Does Anyone Know Why My Finish Is Removing My Dye?

[Chief31794]

Thank you all for your advice!!! It has been really helpful.

I was so frustrated. I had spent hours making that project and now it looks like something a kinder garden student made.I surely will start testing everything before i use it.

And now i got more things i have to buy. Is everyone here from the US? I live very far from that, and cant get nearly anything here. I'm afraid leather crafting is not that popular in my country. I get most of my things from amazon. If i don't find the Clear Lac whats the next best thing?

Natalie,

Sorry I didn't notice you were from Greece. I think that Clear Lac is probably out of the question, it is not very environment friendly and has shipping restrictions in the US. The Supersheen you're using should work, you have to make sure you get it on good (not thick but completely covered), and 2-3 coats with drying in between or use a spray. I tried the sprays but didn't like them, you have to be very careful not to get it too thick, it will crack if put on too thick, still workable.

Good Luck,

Chief

[Natalie O]

Natalie,

Sorry I didn't notice you were from Greece. I think that Clear Lac is probably out of the question, it is not very environment friendly and has shipping restrictions in the US. The Supersheen you're using should work, you have to make sure you get it on good (not thick but completely covered), and 2-3 coats with drying in between or use a spray. I tried the sprays but didn't like them, you have to be very careful not to get it too thick, it will crack if put on too thick, still workable.

Good Luck,

Chief

Aw, thats too bad. Thank you though. I ll try that. However, if i use a cloth, i ll still have the dye coming off. And if i do apply 2 coats to the area i dont want dye on, and then dye the rest of it, well in the end the dyed part will need a finish coat too. Is there a risk of the finish being too thick if i apply another 2-3 layers on the whole porject in the end?

[immiketoo]

Natalie, after reading about your experience, I would say the only real solution is spraying your finish on. I struggled with this same problem on a holster I made recently, and I finally ran my finish, resolene, through my airbrush. It worked perfectly. Rubbing with cloth or daubers speared everything. If you don't have an airbrush, a squeeze pump sprayer like is used with kitchen/bathroom cleaning chemicals will work well in a pinch. The trick there is to find the right distance for spraying and to use thin coats. A thick, wet coat is almost as bad as rubbing (Ask me how I know...).

Anyway, good luck and don't be ashamed of your pictures. You might be anle to salvage your project, or at worst, repurpose it for another project.

Good luck!

[Northmount]

All finishes have a solvent of some sort. Lacquer finishes have a very strong solvent, acetone, toululene, or other similar chemicals. These strong solvents work really well at lifting dyes, especially water based ones.

So as mentioned above, make sure the dyed area is really dry, at least 8 hours. Buff well to remove any surface pigments, then if possible, use a spray finish.

Other options

1. Use a brush and paint your finish onto only the dyed area. If you have multiple colours, then clean your brush between areas and don't overlap. Let that finish cure and dry completely before applying your finish over the whole article.

2. Use a wax/oil based finish. Less chance of dissolving any surface dye.

An option for cleaning up your problem piece is to flood it with lots of your finish, working fast so you can soften and remove the tinted finish, using lots of fresh rags or even paper towel, and keep adding new finish, diluting and scrubbing off the old finish. You should be able to remove most of the tinted finish. Acetone or deglazer will remove finishes too, though they tend to dry the leather out a lot and likely will give you a bad headache. Worse than the finish. Need lots of fresh air!

Tom

[Natalie O]

Natalie, after reading about your experience, I would say the only real solution is spraying your finish on. I struggled with this same problem on a holster I made recently, and I finally ran my finish, resolene, through my airbrush. It worked perfectly. Rubbing with cloth or daubers speared everything. If you don't have an airbrush, a squeeze pump sprayer like is used with kitchen/bathroom cleaning chemicals will work well in a pinch. The trick there is to find the right distance for spraying and to use thin coats. A thick, wet coat is almost as bad as rubbing (Ask me how I know...).

