Cleaning Vegie Tanned Leather

[dwakefield00]

I was preparing some vegie tanned leather for a knife sheath. I had the material all cut and have just finished stampimg the border design when I noticed that somehow I picked up a spot of oil on the leather. I am planning to dye the sheath with Java Brown Eco-Flo and do not want the oil spot to interfere with the dyeing finish. Can anyone give me the process required to successfully clean the oil spot from the leather?

Thanks,

Don

[Bob Blea]

Hello Don,

I haven't tried to clean an oil spot off of leather I was working on, but I can make some suggestions.

First, I've had problems where the leather became stained from an accidental ink pen mark or from metal causing discoloration on wet leather. In those cases using a little bit of lemon juice did wonders to reduce or eliminate the mark. I don't know how well that trick would work with oil however.

Second, I've had a time where my resist didn't resist very much and let my antique bleed through and discolor the leather unevenly. For this I used denatured alcohol to clean and strip the neatlac layer. It worked very well to clean the leather surface and allow me to reapply the antique and make the effected parts more uniformily the same color. It is a powerful cleaner, though it will dry out the leather and maybe make it a bit harder.

Third (and I've never tried this) but many people use Oxalic Acid to clean their leather after carving, before finishing. You can find Oxalic Acid at your local big box hardware store (often sold under the name 'barkeepers friend') but it does have some toxic effects if not handled properly. I have little kids so I decided I didn't want to mess with it.

One question though: what kind of oil is it? If it's neatsfoot oil, I normally would apply a coating of neatsfoot to a project when I'm done, so I'm wondering if a light coating of oil might not make everything look even and there wouldn't be a spot visible any longer?

Hope this helps,

Bob

[educatedcobbler]

leather bleach is good for cleaning any stain on leather which base form is oxalic acid

[Cyberthrasher]

if it's neatsfoot or EVOO, just apply a light even coat to the entire piece. You could even test on some scrap if you're not sure. Remember, neatsfoot is a conditioner that replenishes the natural oils that are already present in the leather.

[dwakefield00]

As I really don't know what type of oil this is, I can tell you that it's not neatsfoot or any other type of conditioner. Looks more like some sort of butter or cooking oil. I do not have a clue as to how I would have gotten this spot to start with. I tried cleaning with Acetone, but this seems to have discolored a larger area, and you can still see where the oily spot was. What the heck, I'm going to try applying the dye and just see how it looks. Worse that could happen, I will cut another piece using this one as a pattern.

Thanks for your replies,

Don

[Sylvia]

Are you working in your kitchen? If so I would strongly urge you to move into another area of your home. Saddle soap may lift some of the oil.