antique finish HELP I can't get a smooth result with Fiebings Antique Finish (Medium brown)

[IrisLH]

On 6/8/2018 at 2:28 AM, garypl said:

I would dampen the leather first then apply the dye.

Gary

Thanks for your replies. I will try this

On 6/8/2018 at 3:37 AM, Bonecross said:

There are different ways to use antiques, but usually they are useful to get into crevices. (you wipe off the raised areas so it stays in the tooling). I do however love doing a base of light brown dye then once dry I'll pass over the entire surface with mahogany antiquing paste.

The application method is important, and so is removing the surplus almost immediately. So you can highlight tooling and natural flaws in the leather with it, or sort of "tint" the leather.

If you are expecting it to act like a penetrating dye, you might be better off with liquid dye. I also want to note that each time I use a black antiquing paste, it streaks like you show.

I did try to be really fast. I've shown an example on plain leather with no tooling, but I get the same result on a tooled part. I know it is not a penetrating dye, which I also use, but I do sometimes prefer the look of this antique paste over a dye. I must say, I also find it really hard to get a smooth result with Leather dye.. 

On 6/8/2018 at 2:46 PM, Mark842 said:

I do a bunch of antique using Fiebings. What I have learned along the way..

Throw out the dauber. Put on a cheap set of surgical rubber gloves and finger paint.

You have to be fast. The larger the area your trying to antique at once the faster you need to be for the initial cover.

I keep me a pile of t-shirt material rags in 6" squares on my dying table. Going against product instructions, I don my gloves and pour a healthy amount of antique right on the leather. This is where you have to be fast! If you letter it sit for even a few seconds you will see a stain ring outlining where you poured it on. Spread the antique out completely covering the leather as quick as possible. After you have the surface covered you can massage it in by hand making sure you have even coverage and getting the amount you desire into whatever design you have tooled or stamped. Then I use the T-shirt rag. I wrap it once around my index finger. I've found if I just ball up the rag it allows it to go down into the tooling and takes the antique out, so single layer rag over one finger and I wipe the same direction across the design side to side. After most of the extra antique has been wiped off I work in circular motions on the non tooled areas to get a nice smooth mellow finish. For the your mileage may vary thoughts...some people like to antique with the leather damp. i feel my method gets far better color and results when the leather is dry. After a few hours and hand buff the product to a mellow shine and seal it.

I've actually tried this once, to use my fingers when wearing gloves. It didn't make a difference for me. I have tried to be quick as you explained, but still I got this result. What is weird to me is that it worked perfectly with the tan colour but I just can't get it done with this medium brown. I will try once more to be even quicker. What I find difficult there is to not cover my whole tabletop in the paste. For example, if I don't want the back side of the leather to get any of the antique on, how do you do that? If I put a lot of stuff on really quick, then I also need to get close to the sides and then especially when wiping off such amounts, some of the paste will go onto my tabletop (or what is covering it I mean of course) and then the leather moves a bit because I'm working quick wiping stuff of and then the stuff is on the back too.. Any tips here?

On 6/8/2018 at 3:27 PM, fredk said:

When I use 'antique' I

a/ use a sponge, a damp sponge is best, to apply

b/ I wet the leather; more than damp, but not as much as needed for carving/stamping

c/ work fast, really fast

d/ have a pad of clean kitchen paper ready for wiping off the excess

I will also try the sponge, as well as working with damp leather, thank you.

 

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Everyone thank you for your replies. I will try your suggestions later today and will post an update!

[fredk]

18 minutes ago, IrisLH said:

... What I find difficult there is to not cover my whole tabletop in the paste. For example, if I don't want the back side of the leather to get any of the antique on, how do you do that? If I put a lot of stuff on really quick, then I also need to get close to the sides and then especially when wiping off such amounts, some of the paste will go onto my tabletop (or what is covering it I mean of course) and then the leather moves a bit because I'm working quick wiping stuff of and then the stuff is on the back too.. Any tips here?

Try putting Duck/Duct/Carpet/Fabric/Gaffer **  tape on the back. Don't use plastic parcel tape

** it has so many names I'm not sure which one you would know it by

[IrisLH]

8 hours ago, fredk said:

Try putting Duck/Duct/Carpet/Fabric/Gaffer **  tape on the back. Don't use plastic parcel tape

** it has so many names I'm not sure which one you would know it by

That actually sounds like a good idea... why did I not think of that!

Also, I've tried applying to damp leather. This strap down below is in my brand new Light Brown antique paste that I just received in my mail today. Except from some black stripes, it does not look like clouds so I'm quite happy with that

Then, the other piece (next post, can't get it in here due to max total file size) is in my medium brown, the one that gave me problems. I also applied this to damp leather. The result isn't flawless but much better than before! So thank you for your replies! Also, this is just flat leather of course, I think on tooled leather it will look better already. Also today I received larger daubers (I only had small ones) so that might help too

 

[IrisLH]

Picture of medium brown coated piece to go with previous post

[fredk]

Those look grand.

Remember; antique is supposed to make the leather look used, its not really meant to give a perfectly even coloured finish as dye does

 

[LatigoAmigo]

I have never used Fiebing's Antique Finish on any veg-tan leather, but I've used it plenty on latigo in years past. I took a very different approach, and applied very light layers, swirling in just a small amount at a time. This allowed me to feather the layers and work out any uneven color. 

[IrisLH]

7 hours ago, fredk said:

Those look grand.

Remember; antique is supposed to make the leather look used, its not really meant to give a perfectly even coloured finish as dye does

 

Thanks :D

Yeah I know it's not supposed to look like dye so with that last result I'm happy but with the clouds I wasn't ;),

On another note.. my dyeing results aren't smooth as they should be either but that's for another topic sometime

[fredk]

5 minutes ago, IrisLH said:

On another note.. my dyeing results aren't smooth as they should be either but that's for another topic sometime

Same treatment basically; dampen leather. This time dilute the dye. 1 dye to 1 thinners at least. Apply with a damp sponge or dip-dye. Some on here prefer to use a spray brush to apply the dye - thats ok if you have a spray brush and somewhere to use it. I prefer to dip-dye when I can as it gets both sides of the leather in one go

[IrisLH]

8 minutes ago, fredk said:

Same treatment basically; dampen leather. This time dilute the dye. 1 dye to 1 thinners at least. Apply with a damp sponge or dip-dye. Some on here prefer to use a spray brush to apply the dye - thats ok if you have a spray brush and somewhere to use it. I prefer to dip-dye when I can as it gets both sides of the leather in one go

Yeah I've done some dip-dyeing, that works quite well. Does dampening the leather really work? Since the dye is alcohol-based.. Also I'm looking into diluting the dye, thought not sure how to go about it yet. I don't have a thinner though I read somewhere that you can just use spirit or something like that..? For now I find the colours really dark as well.. Like my light-brown is really dark brown if you ask me xD

[fredk]

Dampening the leather sure does work; it helps the dye flow through and penetrate the leather. I use Fieblings dye, its an acylic dye, I dilute it with methylated spirits - an alcohol

Dilute the dye more that 1[dye] to 3 [thinners] and you can build up the density of the colour by the number of times you dip