No matter what we did, we couldn't duplicate the problem. I even sprayed a coat on so heavy that it actually pooled on the leather, but still the problem was not duplicated. Can anybody tell me what could be the problem, so I can help my wife correct it? She only started doing leatherwork, and this is rapidly making her question her decision, especially since she is mainly going to do it for profit, not just fun like me. HELP!!!!!!!

[terrahyd]

HI Smudley ;;;

Why only to me??? I have said it a dozen times.. have faith you may or may not find the answer...did it happen again at home with all of your prod' or do they work now also??

one thing comes to mind ;;was the leather completly dry or still a little damp at home??then perhaps dry at the store?? I DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER ...but this would be my thoughts if it happened to me.....Doc...

[skyout]

One thought came to mind about the temperature at the time of application. If it was too cold, perhaps that could cause the peeling???

[hidepounder]

Doc and skyout have both hit on important questions. I have never had a problem with Saddle Sheen and it doesn't sound right to me that the Eco Flo caused this. Is it possible the leather had just a little moisture in it even though it felt dry...or maybe a little oil? I have created similar problems with NeatLac by applying it too soon after oiling. Additionally it sounds like the Leather Sheen was applied just a touch too heavy which is really easy to do with a spray. I like applying it to a piece of trimmed shearling and then putting it on the leather. Seems like I have a little more control that way. Maybe someone else has been through this and will jump in.....

[smudley]

Doc and skyout have both hit on important questions. I have never had a problem with Saddle Sheen and it doesn't sound right to me that the Eco Flo caused this. Is it possible the leather had just a little moisture in it even though it felt dry...or maybe a little oil? I have created similar problems with NeatLac by applying it too soon after oiling. Additionally it sounds like the Leather Sheen was applied just a touch too heavy which is really easy to do with a spray. I like applying it to a piece of trimmed shearling and then putting it on the leather. Seems like I have a little more control that way. Maybe someone else has been through this and will jump in.....

This is the first time I have seen this problem using Saddle Sheen myself. I did get it to happen once several years ago when I sprayed Super Sheen over the top of Neat Lac (or was it the other way around?), but I did that on purpose to see how it would react. Wifey said that the bracelets were dry when she sprayed the finish on them, and she doesn't know anything about oiling. Heck, they had been dyed about 6 hrs before she sprayed them. At the store, we experimented every way we thought we might get the problem to happen. I dyed a piece of scrap with the same dye she used and let the piece dry for about 45 mins, then took it outside, where the temp was about 40, and sprayed the heck out of it, brought it back in,then sprayed again in about 30 mins, so thick that there was actually liquid pooling on the surface. The scrap piece still didn't crack, everything soaked in well, and it didn't look like it was plastic. The only thing we can figure is possibly one of two things. First, we got a bad can of finish, or second, wifey got a bad batch of bracelets. Some of them are unevenly "tanned" from sunlight, and some have a glazed look to them, leading us to lean towards the bad bracelets. I'm having her do another one tonight, where I can observe her processes and technique, and we will see how it goes.