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Ahhh ok I wasn't aware that both prolonged casing (e.g. plastic bag in the fridge) and neatsfoot would both darken the leather. I think I will definitely try olive oil next. I should ask, is there a preference as to type? (Extra virgin is very dark green so I should avoid this I assume?) Thanks for the kind words about the leaf. I got a LOT of stray marks on the brown and was trying to be careful not to. Think I need to wear mittens or something lol Not sure how that keeps happening to me.

Now that the holidays are settling down I finally got around to it. Worked like a charm! 3 coats, 1 hr apart, 24hrs drying time and I used eco antique gel and wiped it off in a hurry! Thanks for all of the help! Curiously another didn't come out as light but I did a different process. I had to keep it moist longer in a plastic bag in fridge and when I finished and it dried, it dried a lot darker than this piece. Then I tried what I read from Eco Flo or Fiebings booklet (forget which one) about neatsfoot oiling. So I did that and it got even darker. Then the 3 coats and a very dark antique and of course my lighter part is substantially darker than this one. Does keeping a piece wet for tooling a lot longer, typically add to it darkening like mine did? Neatsfoot as well?

I will swivel knife a few scrap pieces and give that a shot. Thank you for your help - and GREAT bar stool man!

70 degrees when I apply super shene and allow it to dry between coats (hour to 3 hours between). But I turn the heat down to about 64 when I go to bed.

Only as long as it takes to cover everything on a coaster. 15-20 seconds maybe 30 tops? I thought of that after my 1st piece and have shaken it well ever since.

Great looking stool! Your flowers look well resisted. I tried again last night and got the same ol results I put a HEAVY coat of super shene on. Let set about 2-3 hours. Repeated a heavy coat. Let it sit overnight (about 6-8hrs) and did the same quick heavy coat w/briar brown hi lite and again didn't resist that well. What is going on here? Are these the steps you are taking? Are you doing more than 1 coat? If so, how many hours apart? Why did your flowers resist so well but mine wont?!

I got roped into leatherworking a few weeks ago by stumbling into Tandy's videos by George Hurst on Youtube and said "This is for me!" I'm so glad I did! I ran out and bought their ultimate set and a pile of other stuff and books (ok maybe too much? lol but I figure I'll learn as I go along). Anyway, I made a few coasters from the kit following the instructions and then got ready to do the dyes. I chose to do what he did - use super shene as a resist on the center flower and the border. The only problem is it did NOT come out like his. The resist did do SOMETHING... but not nearly what it did in his video I'm still satisfied the piece looks good for a first time noob but I want to get it like his and I followed the directions to the letter (or so I thought). I applied a generous coat of super shene with a brush. I let it dry over 30 min. I applied another coat. I let it sit overnight to be absolutely certain it was ready to resist. Using a dauber (like George Hurst did), I generously applied the same dye he did (Hi-Lite in Briar Brown). I then used what he did, a folded up paper towel to wipe off the excess. See the results in the photos. His has TONS of contrast and mine looks like the resist hardly did anything. I then tried the same thing with Eco Flo block and got the same results I did with super shene. I am disappointed and don't know of anything I did wrong unless his results are a camera trick or some kind of Voodoo I don't know about yet and was left out of the video?! Please show pity and help the noob! PS: In his youtube video on making leather cuffs - he uses same two chemicals and his brown is WAY darker than mine and his resisted area is WAY lighter. UGH HELP!