Terrified noob with a question

[Kattegat]

Hello, leatherworkers--

What a great site. I am a brand new convert to the craft and have just finished tooling all the parts on a Tandy purse kit. Now I am petrified about putting finish on it.

I've dyed the little background parts brown, but for the rest, I want the leather to be just a nice light to medium tan, like the purse in the picture on the front of the kit (Revival is the name). Not raw veg tan color. I thought just oiling it would do, so I proceeded to ruin the non-tooled pieces of the kit with some pathetic attempts at applying neatsfoot oil. It's either blotchy (especially when I stupidly put oil down the pre-punched holes) or streaky or too dark or not dark enough. I don't want to ruin the tooled parts too and have to discard all my hard work. I had my best "success" with one of those sheepskin daubers, but it wasn't great. And even when I can get it to go on semi-smoothly, I can't get the colors to match from piece to piece.

Could anyone please offer a scared newbie some advice? Thanks in advance!

[Rawhide]

Hello, leatherworkers--

What a great site. I am a brand new convert to the craft and have just finished tooling all the parts on a Tandy purse kit. Now I am petrified about putting finish on it.

I've dyed the little background parts brown, but for the rest, I want the leather to be just a nice light to medium tan, like the purse in the picture on the front of the kit (Revival is the name). Not raw veg tan color. I thought just oiling it would do, so I proceeded to ruin the non-tooled pieces of the kit with some pathetic attempts at applying neatsfoot oil. It's either blotchy (especially when I stupidly put oil down the pre-punched holes) or streaky or too dark or not dark enough. I don't want to ruin the tooled parts too and have to discard all my hard work. I had my best "success" with one of those sheepskin daubers, but it wasn't great. And even when I can get it to go on semi-smoothly, I can't get the colors to match from piece to piece.

Could anyone please offer a scared newbie some advice? Thanks in advance!

First off, welcome to the forum.

Second. Don't panic. Neatsfoot oil will look blotchy until it soaks in completely. I usually let the parts sit overnight between coats of oil. Also, I apply the oil with a sponge, and work it in a circular motion. Unless you just loaded it with oil, it should return near the raw color with a slightly darker tint to it by the 24 hour period. you can actually apply a few coats of oil until you get it the the color you like, or you can stain it with stain, NOT DYE. To apply the stain, gather some paper towels about 3 or 4 sheets. Fold them in half several times so they make a "pad". Wet them with some water, not soaking, a nice wetting. Set them aside for now. Apply the stain (to one piece of the project at a time) to your project in a circular motion, don't let the first part of the application just sit on the project, because it will stain darker than the rest and it'll be hard to match. I usually apply with a sponge or a piece of sheeps wool that's clipped down to about 1/2" to 3/4" thick, but I think the sheeps wool works better. Work the stain into all the crevices of the cuts. Once you've got an even coat (make take some more stain), take the wet paper towel and wipe off the excess, you can use circular motions here too if you like, but I don't think it's necessary. You'll use up the rest of them as they get full of stain. Continue to wipe until you think you've removed all the excess stain. Let this dry overnight, come back the next day with a piece of sheeps wool and buff the heck out of it, make sure you get into all the crevices again to get the clumps of stain out (this will prevent rub-off in the future). Next, buff it with a t-shirt scrap til your arms get tired, then buff some more. Finally seal it with a sealer of your choice (usually several light coats of sealer works best).

Good luck,

Marlon

[rdb]

What rawhide said.....

With two possible other techniques, one very simple in my opinion. Just oil it evenly, and hang it out in the sun for a day. If you want it darker, do it again.

You can also tint your neatsfoot with some light color oil dye, say buckskin or saddle tan. Depending on how strong you tint, the color is usually very evenly distributed. Experiment a little with it.

[TomSwede]

Hello and welcome to the board!

I thin you got some good answers to proceed with for now but don't hesitate to ask again if you still have probs.

About your name, Kattegat. Do you have any connections to Denmark or south of Sweden?

Tom

[UKRay]

Hi Kattegat, welcome!

Rawhide and RDB have said it all - apart from the sun thing... we don't have much of that over here in the UK so we all use sun lamps LOL.

The wonderful thing about leatherwork is that everytime you think you have screwed up you learn something. It may be you learn that you haven't screwed up at all! Hopefully that oil will have soaked in by now and the colour will have evened itself out. The only trick to getting an evenly finished project is to do exactly the same thing to all the pieces.

Enjoy the forum,

R.

[Kattegat]

Wow, thanks so much for all the help--you all are the greatest. You have given me the confidence to give it a shot! I think I'll pay one more visit to Tandy for some stain, cut some new side pieces, and try your techniques. I've got plenty of extra leather to work on to get it right. I think I'll wait to punch the holes until I get the color right this time!

I'm not Danish, but I have a Danish friend. He gave me a pillow map of Denmark once, including, of course, the Kattegat. When I was signing up for another forum one day, Kattegat just struck me as kind of a cool variation on my usual name, which is some form of Katie. So now I'm Kattegat. I'd love to see that part of the world someday.

[TomSwede]

Wow, thanks so much for all the help--you all are the greatest. You have given me the confidence to give it a shot! I think I'll pay one more visit to Tandy for some stain, cut some new side pieces, and try your techniques. I've got plenty of extra leather to work on to get it right. I think I'll wait to punch the holes until I get the color right this time!

I'm not Danish, but I have a Danish friend. He gave me a pillow map of Denmark once, including, of course, the Kattegat. When I was signing up for another forum one day, Kattegat just struck me as kind of a cool variation on my usual name, which is some form of Katie. So now I'm Kattegat. I'd love to see that part of the world someday.

Kinda a fun story!!

I'm a bit too far from Denmark for an "over the day" trip but if you get up to my parts I'm sure we'll be able to host you and and your family in one or both of our homes.

Hope you get along well with your project. A sketchpad and pencil is also a great accessory to use before getting hands on with a new project. I use it all the time and prefer a "checkered" pad to help keep things straight.

Good luck!

Tom