Spilled Acetone On Cased Leather-Help!

[makitmama]

actually, the teenager did, just after I unbagged my piece. Nail polish remover, maybe a scattered teaspoon or two, which I immediately wiped up. Now however, the majority of the piece is cased and ready to carve, and where the acetone hit the veg-tan is grayish. This piece is partially carved already, and I was going back to do another section.

I imagine this will impact my Feibings dye after tooling- any suggestions? wet the whole section down in acetone? go buy 10 bottles of wally world nail polish remover and wipe it all?

and then, wipe the other cut pieces before dying?

I stuck it back in the bag until I could get advice. I don't want to loose detail where I have already carved by going back over it, unless I have to.

[Dwight]

Ain't never been there, . . . ain't never done that.

But what I would do is just go on with what you were doing, . . . don't change anything.

Veggie tan leather is some pretty forgiving stuff from what I've seen in almost 60 years of playing with it.

I've had projects that I was sure was ruined, . . . came out all right. Matter of fact, . . . got a belt out in the shop that my sewing machine flubbed on, . . . will take a different look at it in a couple days. Right now, my big hammer is too close to the sewing machine better stay in here for now.

Worst case scenario, . . . you become the resident expert on what happens.

May God bless,

Dwight

[dikman]

I just looked at a few MSDS's for nail polish remover, and not all of them use acetone (which surprised me). The fact there was a colour change indicates it may have something else in it. Try a bit of the stuff on some scrap leather and experiment a bit to see what happens - water, dye etc. You could also try washing a bit of the affected scrap with acetone and see if it cleans it up.

[makitmama]

great idea- thanks. This bag is supposed to have a 'rustic' finish, so I have some play with the color.

[bob21804]

Just a suggestion, (and someone correct me if this is a bad idea) but you might want to give the area a light sanding with fine sandpaper, and see if that removes the gray. I did that when I spilled a little supershene on a piece before it was dyed. I didn't realize I even did it until I dyed the piece and the supershene resisted the dye. After lightly sanding and re-dying that area, you could never tell it happened.

Edited March 13, 2016 by bob21804

[JMWendt]

I use acetone sometimes to aid cleaning veg-tanned leather and it's relatively harmless and does not stain.  It removes some glues, or helps.  Sounds like what was spilled wasn't pure acetone.  I suggest you wash the entire piece once you are done tooling.  Use acetone, or methyl alcohol.

Don't sand it.  You'll ruin the work.