Watermarks After Wet Molding

[JoshLSTV]

I am getting watermarks on my leather after my wet mold dries. I didn't think they would show up after dying the leather black, however, they are still visible in the right lighting. Is this normal, and is there something I can do in the future to prevent this from happening? I've posted a picture that shows what I'm talking about. The most noticeable one after dying and finishing is the one under the stitching for the magazine.

[Northmount]

Use wax paper or plastic wrap (or something of that nature) to keep any contaminates in the mold away from the leather. Also make sure you don't contaminate the leather with anything before molding it. (Like oils or such from the object you are fitting it to as you do your layout.)

It kind of looks like it didn't dry evenly. Did the pouch dry while in the mold or was it removed from the mold to dry? It might make a difference if part of the leather can't dry at the same time as the rest.

[gicts]

Pesky limestone water! Good for bourbon, not so much for leather. Try using different water and you don't have that problem

[JoshLSTV]

Would distilled water be a good option?

[gicts]

Give that a try, or mix a little laundry detergent in with the water. Instead of holding it under the tap, use a bowl of water with a few drops of liquid detergent.

[Reaper]

something else you might try is using a spry bottle for wetting it.

It really depends on the leather on how I go about doing the molding. With a russet color (Herman Oak) 6-8 oz I will dip soak it in water, but with a lighter leather (some of the Mexican leathers) I will use a spray bottle with bottled water in it.

Something you might be able to do is dip that in water until it is wet evenly (soak it) and then let it dry most of the way so that your not pushing water into certain areas so that it accumulates drying darker in those areas because of the build up of impurities.

[Eaglestroker]

Something you might be able to do is dip that in water until it is wet evenly (soak it) and then let it dry most of the way so that your not pushing water into certain areas so that it accumulates drying darker in those areas because of the build up of impurities.

I have a bad problem with this but never realized what it was. Thanks!

[JoshLSTV]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I tried a couple of them out using some scrap pieces, but I'm not getting any watermarks at all now even with running the piece of scrap under the tap. After looking at the picture again I noticed that all the watermarks seem to appear near stitch lines so on my next project I'm going to try these tests again to see what works best.