cinatas

I have a vegetble tanned leather motorcycle seat that I made a few years ago. It was died with water based fiebings die medium brown, sealed with TanKote and waxed with fiebings aussie leather coditioner. I recently decided to make the seat black. I figured just using acetone and or using #12 fiebings stripper deglazer would remove all of the sealants and allow me to die the seat black using oil based fiebings black. So far not so much! The sealants havent been removed fully, and my application of the black has resulted in brown/black spoltchyness. Any ideas on getting this thing black? Switch to water based black dye? Better stripper ideas? Soaking in black dye? Or should I give up?

Thanks, I finally understand now! Thanks for taking the time to go over it in detail cyber thrasher. Haven't seen this anywhere else.

I have read quite a few threads about applying resists to leather before antiqueing a tooled piece of leather. Its unclear to me how to use or apply a product such as Neatlac or Wyo Sheen. Would I carefully apply these products so as not to get them into the tooled areas leaving the depressed or tooled areas "raw" and the areas I didn't want any antique on covered in the product, so as to resist the antiqueing? Or do you just apply the product over everything, covering all areas, tooled and not tooled? Thanks.

So Terry, I am using Fiebings for all products, dye, antique and tan-kote. I used medim brown dye and black antique on the bird. Are you saying I may not be getting the darkness I want with the antique due to the fact I am using tandy leather?

I hear alot about applying products to serve as a "light resist". I have tried using clear lac, and satin sheen and even tan-kote in the past to the entire leather piece prior to applying antique. When I applied the antique to the tooled areas, the antique seemed to not darken the leather, unless I left some of the paste in the tooled areas, using it as a paint. Using a coat of clear lac applied with wool seemed the worst, not allow any antique to penetrate the leather. This time I tried applying tan-kote to the leather, but using a blocking technique. I wrapped a piece of t- shirt around a small wooden block, applied tan-kote to the block and rubbed the block with the tan-kote on the leather. This applied my "light resist" to only the untooled areas. I was hoping this would allow the antique to penetrate into the leather better in the tooled areas, and not in the untooled areas. I applied my antique all over the piece, and removed it immediately using a block wrapped in cloth. This left the paste in the tooled areas, where it dried. I did this twice, leaving the paste to dry in the tooled areas. I then removed what was left of the paste with a cloth, but left some in the deep cracks. If I scratched it with my fingernail, the black antique paste that remained in the tooled areas would come off. The leather underneath has been darkened, but not to the level that I am hoping to achieve, which is black in the tooled areas, and mahogony/red in the untooled areas. I am using 6-7 ounce vegetable tanned leather from tandy. After tooling I applied one coat of neatsfoot oil with wool, and let it dry for a day. I then dyed the leather using fiebings alcohol based dyes by spraying with and airbrush. Then I perfomed the antiquing as described earlier. The piece looks like I want it to. So i guess i need to know if I should leave the piece as is and seal with tan-kote, assuming the antique is a paint like product. Or go back, try and remove whats left of the paste using deglazer, and put a couple more coats of antique on, removing all of the paste each time, until the leather has been actually died to the black color I need in the tooled areas. So I guess I am asking should the antique paste dye the leather in the same manner as a traditional dye would if I painted it into the tooled areas, or does the antique paste serve as a sort of paint, staying on top of the leather. I attached another photo of another piece I did using the same technique

I have some tooled leather that I have successfully applied antique to, and I am satified with the way the piece looks. I used Fiebings antique paste, without adding anything to it. I have a question about the way antiqueing is supposed to work. Its been an hour since I have applied the antique, and the antique appears to have dried in a paste form on top of the leather. I can scratch it off with my fingernail if I tried. Is the antique supposed to work like a type of paint, where it sits on top of the leather like more of a paint? Should the antique paste be allowed to remain in the tooled areas? This is what I seem to have. Or is it supposed to work as a dye, changing the color of the leather, and should all traces of the paste be removed, allowing the darker dyed areas to remain? I have never seen something antiqued in person, so I'm not sure how this stuff is supposed to be used.

I have a motorcycle seat that I would like to make. The leather pieces will consist of a bottom piece, untooled and unmolded. The top will be made of 6-7 oz. veg tanned leather from tandy. I would like to tool the top with a decorative pattern, and mold the top to produce a shape similar to this (I attached pictures too, not sure if these will work): I guess the process would be similar to molding a holster to fit a gun like this: Are there any videos or tutorials or links to other discussions out there to describe the molding process I might need? I am assuming I will need to make some type of wood pattern or patterns to produce the molded shape, then tool the leather after molding. Thanks.