Need Advice On A Magically Changing Finish Color...

[Miett]

I'm relatively new to leatherworking, and I've run into a kind of weird situation. I was wondering if anyone with more experience might have an answer... I recently bought a bottle of Eco-Flo Gel Antique in Medium Brown. However, when I brought it home and tried it on a piece of veg tanned leather, it was a muddy greenish color rather than the rich, deep brown on the sample chart. I would have passed it off as a bad bottle, except I gave it one more try on a belt blank and some slightly heavier leather, and the color was lovely--exactly what it should be. I've tried it a couple more times, and the 3-4 oz veg tanned always gets that weird greenish blah color. Why on earth would the color be so drastically different? Is there something special done to heavier leather that would make it take the color differently?

I shook the bottle each time

Each of the pieces of leather were dry

I applied exactly the same way

All the pieces were veg tanned

Help!

[Frank]

You might want to try cleaning the leather first with a deglazer, (use in a well ventilated area). I've never used the eco-flow dyes, I pretty much stick with the Fiebings oil dyes for anything. There's a possibility that there is some residue on the thin leather itself that is causing the dye to turn colors on you. I hope that helps a bit.

Frank

[Miett]

You might want to try cleaning the leather first with a deglazer, (use in a well ventilated area). I've never used the eco-flow dyes, I pretty much stick with the Fiebings oil dyes for anything. There's a possibility that there is some residue on the thin leather itself that is causing the dye to turn colors on you. I hope that helps a bit.

Frank

Thank you--I'll give that a try!

[Miett]

You might want to try cleaning the leather first with a deglazer, (use in a well ventilated area). I've never used the eco-flow dyes, I pretty much stick with the Fiebings oil dyes for anything. There's a possibility that there is some residue on the thin leather itself that is causing the dye to turn colors on you. I hope that helps a bit.

Frank

Well, I tried it on several different leathers that I'd cleaned, and there is absolutely no way to predict whether what will come out is going to come out blackish green, or deep brown. I can literally see it going onto the applicator in varying shades. Shaking the bottle does nothing. I assume it's a defective bottle. The lesson? Don't use Eco-flo antiques, I guess! I'll try the Fiebings you recommended. Thank you!

[TwinOaks]

If you can see it going on the applicator in different shades, that means the colors components are separating (probably crystallizing) in the bottle. Not much you can do for it AFAIK. Good luck with the Fiebings, and let us know how it works.

[Jaymack]

I have used eco-flo briar brown highlight stain and always liked the color. I liked it so much that I bought a quart of it. On one project, it had a red /pink hue that I really didn't like. I thought it was the same problem as you said you had, so I shook the bottle more and tried again on a couple scrap pieces of veg tanned leather. On some leather, it was perfect, and on one scrap piece from a side that was tanned in Mexico or Brazil, it had the same red effect that I didn't like. I've read in this forum that each tannery can use differnt chemical to treat their leather. I assume that this can effect every stain that you can use whether it's Fiebings or Eco-Flo.

[JJLeatherworks]

If you can take it back to Tandy than do it. it sound to me like it has been sitting up for too long and has been separating. Eco-Flo Gel Antique in Medium Brown in quarts is being discontinued for that reason according to my local Tandy. I saw a bunch on the close out table and unscrewing the cap and they were all that dark pea soup green.

[Miett]

Thank you all for the advice. I'm going to try to return the bottle of Eco-flo. I got some Fiebings, which so far has been just perfect!

[quikjimmy]

I just spent 20 some hours tooling a belt, applied some Eco-Flo dark brown as usual and, wham... nasty grey black grossness.

Is there anything i can do [besides going black] to try and somewhat fix it?

[JRedding]

Oh I know the answer to this one, the problem is it's Eco-Flow, when that stuff first came out one of the suppliers we used a lot at the time sent us a huge box of it, I think it was pretty much the sampling of everything they had at the time, we experimented with it and everything came out off color or like yours some disgusting green color even the Army couldn't find a use for would come out of a bottle of brown ( what's that about ?) some one on this forum did some sampling with it and what it did over time and exposure and it was even more disgusting and unpredictable over the long term. It does bring new meaning to the phrase "Go Green" though LOL