Deglazer / Lemon juice (mid process)

[LionCrownLeather]

Hi

Whenever I work on the edges of my leather projects after dyeing my projects I sandpaper, burnish with water, sandpaper burnish with water, sandpaper burnish with tokonole e t c. I can sometimes by mistake get some of the tokonole (fingerprints) on my project after turning it around to burnish all the edges. I used some neatsfoot oil to rub it off, it looks better but I was wonder if you guys ever tried using some leather deglazer or lemon juice before applying the finisher to make sure it is free from all kinds of dirt? Usually this is the first part of every project but have you done this the middle of the process? I am afraid maybe the dye will come off? I use pro oil dye maybe the dye would come off if I use water based dyes? because once the finisher is applied its hard to go back I guess. I am not a fan of drying out my leather so I think lemon juice dilluted with water would be preferable?

[TomG]

I don't know about removing your tokonole, but lemon juice is often used to kill mildew from leather.
You may just have to experiment with this.
I might suggest that you somehow block the project and not have to hold it. Or, just wait until one side dries before doing the other.

 

[johnv474]

Deglazer will cut through the Tokonole and also remove a significant amount of dye.  It will also dry your leather.

Lemon or citrus oil is a good cleaner for household stuff, not sure about for leather.  I don't know about juice.  

Hand sanitizer is a pretty good cleaner, too, and readily available.  It can slightly dry leather but not much.

If you own saddle soap, use that.  It works well.  If you don't have saddle soap, try castile soap.  Don't use regular soap like Irish Spring and all those because they arendetergents and strip off oils.  You want soap made with oils or glycerin because they are moisturizing but will help clean the leather.  If you don't have any of those you can use blue Dawn dish soap (not generic, and only blue).  Afterwards apply a little conditioner if you don't use a moisturizing soap.

To avoid this, buy some nitrile gloves.  or, use hand sanitizer on your hands before handling the leather and any time you get stuff on your hands, or wash your hands.  Doing that a lot can dry your hands so when you are all done apply some conditioner or lotion to your hands.