Antique help

[lanternnate]

Hey guys, so just starting out on this leather journey and playing around with tooling. I wanted to try antiquing to bring out the tooling. After watching some how to videos from Tandy I really wanted to try some of their Eco Flo Hi-Lite because it gave the look I liked the best in the videos. It had a shipping warning of “Do Not Freeze.” Well, I live in Vermont, so that was no bueno. I found the Fiebings Antique did not have the same warning so I ordered that instead to give a go. I’m not really pleased with my results and I’m trying to figure out if I’m doing something wrong, there is something wrong with the product, or I just have incorrect expectations.

The steps I took were as follows: First I did all my tooling. Second I did two coats of Fiebings Spanish Brown pro dye with 24 hours between. After letting the second coat do a drying wait I put Fiebings leather sheen on my borders and images as a resist and left my backgrounds without. After 24 hours of dry for the sheen I buffed then put on the antique, let set for a minute then wiped off. The antique wiped back out of the tooling pretty much entirely even though I used a paper towel padded as I’d seen in videos. I still think that one is probably my fault for not being deep enough in my tooling. The Fiebings sheen didn’t seem to be a great resist either as everything got pretty dark. There was still some color difference though between what had sheen and what didn’t. I let everything dry again then put on another coat of sheen to finish things. That’s where it became really disappointing. The antique seemed to come up and mix into the sheen turning the entire piece one muddy burgundy like color. After letting that dry I tried hand buffing with some cut up cotton t shirt and it just won’t stop bleeding color off. I just put another coat of sheen on that’s drying now as a last ditch, but my hopes aren’t high.

Did I do something wrong in my process? The antique was certainly out in freezing weather during delivery. Is it possible it’s not good now in some way even though it didn’t have that warning? I tried another little sample piece with some deep basket weave stamping. No sheen, just leather and antique to remove variables. I got the antique to stay to start with. Then I let it dry for 48 hours and just tried buffing it and the antique just came up in chunks out of the leather. Maybe I just need to wait for Spring and order some hi-lite?

 

[High Standard]

I followed Bruce's video with great results. The only thing I did different was using Fiebings antique finish. (paste)

 

[Horsewright]

Can ya post some pics of your work?

 

[lanternnate]

I actually took pics as I went along so maybe that’ll help. In order this was the leather just after tooling, after dyeing (can’t remember if there was resist on yet), after antiquing, and finally how it looks now after two coats of sheen following the antiquing. Color wise it looked essentially like it does now after the first coat of sheen. The second coat has made it more “shiny” which I don’t know that I’m a big fan of either.

 

[lanternnate]

I watched Bruce’s video. I’m not using any of the same products as far as the resist and antique go as he did, but from a process perspective the differences are he used sheep wool for the antique, the buffing, and the tan kote. I used a wool dobber to apply the antique and paper towel turned into a flat pad to do the remove/buff because that’s what I’d seen ina Tandy video. I used a paintbrush to apply the sheen on top of the antique because that’s what I’d seen being used to do the selective resist. Bruce’s video is the first I’ve seen put a protective coat over the antique. Most just say do it, so I was guessing at that part. Is the paintbrush potentially my issue (it was a #3 brush if that matters)?

 

[Horsewright]

L lanternnate first welcome to Sheaths and Such. Been looking at your pics for a couple of days now. So I think ya got a couple of things going against ya.

First certainly your tooling needs to be deeper. For regular sheaths I normally use 7/8 oz. For any that are being carved I use 8/10 oz leather. Pretty much holds true on anything we carve. The extra weight of the leather allows ya to go deeper and you will find that the leather will hold a crisper truer tool mark.

Second your color choice. I feel that antiquing should highlight your work not help to camoflage it. As an aside I dislike immensely tooling leather that is gonna be dyed. Particualrly a dark color. Its the camo thing again, harder to see all the extra work ya put in. Recently built a pair of spur straps for a guy. Spurstraps are one of the few things I will dye. The whole time I'm cussing em cause he'd ordered them tooled with a Carlos border stamp and with a really cool brand of his family's. But then he wanted em dark brown. I delivered em to him at a roping. He put em on. I told him I was gonna call him at work (he's a Capt in the Air Force so I didn't cause I figured he was busy) and talk him out of the dye job. Sitting on my horse next to him sitting on his horse I couldn't see all the work i'd done, it blended in. I understand what you were trying to do with the two tone look and I'd probably gone about it differently. I'd of done your dye job, probably only one coat, and then I would of used a small paintbrush and painted the backgrounding with either black or dark brown dye. Then a very light coat of finish over the top. I use BagKote, also by Fiebings. I stretch a t-shirt over two fingers tightly and apply extremely sparingly. I'm unfamiliar with Sheen but it does look like you oversaturated it with the finish. BagKote gives ya a satin finish, looks like leather not plastic.

I simply do not use any of the paste antiques anymore. I use to, a lot. I'd buy em in the big quart jars. Years ago I got tired of the heavy waxy look. Came up with my own deal. I mix HiLiter with BagKote to make my own antigue. Probably a ratio of 15/20 parts BagKote to one part HiLiter. Nothing set in stone there though I just mix er up and keep testing on scrap till I get what I'm looking for. I do a light coat of BagKote as described first as a resist. I then use a small foamy paint brush to paint the mixture on where I want it. I do small sections and immediately wipe off excess with a paper towel before I do another section. All done and I finish with another extremely light coat of BagKote over the top.

All three belts and the sheath have been treated this way. See highlights and accents your work doesn't hide it.

Rifle scabbard too.

Painting a back grounded brand on these martingale.

The eyeballs on this logo on this notebook cover have been painted the rest treated with the mixture.

Hope some of this helps.

 

[lanternnate]

Thanks Horsewright . As I figured might be the case, sounds like more than just one thing I went astray on here. I appreciate the help. Lots of good info in your reply. I’m going to go ahead and reread it a few dozen more times then take another swing at it.