First antiqueing attempt.

[Tophee]

 This is my first attempt at antiqueing anything. New to leather work in general, did not contrast as much as I wanted and it stained the leather even after I applied resolene as my resist. The antique kept coming out when I went to wipe off the excess shortly after applying. The long piece was an attempt at making a book mark. It was by far the worst one affected. Im using fiebings antique paste Mahogany. I am also just using stamps at the moment since I feel they would be easier to start with than carving in the leather for now. I have few stamps so that is the reason for the similarities. Maybe the stamps just arent deep enough to antique, I am not sure. Process I did for these was dye, let dry, apply resolene and let that dry. Apllied antique, wiped off excess, let dry than add final coat of resolene. 

[Mablung]

It looks like the leather may have been too wet when you stamped it. Also, did you stamp the flesh (fuzzy) side? It looks that way. That can be done, but the definition is usually less clear. I may be misinterpreting the pictures, though. Did you allow the Resolene to dry fully? It doesn’t take long to dry, but it does need some time before it will act as a resist well. How did you apply it?

[Tophee]

I dampend the leather with just water on my fingers. Was not even wet really. I did not stamp the flesh side, I did use a texture punch also so it may be the reason it looks that way. I let the resolene dry completely for about an hour. Applied with a wool dauber and wiped off any excess.

[Mablung]

Ah, okay. The matting tool or whatever other thing you used probably made it look that way. You may have needed to dampen it further to get deeper stamp impressions, possibly. 

[Tophee]

Possible, there are good impressions left. But maybe the stamps just arent made with deep enough grooves for antiqueing. Or I am just not doing the whole process right.

[SUP]

You could try dampening the leather with a spray bottle. That gives a more consistent casing. 

Also you could check to see how  deep the water has penetrated. Look at the edge of the leather; you should get an idea. It should penetrate to about half the depth of the leather. More and it might become soggy, less and it will not take a good stamp. 

Edited April 28 by SUP

[Tophee]

I do have a little spray bottle that was originally for a hand sanitizer I cleaned and filled with water. But figured it was wetting the leather too much so for these i just made sure the surface was moist. Even with a bad stamp tho I would think an antique paste would make its way into any of the impressions well enough to not come out when wiping off the excess. Again maybe im just not doing the whole process incorrectly.

 

[chuck123wapati]

your impressions aren't deep enough to hold antiquing, either to dry or to wet, not hard enough with the mallet or to thin of leather or any combination of those. 

Casing is very important to get a good impression. 

[Tophee]

Im using a 7oz leather. From a post or 2 ive found on this forum, minimal for stamping and tooling according to some would be 4-5oz I believe what was said. So I should be good with that at least. Gonna have to play around with casing the leather with these scraps I got. Appreciate the help from everyone by the way.

[Mablung]

It’s not necessary, but I tend to soak my leather and stick it in a plastic bag to let the water work its way into the fibers thoroughly. Wetting it as much as I do requires leaving it out for a few hours to dry before trying to work with it, but it guarantees a consistent case. Play around with the amount of water you use, as long as you give it enough time to soak in evenly and consistently. That’s the most important thing. 
 

You might try getting a 9 oz craft panel to practice with. I find that additional thickness easier to work with. Also, any idea what part of the hide you’re using? Back, shoulder, belly? That will also affect how well it stamps and the method and degree to which it needs to be cased. 

[Tophee]

2 hours ago, Mablung said:

It’s not necessary, but I tend to soak my leather and stick it in a plastic bag to let the water work its way into the fibers thoroughly. Wetting it as much as I do requires leaving it out for a few hours to dry before trying to work with it, but it guarantees a consistent case. Play around with the amount of water you use, as long as you give it enough time to soak in evenly and consistently. That’s the most important thing. 
 

You might try getting a 9 oz craft panel to practice with. I find that additional thickness easier to work with. Also, any idea what part of the hide you’re using? Back, shoulder, belly? That will also affect how well it stamps and the method and degree to which it needs to be cased. 

Shoulder cut, I got it on sale online from Tandy. Maybe not the best quality but to practice on I try to get on sale leather so mistakes like these dont bother me. Im gonna try something in the next coming days, gonna change the surface I am putting the leather on before I stamp it. Maybe the table I am using has too much give underneath the slab I have and its not pushing back enough to get a good impression. So im gonna give soakin it like you described a try and a better surface and I will see what happens. 

[chuck123wapati]

8 hours ago, Tophee said:

Shoulder cut, I got it on sale online from Tandy. Maybe not the best quality but to practice on I try to get on sale leather so mistakes like these dont bother me. Im gonna try something in the next coming days, gonna change the surface I am putting the leather on before I stamp it. Maybe the table I am using has too much give underneath the slab I have and its not pushing back enough to get a good impression. So im gonna give soakin it like you described a try and a better surface and I will see what happens. 

after you soak it it has to dry back out to the right stage of dampness, the leather will look  dry or almost dry but still feel cool to the touch and a fingernail will make a good dark and lasting impression when tested, beware it wont go away so don't fingernail test it where you don't want it to be seen.

