Help Needed Getting Sharpie Out Of Leather!

[RoosterShooter]

I accidently brushed across a piece of my premium veg-tanned leather while marking a holster today for cutting.

Is there anything that will get Sharpie ink out of leather? I've already tried Acetone, but didn't want to try anything else without checking with you all first.

Thanks

[Ed in Tx]

Have you tried Oxalic Acid? It is also known as leather bleach, I have used it to get ink out of veg tan but haven't tried it on a Sharpie.

They sell it at Springfield Leather, it is $2.48 for a small packet that will make 1 pint of solution. Don't think you can find it at local stores but who knows.

Good luck.

Ed

[bruce johnson]

I don't think it is going to easily come out. It is basically a dye in itself. I use permanent markers for some dye work, and most of the dyed edges I do. A single application doesn't penetrate very far and I have been able to lightly buff out some mistakes with a fine stone Dremel bit. You trade a light scuff for a black mark.

[Double U Leather]

Odd that this post came up when it did. I just had an issue with a Sharpie myself. Was tracing around a piece onto some liner leather and it jumped up onto the project itself. Luckily, it only marked as far as the stitch groove and border. I tried the oxylic acid route...nadda. So, instead of scrapping the piece, I just decided to have a wide dyed border on the project! Dyed right over the oops, and no one knows any difference. When the whole order is done, I'll post pics and you'll never tell which piece is partially Sharpie dyed.

[particle]

If nothing works to remove it, you could always earmark that area of the hide for black holsters. I had a portion of a hide with my latest batch that had a black dot of some kind on the hide. I just made sure to position a black holster order over that spot.

[dirtclod]

Sometimes the dye won't cover the sharpie mark. It will cover the mark but you can still see through the black dye. Like you can see a ink mark through black dye.

[shtoink]

I had to think on this one a little bit, but, to be honest, my first thought was the oxalic acid. After reading the results from that I started to ponder what the solution the pigment is actually suspended in. A couple minutes of searching got me this...

Quoted from that page:

"...the ink is based on propanol, butanol, and diacetone alcohols..."

"Sharpie ink that has dried for more than several hours can be removed with acetone and other ketones and esters, such as ethyl acetate, but acetone and other organic solvents may damage the surface of a material."

Since it was bare veg-tan, it'll readily absorb the sharpie ink just as it would water, so it's safe to assume that it has gone further than just the surface. My thoughts are that using acetone may actually cause the pigment to dissolve and spread further unless you can find a way to get it wet and then a way to pull the solvent and the pigment out of the leather.

That lead to this train of thought, but I have nothing more than theory at this point. If you have the entire piece whetted down like it was being cased, the application of acetone will not cause the pigment to readily spread through the leather as it would when dry. The fibers surrounding the effected area would already be saturated with water, so the acetone would be contained, so to speak.

The next step would be to add acetone to the top of the area with the ink, wait a couple seconds and apply dry paper towels to pull out your dissolved pigment. Rubbing would be bad, as it'll most likely just drive the pigment further into the leather.

If you have read this far, I would highly suggest testing out the whole thing on some scrap. recreate your accident and then proceed with the steps outlined above. I know that pure acetone can be attained from a beauty supply store that deal with nails and is sold as a nail polish remover.

I must stress that this is just theory, as I don't have any acetone on hand to test this theory out with. Also, if any part of this sounds hair-brained to those with more practical experience with this sort of thing, please do not hesitate to speak up. The whole idea is based on preventing the acetone from making the mess spread further by containing it with the water and the action of pulling the dissolved pigment out of the leather with dry paper towels.

Acetone, for those not familiar, is very good at causing plastics to melt, finishes to dissolve, and brain cells to die. It's quite flammable and the vapors from it smell awful. Use this in a well ventilated area. It will also be very likely to strip all the oils from your leather and dry it out, so reintroducing oils with something like neatsfoot will be necessary.

[mlapaglia]

Another option is alcohol. I have had really good luck with 90% rubbing alcohol. saturate the stain and then blot, not rub. repeat as needed. You will need to put some oil back in to the leather when you are through. It's a lot of work and wont always work. Might be better to cut around it and accept that its a bad section. Thats something you have to decide.

[Ed in Tx]

Shtoink.. After reading your post I remembered that I had downloaded the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for Feibings Deglazer and Dye Reducer. I took a look at both and what you are basically thinking about could be acheived with Deglazer. It contains both Acetone and a couple forms of alcohol. Just a thought, you can get the MSDS from Springfield Leathers website.

[shtoink]

Another option is alcohol. I have had really good luck with 90% rubbing alcohol.

This is fine if it's still fresh. If you wait a few hours, all the volatile solvents have evaporated and you need to take a different approach. It looks like that was implied, but not laid out explicitly in the quote above about using isopropyl alcohol to clean it up. You'll certainly want to get to quickly, if that is how you plan to take care of it.