Waterproofing Antique gel

[Telrasha]

Hi All, 

 

I am wondering how/if I can waterproof my leatherwork that has been antiqued. I have tried Leather balm with atom wax and resolene (I do not have many options).

When i started leatherworking I started using Eco-Flo Antiquing Gel as i can get some really cool effects mixing the colours.

I just finished doing my first breastplate, using mostly this combination and was finishing it but noticed that when it gets wet again the colour leeches off :(.

A bit more info:

I dyed it with the antique gel, and understand this sits on top instead of sinking into the leather. It would have stood like that for a good week or two while i finished the pieces.

I buffed it and there wasn't really any dye coming off anymore, when I sealed it some came off, as is normal i think for the antique gel, but my main concern is that even after a few hours of drying time when i put a wet cloth to it it will still come away brown with the dye meaning the colour is not fully sealed. Is this normal and just a part of antiquing?

I did it first with the leather balm until i realised it was leather balm (had mistakingly bought this instead of resolene) I used resolene since but it still comes off. On the parts where I used eco-flo waterstain it is fine, no colour bleeding.

 

Would love some help in understanding what is happening and how to solve it as it would suck if i can never wear it in the rain (I live in Ireland...). More importantly I am hoping to eventually do this for other people and then obviously cannot have this happen.

 

Cheers, 

Jelle 

[fredk]

Can't tell you why right now. I need to think a thunk on it,  but here's a fix

1.  get a cheap airbrush

2. get some floor 'polish' called Astonish*, which is actually a water thin acrylic varnish

3. spray several, about 3, coats of Astonish on your piece. First coat, go lightly, let soak in and dry, 2nd coat a bit heavier and let dry, then 3rd coat as heavy as the 2nd coat

4. by this third coat everything should be sealed. Further coats will do more sealing but actually start to give your piece a shine.

*Astonish,  this floor 'polish' has numerous names. No need to buy the original Pledge product which is very expensive. I gat Astonish in Home Bargains for about £1 per 1L or 750ml bottle

[PastorBob]

if you don't have an airbrush, or a place to use it with proper ventilation and easy cleanup, you can get Saddle-Lac from Tandy.  You could probably find its comparable at a wood working store as in spray on lacquer.  I am sure one could find a MSDS sheet for it.  It sprays on from an aerosol can.  I have used it with great success.  Kind of pricey, but lasts a while.

[Telrasha]

Thanks for the advice, 

Can either of you confirm that resolene won't ever do the job on gel or is it something i did wrong?

Had a look for the tandy-lac but cannot find it on the European site :(. Will keep an eye out for similar things around the area though not very familiar with chemicals and all :p

Also yeah live in a 1 bed apartment so airbrushing isn't really an option due to the chemicals and no closed off room but will have a look at the polish option and see if it works with a sponge.

I did also try Winsor & Newton Satin varnish, not sure if that would be similar to any of the above options but that didn't seem to work either.

 

 

[fredk]

When I first started in this leatherwork lark Resolene was a great sealer but a few years ago I noticed that my newer stock of it would never seal anything so I tried Astonish and have been using it since

 

[PastorBob]

I know Don Gonzalez does a lot of that.  May check out his youtube channel. Can't remember what he uses, may be resolene.  He is able to cover it using a sheepskin applicator with no smearing.

[YinTx]

I think one of the biggest issues is where you said:

On 10/5/2021 at 10:33 AM, Telrasha said:

I dyed it with the antique gel, and understand this sits on top instead of sinking into the leather. It would have stood like that for a good week or two while i finished the pieces.

I am picturing a lot of antique gel sitting on top of leather for a long time, and drying out.  Then you add a solvent to this (ie resolene, leather balm), and yep, it starts to come off!  Not the best way.  

You should apply it, maybe let it set for a few minutes, then wipe off as much as you can with clean rags/towels/sheepswool, whatever.  Let it dry some more, then wipe on TanKote or some other finisher that will further remove more antique gel.  Wipe off a lot of that also.  Let dry completely, then seal with resolene.  

Also trying to add an acrylic finisher on top of wax is a bit backwards too in my opinion.  The wax prevents the acrylic from binding with the leather, so it just comes off easily later.

You may still be able to rescue this piece by trying to get as much of the gel off with TanKote or Resolene on a sheeps wool piece.  The wax may inhibit this tho.  Pictures will help us understand your current situation also.

YinTx

[Telrasha]

21 hours ago, YinTx said:

I am picturing a lot of antique gel sitting on top of leather for a long time, and drying out.

Pretty much :), and understand that some will come off when applying the resolene but it is  also how i get the nice effect. Added some pictures below to show the effect I am creating in the brown. Not sure if I could do that with waterstains or oil dye's. If this is something that is regularly done with other products please let me know how.

I have since ordered some dyes and the fiebings antiquing paste and going to try different combinations to see, potentially thinking of doing the tan in normal dye and then the medium brown in the antiquing, this way less layers on top and hopefully, when i don't wax it first, the resolene will take properly 

 

21 hours ago, YinTx said:

Also trying to add an acrylic finisher on top of wax is a bit backwards too in my opinion.

Totally, and i did not do this on purpose it was only after applying i realised i had ordered the wax instead of resolene and more of a facepalm moment than conscious decision. And yes was afraid the wax would prevent the resolene from taking but thanks for confirming.

Let me know if you have any other advice based on seeing the picture. Mainly trying to prevent this in the future and your advice above helps with this and also just think i have been using the gel for things it was not designed to do but again new to this and haven't really got anybody to ask IRL.

 

 

 

[YinTx]

So yes and no, but long story short, experimenting is how you get the effects you want, which you have already inadvertently begun.  

Applying darker dyes in the areas you want dark, with a dry sponge over already dyed (say light brown) leather is one way to get this effect without the rub-off of antiques.  Also, you could apply TanKote unevenly and allow to dry thoroughly as a resist to antique, which will prevent the antique from staining the leather under the TanKote, and result in similar looks.  Use TanKote again after a few minutes of dry time, with a soft rag and work off the antique more in some areas less in others.  Let dry and seal with TanKote again or Resolene.  

Many ways of going about this.  Some just use dye with an airbrush.

That is quite a lot of tooling and your basket/scale stamping looks spot on.  Nice work!

YinTx

[Telrasha]

Cool yeah I just finished my belt which is the same colour scheme and belongs to the same outfit.

I tried this with Brown waterstains only and no Antique and managed to get somewhat the same effect. I also have a few ideas on how to improve it even further next time so as you say experiment.

Thanks for all the help and advise and @Yintix thanks for the complement :), still very new so not sure on what good quality looks like lol