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That's an interesting site. Their notes are about sunlight 'lightening' leather. Which seems really odd to me since I've got a bunch of examples where the opposite has happened. Maybe it's not the sunlight, but exposure to something else in the air that's darkening my pieces. Thanks for the link! Hmmm, cool idea! I've got a bag of oxalic stashed from my last trip pulling quartz crystals out of a hill in Arkansas (good cleaner.) I'll try a little test corner. Thanks! That's absolutely what I should have been doing. I got this tied in a roll at Tandy and left it that way until I could get around to the project. Big mistake. I'm going to go reverse all my other pieces now. Great advice, thanks!

I've got a 7-8oz veg tan shoulder that I'd stored in a roll (no room to store flat alas.) Having finally gotten my other projects complete, I pulled it out to start the project I bought it for which will require the entire shoulder, uncut. Unfortunately, though I thought I'd had it out of the sun, the outside of the roll (approximately half) is distinctly darkened. This picture more or less gives a crappy idea of how much darker the exposed portion is: While it's not as bad as some leather 'tan lines' I've dealt with, this particular project will suffer if I can't even out the tone. By the time I'm done, most of the piece will be stained or antiqued, but I'd really like to start from an even base. I'm fantasizing about masking the dark part and taking the shoulder out into direct sunlight for short stretches (or for that matter, I have a silk screen UV lamp and timer, but it's pretty potent.) It will be difficult, given the requirements of this project, to cut pieces off for testing. Maybe I can trim a few slivers.... In any event, does anyone have anything like a rule of thumb for direct sunlight exposure and darkening? Or a 'enlightening' anecdote about handling a similar issue? Thanks in advance! --tim

It was my first real attempt at carving, so I went a bit overboard. Many lessons learned. For one, that's the last time I'll hand stitch through 7 layers of 4 oz.

Just finished a messenger bag that took waaaaay too long!