Antique Question

[cinatas]

I have some tooled leather that I have successfully applied antique to, and I am satified with the way the piece looks. I used Fiebings antique paste, without adding anything to it. I have a question about the way antiqueing is supposed to work. Its been an hour since I have applied the antique, and the antique appears to have dried in a paste form on top of the leather. I can scratch it off with my fingernail if I tried. Is the antique supposed to work like a type of paint, where it sits on top of the leather like more of a paint? Should the antique paste be allowed to remain in the tooled areas? This is what I seem to have. Or is it supposed to work as a dye, changing the color of the leather, and should all traces of the paste be removed, allowing the darker dyed areas to remain? I have never seen something antiqued in person, so I'm not sure how this stuff is supposed to be used.

[rustyriggin]

I have some tooled leather that I have successfully applied antique to, and I am satified with the way the piece looks. I used Fiebings antique paste, without adding anything to it. I have a question about the way antiqueing is supposed to work. Its been an hour since I have applied the antique, and the antique appears to have dried in a paste form on top of the leather. I can scratch it off with my fingernail if I tried. Is the antique supposed to work like a type of paint, where it sits on top of the leather like more of a paint? Should the antique paste be allowed to remain in the tooled areas? This is what I seem to have. Or is it supposed to work as a dye, changing the color of the leather, and should all traces of the paste be removed, allowing the darker dyed areas to remain? I have never seen something antiqued in person, so I'm not sure how this stuff is supposed to be used.

Can you post a picture of the piece?

[terrymac]

The Antique Paste should be wiped off right after you apply all over the leather. Once it has beem applied I don't believe leaving it on will change the color, but just make it harder to get off. It will remain in the tooled areas, but you should remove it as soon as you can. My experience has been that if left too long, it is really hard to get off. One of the tricks is to use a thin application of Clearlac (Neatlac) to seal the leather before antiquing. This is termed applying a "resist" to the leather. It seems to give a more uniform color. You don't want to use the spray on version of Neatlac. You jusst need to experiment and find the particular effect you want. Hope this helps,

Terry

[cinatas]

I hear alot about applying products to serve as a "light resist". I have tried using clear lac, and satin sheen and even tan-kote in the past to the entire leather piece prior to applying antique. When I applied the antique to the tooled areas, the antique seemed to not darken the leather, unless I left some of the paste in the tooled areas, using it as a paint. Using a coat of clear lac applied with wool seemed the worst, not allow any antique to penetrate the leather. This time I tried applying tan-kote to the leather, but using a blocking technique. I wrapped a piece of t- shirt around a small wooden block, applied tan-kote to the block and rubbed the block with the tan-kote on the leather. This applied my "light resist" to only the untooled areas. I was hoping this would allow the antique to penetrate into the leather better in the tooled areas, and not in the untooled areas. I applied my antique all over the piece, and removed it immediately using a block wrapped in cloth. This left the paste in the tooled areas, where it dried. I did this twice, leaving the paste to dry in the tooled areas. I then removed what was left of the paste with a cloth, but left some in the deep cracks. If I scratched it with my fingernail, the black antique paste that remained in the tooled areas would come off. The leather underneath has been darkened, but not to the level that I am hoping to achieve, which is black in the tooled areas, and mahogony/red in the untooled areas. I am using 6-7 ounce vegetable tanned leather from tandy. After tooling I applied one coat of neatsfoot oil with wool, and let it dry for a day. I then dyed the leather using fiebings alcohol based dyes by spraying with and airbrush. Then I perfomed the antiquing as described earlier. The piece looks like I want it to. So i guess i need to know if I should leave the piece as is and seal with tan-kote, assuming the antique is a paint like product. Or go back, try and remove whats left of the paste using deglazer, and put a couple more coats of antique on, removing all of the paste each time, until the leather has been actually died to the black color I need in the tooled areas. So I guess I am asking should the antique paste dye the leather in the same manner as a traditional dye would if I painted it into the tooled areas, or does the antique paste serve as a sort of paint, staying on top of the leather. I attached another photo of another piece I did using the same technique

Edited December 6, 2010 by cinatas

[terrymac]

It appears you are using spirit dye to obtain your coloring and just using the antique to highlight the cut and tooled areas. If this is the case, then I would be applying the Clearlac on top of the dye, and using a dark antique. Tan Kote will not resist the Clearlac, as it can be used as a thinner. I have used a medium brown color antique, and the cut areas were black. The problem with leaving the paste in the cuts, etc., is that it will come off eventually. I don't believe it will ever set as a paint. I have used the Tandy products in conjuction with the Fieblings and have never been happy with the results. From your pictures, it looks like you are getting a dark effect, but just want it darker.

Terry

[cinatas]

So Terry,

I am using Fiebings for all products, dye, antique and tan-kote. I used medim brown dye and black antique on the bird. Are you saying I may not be getting the darkness I want with the antique due to the fact I am using tandy leather?

[terrymac]

No, the Tandy Leather should have nothing to do with it. You mentioned Satin Sheen, and I was thinking of the Eco Flo product. It has just been my experience that using the darker antiques, I end up with an almost black in the cuts and tooled areas. Darker than I really prefer!

Terry