Ecoflo Antique Over Neat Lac (Yes I Have Neat Lac)

[jtollison]

So this year I'm making a last minute Christmas present for my wife. A buckle shadow box with a leather front. It's all last minute and I just started learning to tool leather so bear with my beginner abilities. Anyways long story short the pics show how my project looks after applying ecoflo gel antique med brown over 2 coats of neat lac I applied last night. My late father in law was a saddle maker and I still have over a half gallon of it. I've never done much more than decorative borders on some wood frames, and this was my first attempt at any floral type pattern.

I really need some help from the neat lac experts as to if this can be fixed, or if it can be stripped, covered up, anything . kind of shitty I feel like I got a half way decent job on the tooling and now this. The bottom image shows what it looked like before I applied the antique.

Thanks for any help!

Edited December 23, 2015 by jtollison

[electrathon]

I still have and use neat laq too. I never use ecoflo antique, always use fiebings. As to what happened, you hit a spot that was not sealed. During your application you wiped off all of the neat laq in a few spots. The antique did what antique does and colored the leather at those spots. To test for this, before antiquing and after neat laq application wipe your piece with a damp sponge. if the leather darkens you missed spots.

As to how to fix it, that is harder. It is hard to un-color something.

[jtollison]

That's pretty much what I was terribly afraid of. I had some fiebings antique but I just ran out, and j live in CA which doesn't allow to be sold or delivered here. I'm trying to find a round about to get it as I heard it can be sold to certain leather workers.

Is it possible to remove the neat lac and apply the antique to the whole piece? Or am I basically S.O.L... Pretty much willing to try anything and willing to darken the whole piece if necessary

[Art]

I don't know why you have trouble getting Fiebing's. Antique paste doesn't have any of the really nasty stuff in it. Nevertheless, Neat-Lac is a resist to the antique. You put it on where you don't want the antique to take. To chemically remove the antique that is there, you will need to clean it the best you can remembering that where the antique hit bare leather, it will probably remain for a long time. Once the antique is removed from the Neat-Lac, you can use a combination of Toluene and Ethyl Acetate (sometimes called leather prep or finish stripper) to dissolve the neat-lac. Of course, make up a test piece like the target one to test your cleaning solution on before taking on your work, I'm not really familiar with the eco-flow stuff, some swear by it, some swear at it. You have a day and a half till Christmas, even making the test piece, there may be enough hours to do this, but make-up a little leather card to give until you get it finished.

Good Luck,

Art

[jtollison]

Thanks art, ca doesnt allow fiebings to ship, or allow sale of alot of their products in CA due to voc regulations. Basically a bunch of b.s. as I'm allowed to use the product, as well as bring the product into CA. It makes absolutely no sense but it is what it is at the moment.

I understand the effect of the neat lac to the antique, I guess the best question I have going forward is.. What is the best option (if any) to obtain uniform color on the piece now that I have finish under the resist? Remove the resist and antique the whole piece (if even possible), or try and remove the antique and re apply the resist if even possible. Or scrap it and not sleep trying to cut and tool a new piece in the next day and a half

[Art]

The antique that has dyed the leather will be there forever. I have the chemicals, so I would go with striping the neat-lac. This may or may not work so a test piece is important. Nothing is going to be quick or foolproof.

After you get it stripped, even up the color (make it symmetrical) by hand or just Antique the hell out of it.

Just be prepared for problems, there is no easy fix for this.

Art

[terrymac]

Learned this lesson many years ago. Threw away the Ecoflo and the leather I had screwed up. Ecoflo and Neatlac as a resist does not work!!!! Like mentioned before, stick with Fiebings antiques.

Terry

[jtollison]

Thanks for the helpful information! Even as a beginner I could tell a difference between the two brands. I've heard fiebings will ship to CA for shoe makers as they are not reselling the product, Does anyone in CA know if this rings true? I have a business account so looking to find a way to get fiebings without driving out of state And bringing it back myself.

[rosiart]

Rather than try to remove this, which may or may not be successful ( from my experience the fix sometimes is worse than the problem), I would be tempted to distress i.e. scratch up some other areas with some sandpaper or tools and make is a design element. Kind of like antiquing with a vengeance .Distressing is a pretty free form style, so there really aren't any rights or wrongs. Nobody will know its not in the original plan unless you tell them :-)

and if that didn't work, you would still have the option of an overall over dye.