 When I first started I would take a scrap piece and wet it along  with my project and as it dried I stamped it every so often until it hit the correct stage of dampness then I started on the project piece. Don't be afraid of hitting the stamp a bit harder either. One good whack should set your impression deep and dark. Another thing i just realized is your deer stamp is larger than your  background stamp so you need to hit it even harder to get the impression. I have that stamp and it isn't a deep stamp or an easy one to get a good impression from IMO.

[Mablung]

Good suggestions from chuck123wapati.  Hit a large stamp like that quite hard to get a good impression.  Depending on how heavy your mallet/maul is, you'll need to give it some oomph, more than you'll think you do.  I nearly never hit my stamps or punches hard enough the first time.  The Tandy shoulders---which are mostly what I use, personally---can be hit or miss.  The double shoulder I have currently has a far better grain and much smoother grain-side surface than the previous shoulder I purchased and used.  That makes a pretty big difference.  The sort of surface you use and minimizing bounce is more important when trying to prevent double impressions from the stamp bouncing.  It doesn't look like you have that problem, so I wouldn't worry too much about that at this juncture.  The biggest things, it seems, are ensuring you hit the stamp hard enough and making sure the leather has the right moisture content.  I'm going to steal chuck's suggestion about wetting a scrap piece from the same portion so that I have something to use to check my moisture content on my main working piece.

[Tophee]

I took these 2 leftover cuts of leather and did what you 2 suggested. Also I went and changed the surface I used to stamp on. Impression was MUCH better looking before dyeing and antiqueing. I did kinda rush the antiqueing so it isnt the best it can be. But I think this looks better than the others. I do need a new mallet now though, one Ive been using is one that came with the cheap set I bought and the handle cracked when I gave it a harder whack and the whole thing came apart. I do think I could of let the leather dry some more but overall I think I made some progress with it. What does everyone typically use to apply and buff off the excess antique? What I have been using is cut up rags and seems to not buff very well and it removes too much antique I think.

Edited April 30 by Tophee

[Mablung]

12 hours ago, Tophee said:

I took these 2 leftover cuts of leather and did what you 2 suggested. Also I went and changed the surface I used to stamp on. Impression was MUCH better looking before dyeing and antiqueing. I did kinda rush the antiqueing so it isnt the best it can be. But I think this looks better than the others. I do need a new mallet now though, one Ive been using is one that came with the cheap set I bought and the handle cracked when I gave it a harder whack and the whole thing came apart. I do think I could have let the leather dry some more but overall I think I made some progress with it. What does everyone typically use to apply and buff off the excess antique? What I have been using is cut up rags and seems to not buff very well and it removes too much antique I think.

Re: applying and buffing, I also use a rag. I just have to let it dry for a minute first. I have read on here that sheepskin is the bee’s knees for antique, but I haven’t tried it personally. 
 

Did you have one of the wooden mallets? Definitely need something better. I would drop the coin on a rawhide mallet, if I were you. I spent a little less and got a Tandy Bakelite mallet—then I used a Tandy rawhide mallet in a carving class recently and wished I had bought one already. 

[Tophee]

Was not a wooden mallet, I dont know the name but it was a nylon straight head mallet. Very cheap one but I did not expect this much of a catestrophic failure during use. Many of the youtubers I watch, specifically DG Saddlery uses those sheepskin ones with the wool on it still. I may pick up a small pack, or there is actually a sheepfarm down the road from me that has a craft shop I may stop in and ask if thye have some.

Edited April 30 by Tophee

[Mablung]

1 hour ago, Tophee said:

Was not a wooden mallet, I dont know the name but it was a nylon straight head mallet. Very cheap one but I did not expect this much of a catestrophic failure during use. Many of the youtubers I watch, specifically DG Saddlery uses those sheepskin ones with the wool on it still. I may pick up a small pack, or there is actually a sheepfarm down the road from me that has a craft shop I may stop in and ask if thye have some.

Yeah, those can have fragile handles. That and because they’re generally rather light, we’uns tend to over stress the handles by whacking things really hard. Good opportunity for an upgrade 

[Tophee]

Yeah i just ordered the rawhide mallet. It will most likely serve me better

[DoogMeister]

I use a piece of old T-shirt to apply and buff the antique (Feibing's paste).  I work it into carving with an old toothbrush.  Much less getting too much of the antiquing compound into the cuts that way, then buff off.  Feibing's Pro Resist, applies with a very damp piece of T-Shirt fabric.