How To Fix An Oops...

[TomG]

I am making some simple decorative straps for a project. Veg-Tan leather. 2" wide and anywhere from 30 to 72" long.

The customer wanted them to be "natural" as for color. My idea was to just use my normal Leather balm with atom wax on the raw leather, burnish the edges and do the cutting and hole punching I needed to do.

For some reason, I decided to do the burnishing first. I use liquid glycerin saddle soap on a small sponge to lightly wet the edges, then burnish with a powered Cocobolo (spelling?) burnisher. However, some dripped down the face of the strap at various points. The edges look nice, but everywhere the saddle soap dripped down on the leather, it looks stained.

What's the best way to clean it off?

Edited September 5, 2014 by TomG

[Chief31794]

oxyalic (sp) acid, it's sold in Lowes/Home Depot as "Barkeeper's Friend", I normally put a teaspoon in about a pint of distilled water. Since it's natural and the stain was caused by glycerine soap (saddle soap) you may just want to saddle soap the pieces, that may very well balance out the look.

Chief

[Pablo27]

TomG you might talk to Hidepounder he finishes his edges that way and I'd bet he has run into that once or twice.

Paul

[TomG]

Didn't get back to see the responses, but thanks. In the meantime, thinking "soap".. Hmm.. Water. So I actually washed it in clear running water and did some hand rubbing on the stains. It dried nice and clear. Now we'll see how the dye comes out in the morning. So far it looks good.

thanks for the input.