Antique Finish Disaster

[Pumpman]

I was told at Tandy to use super sheen as a resist to antique only the tooled areas of my project.

So after applying one coat of super sheen I applied a hefty amount of Eco-flow antique black, I let it sit, I then wiped it off. Absolutely no black was on my piece, tooled or not.

Thinking I applied too much super sheen I backed off on the amount on another piece of leather needless to say this piece is now completely black.

What exactly I'm I doing incorrectly. Or is there another way to get the same effect with a dark background and a natural foreground?

Please help I'm tired of wasting time and money by ruining my projects.

Thanks in advance.

[benlilly1]

When you wipe off the antique try not to wipe it out of the crevices. You may have used too much super sheen.(I don't let my antique sit. I immediately dry it off.) You could even go back and take a wet cloth and wipe off the excess on the completely black piece and see if it lightens. Tandy leather factory has a video you need to watch on antiquing. Tandy has several how-to videos.

[electrathon]

A couple ideas. I personally use Fiebings antique, it is far harder to wipe off than Tandy antique. If you do not seal your item well, it will look like it is dipped in mud. If sealed well, it just stays in the cracks and crevices. Next, if I m going to antique I use Neat Laq (Clear Laq/ Wyo-sheen) to seal the leather. Also, if your tooling is not sharp and crisp there will not be crevaces for the antique to get stuck in. Look at your tools, are they sharp and crisp? If they are chromed (craft tool) the chrome smooths out the sharpness of the lines. It makes it harder for the antique to grab.

Pictures would help.

Aaron

[artycpt]

I second electrothon. My first thoughts are that your tooling wasn't deep enough and when you wiped off the antique it wiped out of the crevaces too. (I have had this exact problem). I use a paper towel to wipe off the excess and do it in pretty quick motions trying to keep the paper towel flat and paralell with the surface of the leather so it doesn't pick up any of the antique in the tooling. Sometimes it takes a couple coats of antique to make sure it gets into the depressed areas and you may have to saturate the heck out of them a little to get it in there.

[pabloz]

If you’re trying to do the two-tone effect where your flowers, leaves, and stems are a lighter color and your background is a darker color, and you want to use a resist, then you apply the resist to the flowers, stems, and leaves and leave the background uncoated. I usually do two coats of 50/50 Neat Lac to lacquer thinner as my resist, applying two coats to make sure I get complete coverage. You let the Neat Lac dry and then apply the antique over all of it. The antique will be darker in the backgrounded areas and not stick to the surface of your tooled areas. You should get a nice shadow effect in the pear shaded, beveled, and swivel knife areas and the natural color across smooth surfaces.

Hope this helps.

PZ

[treybecca]

IMHO, run far away from the ecoflow products, which your local Tandys will try to dispense like crack to the unsuspecting folk. There is a reason Fiebings, and products like like the neatlac Electrathon recommend have been around for generations...because they work! Some folks have had beautiful results with the Eco flow antique, but I have put my faith in Fiebings antique paste. I've also learned to let the antique sit for just a wee bit, the longer it sits the darker it gets. My only recommendation with the paste is to use a spray method of sealer (ie an air brush) as some finishers can turn it runny and move it around a bit during the sealing process.

[Pumpman]

Thank you for all of your replies. Fiebings seems to be a much better product. I'm truly having buyers remorse on all of my Eco-flow purchases. I will post some pictures tomorrow when I have some more time. I will also be grabbing an air brush very soon. Thanks again.

[Pumpman]

Ok here are a couple of examples (sorry for the delay I've been busy). The first one is a coaster that I just threw together to antique. As you can see it is a mess. The second one is the first carving I ever attempted so I tried to antique it. Then after numerous try's to salvage it, I just let the antique set until it was completely black. Electrathon: yes all of my tools are Tandy or craftool and are all chromed smooth I try to make deep impressions on everything I do but I'm not sure that my tools will allow the tooling to be sharp enough. Is there a way to dull the finish on my tools to allow for a sharper tooling mark? I would truly appreciate the help.

I have now learned to properly bevel the internals of my project, thanks to this forum, such as the backgrounder on my stems and flowers in my floral piece. I will post some pictures of my recent projects soon (they have gotten much better) thanks in advance for all of the responses and advice.

[artycpt]

Just a quick note from looking at your pictures and it appears that you aren't getting the antique down into the tooled areas. The dark areas are all on the raised portions.

I know from my experience that getting it down into the tooling is not always easy and that the antique will tend to want to stay on the top. I normally use a wool dauber for getting the antique down into the recessed areas. Make a small circle motion, making sure it gets down in there then keeping a paper towel or cloth as flat as possible, wipe off the excess. I will use a damp towel and a dry towel to wipe off the excess and if too much it removed from the tooled area I will repeat.

I am not a huge fan of the super sheen. I had an old bottle (pre eco-flo) that worked a lot better. With the newer super sheen it seems to take a couple pretty heavy coats to have an evenly resisted area. I was working on a larger project and used the newer super sheen as a resist, applyed evenly over the entire piece and when I antiqued it, there were areas that seemed to have no resist at all. Ended up with a big dark blob in the middle of the piece.

For the monogram in the coaster I wouldn't rely solely on antique to fill the letter. I will take a small brush and either apply the antique to the background stamped area or use a brown leather dye to that area first. This also works for areas in a floral pattern that are backgrounded.

OK. going on longer than I planned....hope this helps a little.

[RiverCity]

Are you using the antique stain or the paste?

Chuck

[Pumpman]

The Eco-flo stain. Not a huge fan.

[electrathon]

It looks to me like your leather is not sealed. Your antique dyed the leather all over. The other issue I see is you did not enough antique, it is not in all the cracks and crevices.

Use more/better finish. Once it is sealed, antique it. Practice on work you do not care about.

[Bigfoot]

I found this old pic on my PC if it helps....this was dyed over in eco flo smoke black and I thought i had put 2 coats of "Block" over the skull and fingers but take a look at the top of the finger on the left hand side and I must have missed that bit and put only one coat on it as it's much darker....2 coats is a minimum and you must let the first coat dry(only takes 10/15 mins)