Oil Stain On Leather? Still Useable?

[llucas]

Question from a newbie. I bought a nice trimmed double shoulder leather from Tandy recently for holsters and belts. Great price, but I almost did not buy it because it had been laid on an oiled product for a few days while moving stock and consequently has a rather large oil streak that actually penetrates the leather.

The question: will this veg tan accept dye to hide the oil stain or is it a lost cause? I use Feibings Professional oil dyes. Should I return the leather to Tandy and pay twice the price for another piece, or is this one o.k.? If I test dye a piece of the leather I cannot return it.

Edited March 21, 2015 by llucas

[veedub3]

I made that mistake in my shop once. I placed a piece oil tanned leather on a piece of vegtan and went home for the night. When I returned to the shop the following day, the vegtan was stained badly and I had to start that project all over. I was able to salvage the piece as I was able to cover the stain using Fiebing's black oil dye. Never even knew the mistake happened.

I posted about it on here a few years ago. I think I may have even uploaded images. Now all oil tanned leather is stored on the opposite side of the shop from the vegtan.

Karina

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

You may be able to use a cleaner on it to remove the oil residue. Others in here may have more experience doing that then me.

[llucas]

Karina, thanks for the info. If you had to guess, do you think a medium to light brown would be ok using that leather. Most of what I do is either black or the lighter brown. You piece was o.k. when dyed black and that is encouraging, but for my piece that would be a lot of black holsters. I have a small enough operation that picking up another double shoulder for tan or brown holsters is cost prohibitive. I only do a holster a week fitting it into spare time, and the occasional belt. Trying to save a few bucks. Thanks.

Big Gun, the oil actually penetrated the 8/9 oz leather down the middle. Ironically the veg tan in that area is not softened as is often the case when oil is used too liberally.

[veedub3]

I am sorry llucas, I only tried it with Black oil dye, I can't say if other color dyes will cover the stain.

Karina

[Northmount]

Cut a strip with and without contamination and test it. Then you will know how much you need to use to cover it. Have you tried deglazer? It might work, again you need to test it. Different dyes (manufacturers) may respond differently too, so one person's experience might not work for another with a different source.

Tom

[veedub3]

We are obviously talking about different things here. The poster said the shoulder was "laid on an oiled product for a few days while moving stock" . I assumed he was referring to an oiled leather. If that was the case, nothing is getting that out. Degalzer, barkeepers friend, nothing!!

I found the pictures of what happened to mine that I posted here some time ago.

Oil tanned leather on the left, vegtan on the right.

Close up of the stain from where the oiled leather was laid on top the vegtan.

This is not coming out! Trust me I tried! The stain bleed all the way through to the flesh side. I had to dye the entire sleeve black to cover it.

To the OP, if this is not what you were referring to then disregard my post. I guess the best thing for you to do at this point would be to test it for yourself to see how the leather reacts to the dye, and or cleaners. Without knowing exactly what caused the oil stain limits our ability to give definitive answers.

Sorry for any confusion.

Karina

[llucas]

It looks like the best option is to return it to Tandy and pony up a few extra bucks. I suspected that would be the case. Thanks everyone for the feedback.