Saddle Lac Removal

[chele]

Hi! I'm new to the boards. I'm not a leather worker; at this point I would probably be best described as a torturer of leather *LOL* I made a really stupid mistake, I'm hoping to find a way to fix it!

I bought a beautiful western saddle. The tooling is incredible. It appeared to have been a display saddle that had never been ridden in. The good news is I got it for a very good price. The bad news is I ruined it. My goofball horse laid down in a bog with me, getting black tar mud on the saddle. I had to really soak that mud to get it off, which darkened the leather. I waited a couple of weeks to get it good and dry then tried oiling it to even the color. Now I have an ugly blotchy saddle. It appears maybe a sealer such as Saddle Lac may have been applied to it?

I looked online and found out about deglazer, but the product description says it removes dye also? I don't want to remove the dye, just the Saddle lac so I can oil the saddle again and try to even-up the blotchyness. Is there any hope?

Thanks in advance!

Edited October 18, 2010 by chele

[Randy Cornelius]

I see you are from Kansas, I live just south of KC if you are in my area I would be happy to take a look at it to see what I could do. I have some OCA cleaner that works real good on leather. I cannot spell the acid cleaner, oxiclic acid something like that. I would try that before I tried anything else.

[whinewine]

I see you are from Kansas, I live just south of KC if you are in my area I would be happy to take a look at it to see what I could do. I have some OCA cleaner that works real good on leather. I cannot spell the acid cleaner, oxiclic acid something like that. I would try that before I tried anything else.

Oxalic acid is a bleach (sold as wood bleach in hardware stores) & isn't a solvent for neatlac/saddlelac; that being said, I would do as Randy says & try it first on the saddle to try to bleach it lighter. The bigger problem may be the fact that you oiled it. If you used neatsfoot oil, you darkened it considerably (especially if you really slathered on the oil, which would have penetrated very deeply into the leather). I would definitely try the oxalic acid first- if that doesn't work, then use deglazer. Good luck.

[chele]

Thanks for the offer Randy, but I'm in SW Kansas; that would be quite a drive!

Whinewine, I used Extra Virgin Olive oil. The saddle is darker than it was, and the darkening botched up the way the dye accentuated the tooling *sigh*

Is this a job a saddlemaker should handle or is it OK for me to try it? If I really make a mess of it, can a saddle maker fix it?

Thanks in advance again!

[whinewine]

Thanks for the offer Randy, but I'm in SW Kansas; that would be quite a drive!

Whinewine, I used Extra Virgin Olive oil. The saddle is darker than it was, and the darkening botched up the way the dye accentuated the tooling *sigh*

Is this a job a saddlemaker should handle or is it OK for me to try it? If I really make a mess of it, can a saddle maker fix it?

Thanks in advance again!

Chele:

again, I would try the oxalic acid to try to lighten it. You could also use lots of paper towels & mild heat (like a hair dryer on low) to draw out as much oil as possible first. As a side note, you mentioned that this was a display saddle so it may have never seen a great deal of natural sunlight: the more natural colored leather is left in the sun, the more it will darken on its own. While the OA & the paper towels may help somewhat, it will never return to its virgin state.. It's like trying to unscramble an egg: it can't be done.

russ

[chele]

Thanks whinewine, I guess I'll just give it a try! I mean, what can it hurt, I've already ruined it.