Fiebings 4 Way Care Leather Conditioner

[mlapaglia]

I bought some Eco-flo Easy Carve and gave it a try. Cased a knife sheath let it set in the fridge for 48 hours. Transferred the pattern to the leather and carved and tooled it. I had the best burnishing I have ever had. At one point the swivel knife needed to be stropped and the last cut before I stropped it was starting to burnish as it cut. As a newbie I was amazed at the entire project. Best burnishing I had ever done.

I then cleaned with denatured alcohol and put some Fiebings 4 way care leather conditioner, I tried to buy Lexol conditioner but this was all Tandy had and the guy there said it was the same, I applied one coat, let it soak in and then wiped it off. ALL MY AMAZING BURNISHING WAS GONE!!!! I almost cried.

I tried an experiment with the same stamping done twice on a peice of 3-4 oz scrap. I did not clean just applied the 4 way to one half of the leather. As you can see in the picture, the burnishing below the red line went away,. Prior to the 4 way they two sides looked the same.

Was it something I did or is the Fiebings 4 way care leather conditioner removing my burnishing???? I understand now that it is not the same as a conditioner only but should it remove burnishing?

(edit to change "Deglaze" to "cleaned")

Edited July 26, 2011 by mlapaglia

[pete]

WHY would you deglaze the piece at the end?!!! You just drew ALL of the moisture and oil out of the leather.

[mlapaglia]

WHY would you deglaze the piece at the end?!!! You just drew ALL of the moisture and oil out of the leather.

Becasue I was told by a person that does this for a living that it was the way to do it. Maybe deglaze was the wrong word. It was to clean it prior to applying the finish. The conditioner was supposed to replace the oils that the cleaning removed. When you don't know a lot you tend to listen and follow what people tell you to do. At least until you learn enough to make your own decisions.

At the end of the "Deglazing/cleaning" the burnishing was still there. It was only afterwards when the 4 way was applied that it vanished.