Nope to antique. Again. Or, still....

[JLSleather]

Every so often, somebody gets me to do some "antique".  Usually involves writing me a check   But then it sits there on the shelf until LONG after, somebody asks again and I have to get a new jar because that is hard or very settled.

But I did look into this AGAIN.  I DO NOT LIKE the way it darkens my leather, nor the way it fills grooves I took considerable time to put there. Still reminds me of what's left behind after the rain dries up and what's left behind in the bottom of the puddles.

Some might remember, I'm usually embarrassed for people who make videos.  Most seem desperately needy and self-serving, so I just opt out of them.  But I do like some of Don G's work, so I can handle a bit of him even if I have to do some FF through the wordy bits.  (Don and I don't do everything the same, but I do like some of what he does.)  That said, I talked myself into watching him go on about antique.  The pics are from his video, showing the same piece of leather before and after "treatment".

Again, each his own, but just not something I want to do to leather, especially when he had it looking quite nice in the beginning of the video.

 

[chuck123wapati]

3 hours ago, JLSleather said:

Every so often, somebody gets me to do some "antique".  Usually involves writing me a check   But then it sits there on the shelf until LONG after, somebody asks again and I have to get a new jar because that is hard or very settled.

But I did look into this AGAIN.  I DO NOT LIKE the way it darkens my leather, nor the way it fills grooves I took considerable time to put there. Still reminds me of what's left behind after the rain dries up and what's left behind in the bottom of the puddles.

Some might remember, I'm usually embarrassed for people who make videos.  Most seem desperately needy and self-serving, so I just opt out of them.  But I do like some of Don G's work, so I can handle a bit of him even if I have to do some FF through the wordy bits.  (Don and I don't do everything the same, but I do like some of what he does.)  That said, I talked myself into watching him go on about antique.  The pics are from his video, showing the same piece of leather before and after "treatment".

Again, each his own, but just not something I want to do to leather, especially when he had it looking quite nice in the beginning of the video.

 

If i could do that good of work i wouldn't antique at all. I do it once in a while but not nearly that heavy or dark. It is more or less just pre ageing a piece that will take on a much better natural patina and dirt in the cracks look with time. Its kinda like da Vinci blowing cigarette smoke on the Mona Lisa lol imo. Nice to see your back its a much needed surprise and Merry Christmas.

[YinTx]

It's all art, so whatever preference you have, go with it!  Seems there are 10,000 different methods to using antique, and 10,000 different results.  So I'm always practicing, trying to get something I like.  In general, I have not been using the paste antiques lately, and when I do antique, I have made my own recipe.  But I went back to some paste to try things out again a week or so ago.  This was a piece of 10 oz Hermann Oak that I doodle'd on, oiled with neatsfoot, then put the old school NeatLac on (yeah, the kind you have to take outside because it smells so strong), let it dry, then put the paste on, wiped the heavy stuff off, left the rest sit in the cracks and low spots and cuts for an hour or so, then really cleaned it out and applied Tan Kote over it.  Then some matte acrylic finisher.  I kinda liked the way the cuts darkened, and the background darkened, but the leather stayed fairly light colored, stayed clean and not muddy, with no gummy junk caked in the cuts or tooling marks.  The finish is not shiny and plasticy, with a nice gloss and hue.  The background stayed a bit flat for my preference, but all in all workable for me.

The prototype sheath was done with my own mixture, Tan Kote for resist, finished with resolene.

But then someone looking for a really darkened antique job would be totally disappointed in both I suppose.

YinTx

[JLSleather]

Yeah, all subjective and "each his own" type thing. Some folks tooling is so bad that honestly, it doesn't matter if they antique it or not.  Don G is not one of those people - the real reason for my concern was that his tooling looked so nice upon completion of the tooling I hated to see him "ruin" it with acrylic dyes and antique paste. 

Here's an example of one such project... the bottom pic was sent to me by a gal (FL I think?)  who wanted the handbag strap REMADE.  Dark dye and antique paste couldn't hide the 15 or 20 minutes somebody must have spent making that strap.  The top pic is the replacement I sent - no antique at all.

 

Long as I'm at it, here's a couple in brown tones (only) - no antique anywhere.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this was a long ago mission to make every wallet in that Stohlman book 'jus cuz".  No antique.

 

And finally, this one a pic of a banana I posted to make some long ago point ... cuz I like bananas.

 

Back to the point, I have mixed brown Fiebings dyes with Tan-Kote (which you aren't "supposed to" do, but it works) for making a sort of custom "stain" - monochrome shades.  I suppose you could paint it just where you want it as well.

[chuck123wapati]

On 12/24/2020 at 1:23 PM, JLSleather said:

Every so often, somebody gets me to do some "antique".  Usually involves writing me a check   But then it sits there on the shelf until LONG after, somebody asks again and I have to get a new jar because that is hard or very settled.

But I did look into this AGAIN.  I DO NOT LIKE the way it darkens my leather, nor the way it fills grooves I took considerable time to put there. Still reminds me of what's left behind after the rain dries up and what's left behind in the bottom of the puddles.

Some might remember, I'm usually embarrassed for people who make videos.  Most seem desperately needy and self-serving, so I just opt out of them.  But I do like some of Don G's work, so I can handle a bit of him even if I have to do some FF through the wordy bits.  (Don and I don't do everything the same, but I do like some of what he does.)  That said, I talked myself into watching him go on about antique.  The pics are from his video, showing the same piece of leather before and after "treatment".

