Using Deglaser

[Steff]

I have been working with leather on and off for many years. Mostly belts, holsters and wallets plus the Al Stholman Home study course. So far my finishing has been no more complex than dying, or using resist and hi-liter, time for me to move up to adding color with dies. On my last large project , finished w/ resist and hi-liter, the finish turned out so blotchy that I did not even assemble the darm thing ( a purse, the last project in the home study course) I suspected dirty or sweaty fingerprints to be the main problem. I wash my hands well each time before working. Now I have a diplomats pouch (from Making Leather cases vol 2) carved with my first attempt at roses. Roses are such a pain that I will only carve them for my wife but I am not too embarrassed by my carving. HOWEVER, now it is time to begin finishing, background dying, followed by shades of red on the roses and shades of green on the stems and leaves followed by a light brown overall and spray on supersheen. But after caseing and working the leather numorous times I noticed it was getting blotchy and would not even take on moisture evenly while caseing. I tried deglaser and am having a terrible time with it. It seems the more I try to clean the leather, the worse it gets. Some areas look bleached nearly white while others have a grayish hue and still others are dark. The leather will not case evenly at all now and I am sure that even if I apply a light coat of neetsfoot oil before dying, ti will still look like crap. What am I doing wrong and how can I fix this so that the finished project wont be embarrassing?

Thanks,

Steff

[Kevin]

In my experience, deglazing fluid is for removing old finish before redyeing, not cleaning naked finish leather.

Good luck,

Kevin

[mlapaglia]

I use 99% isopropyl alcohol. You can find it at a pharmacy. Normal rubbing alcohol is 70% isopropyl alcohol. I do it on naked leather before I apply the finish. It helps exactly the way you are thinking, it cleans fingerprints and normal work related oils and grease from the leather. Make sure you condition the leather after dyeing it as the deglazer strips the oils out of the leather. EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), Lexol or neetsfoot oil all work. Lexol and neetsfoot oil both darken the leather somewhat. Neetsfoot oil darkens it more than Lexol or EVOO. If you are using a light dye or a natural finish stick to the EVOO.

Try it on a piece of scrap that you handle a bunch first. Maybe do a test carving to simulate the condition leather gets to when you work on it. I believe you will like the results.

It wont solve all the problems but it does help a lot.

[mlapaglia]

FYI I get 91% not 99%