Enough oil?

[azrider]

I am working with a double shoulder I purchased that I have no idea where it is from. Imported or what. Anyways, I noticed as I tooled it, that the areas that dried out the fastest turned a chalky white. The pieces were slicked before tooling. When I finished tooling and let the leather dry completely, I put a coat of extra vergin olive oil on the pieces with shearling. This took all of the chalkyness off. I then attached them to a board and put them in the sun for about six hours. When I pulled them out of the sun, all of the pieces were more chalky than they were when they where oiled before. I have since put five coats of oil on them, the first four were absorbed completely within about 10 minutes each. The last coat I put on seems to be staying put for a bit, so I am thinking they should have enough oil on them now. I am leaving them inside, and hopefully they will completely even out in color by morning.

So it this the right way to handle this leather? I am assuming because they wicked the oil up so fast they were just dry, and the coat that is not being absorbed as fast means there is enough and to stop.

What causes the chalky look? Will this leather hold up well?

[whinewine]

I am working with a double shoulder I purchased that I have no idea where it is from. Imported or what. Anyways, I noticed as I tooled it, that the areas that dried out the fastest turned a chalky white. The pieces were slicked before tooling. When I finished tooling and let the leather dry completely, I put a coat of extra vergin olive oil on the pieces with shearling. This took all of the chalkyness off. I then attached them to a board and put them in the sun for about six hours. When I pulled them out of the sun, all of the pieces were more chalky than they were when they where oiled before. I have since put five coats of oil on them, the first four were absorbed completely within about 10 minutes each. The last coat I put on seems to be staying put for a bit, so I am thinking they should have enough oil on them now. I am leaving them inside, and hopefully they will completely even out in color by morning.

So it this the right way to handle this leather? I am assuming because they wicked the oil up so fast they were just dry, and the coat that is not being absorbed as fast means there is enough and to stop.

What causes the chalky look? Will this leather hold up well?

Hello: could this be the reverse? Just speculation, but... In other words, could there be too much oil/wax in the leather? I had a problem with some 'true sheridan finish' stuff I tried for the first time last year. It looked fine when I first did it (NF oil+ fiebings sheridan [wax] antique finish over top... looked fantastic, but when I took it out of storage several months later in preparation for a show, it had a severe oily/waxy/chalky buildup on the outside that was white. i ended up using a heatgun & lots of paper towels to absorb as much as I could.

russ

[MADMAX22]

Could be something put on the leather to make it look better then what it is. Did you try using a alcohol cleaning or a deglazer before you oiled it. I usually do that when Im done carving before dyeing and waxing.

[azrider]

The chalkyness came back a little, but I had done a few smaller projects out of the same hide, so I knew that it would dissapear once the Bee Natural finish went on. I just had never put six coats of oil on something before to get it to where it seemed saturated. Mainly I was just looking for infomation on what could be causing it.

I am in the process of buffing these now, and they look fine. The good news is there is not much of this hide left, and I will be ordering some better quality stuff soon.