Again, each his own, but just not something I want to do to leather, especially when he had it looking quite nice in the beginning of the video.

 

So how would you go about staining cut lines like this? I use antique but i dont like the slightly dirty look, i use super shene but some of the antique still sticks in the tiny pores.

[Sheilajeanne]

JLS, in the wallet with the horse head, how did you get the darker tones on the flower petals? That's the sort of thing most people would do with antique.

[JLSleather]

46 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

So how would you go about staining cut lines like this? I use antique

Actually, that case might be the exception.  You have acrylics keeping the brightness would just mean staying off of those areas.  But I might go on and do JUST the area between the roses (staying OFF the border area above and below the name) since your letters are "inverted" and set down that's a classic place for that.  
OR, depending on the size of the lettering I might just do that with dark dye in a pointed tip brush.

ANY brown on the blue/white areas would look ... not great prolly.  Some might not mind some "ant streak shading" on the roses , but I think that's better done by just hi-liting the red... as in use the red in the "shadow" areas, then add some white to the red to "lighten" it a bit before painting over the rose.  Hope I said htat in a way makes sense to not just me

The rose on this page might explain it with less words.  This is painted ONLY... no tooling, and no antique.  "Red" in the "shadows", then lighter red over the whole thing.

Edited December 30, 2020 by JLSleather

[chuck123wapati]

41 minutes ago, JLSleather said:

Actually, that case might be the exception.  You have acrylics keeping the brightness would just mean staying off of those areas.  But I might go on and do JUST the area between the roses (staying OFF the border area above and below the name) since your letters are "inverted" and set down that's a classic place for that.  
OR, depending on the size of the lettering I might just do that with dark dye in a pointed tip brush.

ANY brown on the blue/white areas would look ... not great prolly.  Some might not mind some "ant streak shading" on the roses , but I think that's better done by just hi-liting the red... as in use the red in the "shadow" areas, then add some white to the red to "lighten" it a bit before painting over the rose.  Hope I said htat in a way makes sense to not just me

The rose on this page might explain it with less words.  This is painted ONLY... no tooling, and no antique.  "Red" in the "shadows", then lighter red over the whole thing.

Thats pretty much what i did except i did the border area of the name also. Thank you! The usual way i do roses is i dye them red using a couple of heavy coats then buff a bit soon after drying this takes a lot of the loose dye off the higher areas and creates some highlights as well i do it when i shene them the shene pulls some dye so i wipe again lightly remove some from the higher parts of the petals. I used acrylics for the flag and dye for the roses i have tried the antique on roses and didn't care much for the look lol. 

[JLSleather]

Oh, yeah, if you got a type of dye / paint that you can buff the high spots that certainly would be virtually the same thing
 

[Stevestikihut]

I live in California, we cannot get anything but water based, acrylic dyes. Forget about the antiquing paste. Even Tan Kate smears water based dye. 
I just got some Fielding low-voc dye, first impressions were not great either, very blotchy but at least they will not run. 
Considering smuggling some real chemicals but I’m too good looking for jail. I could smoke a legal joint but can’t use real dye. 

[YinTx]

On 1/22/2021 at 6:36 PM, Stevestikihut said:

I could smoke a legal joint but can’t use real dye.

Sounds like a perfect recipe to keep people dependent and not productive.  Can you use any of the Fenice water based dyes, or the Orion colors?

YinTx

[cltech9]

On 12/24/2020 at 10:54 PM, YinTx said:

It's all art, so whatever preference you have, go with it!  Seems there are 10,000 different methods to using antique, and 10,000 different results.  So I'm always practicing, trying to get something I like.  In general, I have not been using the paste antiques lately, and when I do antique, I have made my own recipe.  But I went back to some paste to try things out again a week or so ago.  This was a piece of 10 oz Hermann Oak that I doodle'd on, oiled with neatsfoot, then put the old school NeatLac on (yeah, the kind you have to take outside because it smells so strong), let it dry, then put the paste on, wiped the heavy stuff off, left the rest sit in the cracks and low spots and cuts for an hour or so, then really cleaned it out and applied Tan Kote over it.  Then some matte acrylic finisher.  I kinda liked the way the cuts darkened, and the background darkened, but the leather stayed fairly light colored, stayed clean and not muddy, with no gummy junk caked in the cuts or tooling marks.  The finish is not shiny and plasticy, with a nice gloss and hue.  The background stayed a bit flat for my preference, but all in all workable for me.

The prototype sheath was done with my own mixture, Tan Kote for resist, finished with resolene.

But then someone looking for a really darkened antique job would be totally disappointed in both I suppose.

YinTx

Is there any home made recipe for an antique finish that you know of, I have heard some has been made from Mop N Glow, just curious ?

 

[GatoGordo]

On 1/22/2021 at 4:36 PM, Stevestikihut said:

I live in California, we cannot get anything but water based, acrylic dyes. Forget about the antiquing paste. Even Tan Kate smears water based dye. 
I just got some Fielding low-voc dye, first impressions were not great either, very blotchy but at least they will not run. 
Considering smuggling some real chemicals but I’m too good looking for jail. I could smoke a legal joint but can’t use real dye. 

I live in California and use Angelus dyes which are alcohol based just like Fiebing's.