PhilC Report post Posted February 14, 2020 I have been going nuts looking into cool ways to dye and texture leather. I was looking into marbling leather using acrylic or oil paints/dyes when i found the original method of marbling leather (https://www.hewit.com/skin_deep/?volume=3&article=2) used in bookbinding. It uses potassium carbonate and ferrous sulfate in a reaction that etches leather in really beautiful ways(see calf tree marbling http://scholar.library.miami.edu/bound/bindings-page6.html). It is insanely beautiful. He mentions that it has a reputation for deteriorating leather, however. Other sources say that its only an issue if you use solutions that are too concentrated. Has anyone had any experience with this technique, or have some input on ways that might be implemented to neutralize the leather after marbling to prevent or slow down any additional deterioration? I have all the materials on the way to start experimenting. Thanks! By the way, those hewit.com skin deep articles are a treasure trove of traditional leather marbling techniques, most of which were used in the old days of book binding. Additionally this book which you can apparently view online with this wiki https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Bookbinding/Chapter_22 has sections devoted to texturing and dyeing calf leather for bookbinding, mostly from very old texts. Check them out! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billybopp Report post Posted February 14, 2020 I don't know anything about this technique - never heard of it before, but dang that's a fascinating look! Thanks for posting with links. Given that some of the examples are dated at over 200 years ago, there is clearly SOME way to use it without deteriorating the leather. I'll be watching with great interest. - Bill Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fredk Report post Posted February 14, 2020 I'm thinking - as an acid is used, an alkali would be used to neutralise it. In the 18th C it would have been lye, made from roasted oyster shells or limestone. A little lye destroys, a lot will preserve. Near where I used to live there had been a murder in the 1920s or so. A farm worker murdered and robbed a neighbouring farmer. The worker buried the farmer under his stock of lye meant for use on the fields. Round this way Lye was also used sprinkled on dead bodies to speed their decomposition. But in this case the amount of lye mummified the dead farmer's body and preserved it, for the police to find it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Matt S Report post Posted February 14, 2020 9 minutes ago, fredk said: I'm thinking - as an acid is used, an alkali would be used to neutralise it. I looked into strikers (non-pigment colourants) as deep as my lack of chemistry knowledge and literature available to the layperson allowed about 5 years ago. In fact the linked article was one of my early inspirations. We all know of vinegaroon (ferrous acetate), but of course most iron-containing compounds will work, including ferrous sulphate as the OP mentions. The (forgive me) amateur consensus or received wisdom is indeed to neutralise after striking but my research and basic experimentation indicated that this would lead to similar problems as not doing so at all, i.e. premature cracking and general degradation. Veg tanned leather is, after all, somewhat acidic (around pH 4-5, from memory). Best results from experienced curriers and tanners, corroborated by my own experimentation, is to simply wash the struck leather in clear water, or at most to buffer to the same pH as the leather started at. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Handstitched Report post Posted February 15, 2020 G'Day, Check this out: https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/75593-how-i-water-marbled-leather/ Its quite effective HS Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
