Staining after burnishing?

[Jamespio]

So I wanted to improve my edges. Decidd to make a dog collar.  Cut the leather, punched my holes, then burnished the edges with gum tragacantha.  THEN, tried to dye a dark brown.  Dye won't pentrate on the edges, or in spots along the edge where the gum worked into the leather.  

Any way to salvage this, or do I just need to start over and dye before burnishing?

[bikermutt07]

Gum trag will keep dye from penetrating.

Are you sure it doesn't look cool?

If not you may try dip dying to get the dye to work from the inside out. That is just a last ditch effort though.

[Halitech]

if you do a first burnish with just water, most dyes will still penetrate. Once you do it with gum trag, it's almost like sealing it with wax and you'll have a hard time getting it to dye.

[johnv474]

Gum trag is water soluble I believeso if you wipe thae edge with a damp rag maybe you could remove enough for dye to get in?  Otherwise, sand it to scuff up.

The stickie in this forum (Edge Finishing) suggests using a bar of glycerin saddle soap to burnish if you want to dye the edge becauae it doesn't block dye.

[robs456]

On 2017-06-14 at 0:41 AM, Jamespio said:

 

Any way to salvage this, or do I just need to start over and dye before burnishing?

Try sanding the edge to below gum trag penetration, then proceed according to the above. 

It still may not work though, then try acrylics.

Edited June 15, 2017 by robs456

[Troy I]

You can also try rubbing alcohol on a rag, this will take off the finish on your edges. Then re-dye the edges with the color that you want, and burnish while the dye is still damp.

Not sure if this will work, but might be worth a try.

[bland]

You might try cleaning the edges with saddle soap and re dying.  I use glycerin saddle soap for my initial burnishing and have never had it resist the dye.  

[Sofaspud]

On 6/15/2017 at 3:09 PM, Troy I said:

You can also try rubbing alcohol on a rag, this will take off the finish on your edges. Then re-dye the edges with the color that you want, and burnish while the dye is still damp.

Not sure if this will work, but might be worth a try.

That's how I do my edges, I use dye on the sanded edge, then burnish, then seal with gum trag and burnish again. I am happy with my results with this process.

[immiketoo]

Sand them till the leather is natural again, dye and re-burnish.  I always do edges last for this reason, unless theres a spot in the build that needs them done earlier.   For example, the front edge of a pancake holster or wallet lining pockets. Sanding them will also give the benefit of smoothing your edges.

 

[Handstitched]

G'Day, I have never used gum trag. Just a bit of water, and a slicker.  My slicker is the plastic sort, but wood is better.  Dye still soaks in fine. I also use the  wide part of  a wood handle on one of my bevellers  as a  ' burnisher '.  Also  the  narrow  curved part of the handle is just ideal to get into some tricky bits, like burnishing the inside of a hole or  tight curves for example.

Once I have dyed, I run the beveller handle  over the edge once more. Works great. 

Something else I have used, if theres a tiny hole or a gap in between two layers , like on a leather case and won't burnish out,  I have used some old left over  boot polish  thats has gone hard in the tin as a  filler , burnish a bit more. Hardly the done thing I know...but it works  a treat , and looks just as nice as the burnishing in the pic when I'm finished. 

 

Handstitched