Stains on leather

[LionCrownLeather]

Hi

Since I bought this leather is has been very hard to work with, reason is when I apply dye or oil suddenly all transparent stains become visible. I dont know if this is tekonole which by accident gets on the skin before I rub it off or if it is the dilluted lemon juice I clean the leather with but I wonder if this is not a manufacturing issue. All my projects have been affected by this issue with this leather. Any ideas what might be causing this? 

[Alaisiagae]

It could be the tekonole (tokonole?), isn't that a waxy kind of substance? It would definitely affect dye penetration. If I may ask, why do you clean the leather with diluted lemon juice? 

If you have more of that leather that has not been lemon-juiced or had any products applied to it, you might test out a piece and dye it, to see if those spots appear. If they do not appear, then perhaps either the tokonole or lemon-juice is the culprit. You could experiment, by purposefully putting tokonole on the grain and then dye it to see what happens. Good luck!

[Northmount]

 

5 hours ago, LionCrownLeather said:

Any ideas what might be causing this? 

If you don't get the lemon juice (acid) evenly spread over the leather, you will have blotchy spots where the acid was stronger or left on longer.  So are you complaining about the lighter areas, or the dark spot I see in one of the bleached areas?  I'm not sure from your description.

You can also use oxalic acid to bleach the leather.  Mix 1 teaspoon per pint of water.  Rinse the surface off after with fresh water.  That applies to lemon juice too!

Tom

 

 

[LionCrownLeather]

32 minutes ago, Northmount said:

 

If you don't get the lemon juice (acid) evenly spread over the leather, you will have blotchy spots where the acid was stronger or left on longer.  So are you complaining about the lighter areas, or the dark spot I see in one of the bleached areas?  I'm not sure from your description.

You can also use oxalic acid to bleach the leather.  Mix 1 teaspoon per pint of water.  Rinse the surface off after with fresh water.  That applies to lemon juice too!

Tom

 

 

Hi

I am complaining about the lighter spots. I did apply the lemon juice evenly :/ I noticed now it might be the Tokonole, I applied it to a piece of leather, waited ten minutes and started rubbing some neatfootsoil and I got the same spots, the lighter spots do not absorb anything. I now have another question, how do you apply tokonole without it getting on your leather? I only use it for the edges but it can sometimes get on your fingers while you rotating your piece and applying. This is veg tanned leather but I assume on predyed /prevaxed leather tokonole wont have the same effect. I tried to rub the spotty tokonole off using lemon juice but without any results. Maybe if I let the neatfootsoil dry into the leather the unoiled areas wont be visible..

32 minutes ago, Northmount said:

 

If you don't get the lemon juice (acid) evenly spread over the leather, you will have blotchy spots where the acid was stronger or left on longer.  So are you complaining about the lighter areas, or the dark spot I see in one of the bleached areas?  I'm not sure from your description.

You can also use oxalic acid to bleach the leather.  Mix 1 teaspoon per pint of water.  Rinse the surface off after with fresh water.  That applies to lemon juice too!

Tom

 

 

 

43 minutes ago, Alaisiagae said:

It could be the tekonole (tokonole?), isn't that a waxy kind of substance? It would definitely affect dye penetration. If I may ask, why do you clean the leather with diluted lemon juice? 

If you have more of that leather that has not been lemon-juiced or had any products applied to it, you might test out a piece and dye it, to see if those spots appear. If they do not appear, then perhaps either the tokonole or lemon-juice is the culprit. You could experiment, by purposefully putting tokonole on the grain and then dye it to see what happens. Good luck!

 

Edited August 23, 2020 by LionCrownLeather

[Northmount]

Quoted from a site selling tokenole "

Note: Use caution when applying Burnishing Gum on leather that is going to be stained, antiqued, or dyed as it may resist or block penetration."

Also take a look at this post.

So the best thing is to be careful and avoid contaminating the surface so you don't have to clean it up.  You might find that Fiebings Deglazer will work for you where needed to clean up these spots.

There are many posts here about burnishing and applying various edge coat treatments here if you want to take a little time to research them.

Tom

 

[LatigoAmigo]

27 minutes ago, LionCrownLeather said:

I now have another question, how do you apply tokonole without it getting on your leather? I only use it for the edges but it can sometimes get on your fingers while you rotating your piece and applying. This is veg tanned leather but I assume on predyed /prevaxed leather tokonole wont have the same effect.

I use pre-dyed chrome-tanned leather almost exclusively, so as you assumed, I have never had this issue when using tokonole. I use a swab, careful not over-saturate it, and apply 2-3 thin coats to my edges. Fortunately, I've never had any end up on the surface of the leather.

Below is what the swabs look like. They are used for cleaning printers and lenses, so there are no fibers to leave behind. 

[LionCrownLeather]

14 hours ago, Northmount said:

Quoted from a site selling tokenole "

Note: Use caution when applying Burnishing Gum on leather that is going to be stained, antiqued, or dyed as it may resist or block penetration."

Also take a look at this post.

So the best thing is to be careful and avoid contaminating the surface so you don't have to clean it up.  You might find that Fiebings Deglazer will work for you where needed to clean up these spots.

There are many posts here about burnishing and applying various edge coat treatments here if you want to take a little time to research them.

Tom

 

Interesting, I will try purchasing Fieblings Deglazer and see if it will do the work in removing those stains. Thanks! 

[LionCrownLeather]

On 8/24/2020 at 1:11 PM, LionCrownLeather said:

Interesting, I will try purchasing Fieblings Deglazer and see if it will do the work in removing those stains. Thanks! 

Once the neatfootsoil dries the stains are not as visible. I purchased fiebing deglazer and rubbed gently in circular movements on the leather but without any success. Conclusion: Got to be careful with Tokonole!