Anyway, good luck and don't be ashamed of your pictures. You might be anle to salvage your project, or at worst, repurpose it for another project.

Good luck!

I dont have an airbrush but i ll try the spray bottle idea. Thanks!

And by the way how do you know?

I did that too actually. When i realized the paint was coming off with the cloth i took a paint brush and tried to apply it on the dyed area. Guess what! The coat was so thick the dye just floated away and my brush is now green!

I nearly gave up. It was so frustrating! Seeing that a lot of you had the same problem is a comfort though. Hopefully in a few days i ll have something decent to show you!

[Natalie O]

All finishes have a solvent of some sort. Lacquer finishes have a very strong solvent, acetone, toululene, or other similar chemicals. These strong solvents work really well at lifting dyes, especially water based ones.

So as mentioned above, make sure the dyed area is really dry, at least 8 hours. Buff well to remove any surface pigments, then if possible, use a spray finish.

Other options

1. Use a brush and paint your finish onto only the dyed area. If you have multiple colours, then clean your brush between areas and don't overlap. Let that finish cure and dry completely before applying your finish over the whole article.

2. Use a wax/oil based finish. Less chance of dissolving any surface dye.

An option for cleaning up your problem piece is to flood it with lots of your finish, working fast so you can soften and remove the tinted finish, using lots of fresh rags or even paper towel, and keep adding new finish, diluting and scrubbing off the old finish. You should be able to remove most of the tinted finish. Acetone or deglazer will remove finishes too, though they tend to dry the leather out a lot and likely will give you a bad headache. Worse than the finish. Need lots of fresh air!

Tom

Hey! I would like to try the oil or wax based finish but since i live in Greece and i can only get stuff from the internet. So far all i can find on amazon or ebay is super shene ,acrylic finish by fiebings, satin super shene, acrylic resolene sealer and fiebings saddle lac spray.

Should i use that last one since its spray? Is there any other products you would recomend that i can get here?

Thanks for the advice

[Chavez]

Hi Natalie,

Being from the EU I also have no access to neat-lac. And the best thing I've tried so far was acrylic resolene. It takes a while to learn to apply it consistently, but once you manage to find a way to apply it, it becomes your best friend =) I've wasted a lot of money on various finishes and while I still experiment with natural wax-based stuff on plain leather, i only use resolene for carved. Just cut it 50-50 with water!

PS for natural stuff I'm trying to decide between Aussie's, sno-seal and dri-boot.

Aussie's gives a decent finish but you'll need about 6 coats of it... Sno-seal has to be shipped from the US, but it's good for increasing water resistance and for finishing tight areas (it's quite soft). Dri-boot is great for flat surfaces but hard to get into tight areas. I can give you contact details of the UK distributor but shipping to Greece might be quite pricy.

None of the natural stuff goes well with carved leather as it builds up in the cuts =(

Edited December 6, 2012 by Chavez

[Sylvia]

Natalie: Do you know if you have an acrylic wax based floor cleaner there? We have something called "mop & glo" One of our members (Katsass)swears by it and he uses it all the time, thinned... I think. to 50/50 water to cleaner. If you could get something like that locally you would save yourself a lot of time... and shipping and import issues.

Also, Sometimes I use use permanent markers to color leather rather than dyes and a brush. I find the markers give more control and are less likely to rub off. Sharpies and Bic both have sets with good selections of colors. I like to let them "set" for a few days before I put any other type of finish on them. BTW... Patience, patience, patience. Most disasters come from trying to move on to the next step too quickly.

As far as testing before hand.... I've had mixed results with that. It needs to be a piece of leather from the same leather and area of hide that you made the project from.

[David8386]

Hey Chavez have you tried using a hair dryer on the Aussie conditioner when you put it on? I don't know who came up with the idea but I do it that way. Then let it soak in and buff it out.

David

[sherlockian100]

supersheen will resist stains and antiques, but not dyes.