Shoe Antiquing

[Yellowevo84]

Hello,

That's it. Any brand better than others for cordovan antiquing?

Thanks a lot

There really isn't a better product out there. Some people prefer saphir dyes and some prefer fiebings etc. It just comes down to how you work with them i.e brushes, amount of coats, thinning out the dyes and so forth. Either way prepping the leather for the dye is really the important part. If the leather isn't cleaned and deglazed properly then it doesn't matter what dye you use, you won't have the result you thought you would.

 

[Mr Monkstrap]



There really isn't a better product out there. Some people prefer saphir dyes and some prefer fiebings etc. It just comes down to how you work with them i.e brushes, amount of coats, thinning out the dyes and so forth. Either way prepping the leather for the dye is really the important part. If the leather isn't cleaned and deglazed properly then it doesn't matter what dye you use, you won't have the result you thought you would.  

Thanks for your help

 

[Yellowevo84]

Something new. This was a lot of fun to work on.

Before

After

 

[Crat]

Be careful. Antiquing is like make-up. A little can make skin look a lot better but a lot will make it look tacky.

 

[Yellowevo84]



Be careful. Antiquing is like make-up. A little can make skin look a lot better but a lot will make it look tacky.

So true and also the down side of being in the business. Sometimes it's just what the client wants. Still it was different from the usual requests. Definitely something I wouldn't wear but I'm more subtle.

 

[jokb]

I still like what you did it.

So true and also the down side of being in the business. Sometimes it's just what the client wants. Still it was different from the usual requests. Definitely something I wouldn't wear but I'm more subtle.

I still like what you did it.

 

[Stigland]

Hello,

I'm in the middle of recolouring my new Meermins since I found them so red-ish that I figured it wasn't fixable with just layers and layers of cream. Also, since they're in the low cost-segment I figured I might give this patinating thing a shot.

My question, however, is how much of the colour should I strip (I'm using saphir Decapant)? It seems I can't strip any more colour off, but the colour is still the original, albeit a lot more dry and finish-less.

Will the new colour (Saphir dye) just overwrite the underlying hue? Will it suffice with just stripping of the finish so the dye will take?

It should also be noted that I just want to colour it slate dark brown and I'm just using one single dye, no real antiquing, just a recolour.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Crat]

^ hard to say anything without pics.
Do you have pics of how they are now and pics of something close to your desired result?

Since we have a topic now, old stuff.
L stripped, R original.

off-black final result

 

[chogall]

Hello,

I'm in the middle of recolouring my new Meermins since I found them so red-ish that I figured it wasn't fixable with just layers and layers of cream. Also, since they're in the low cost-segment I figured I might give this patinating thing a shot.

My question, however, is how much of the colour should I strip (I'm using saphir Decapant)? It seems I can't strip any more colour off, but the colour is still the original, albeit a lot more dry and finish-less.

Will the new colour (Saphir dye) just overwrite the underlying hue? Will it suffice with just stripping of the finish so the dye will take?

It should also be noted that I just want to colour it slate dark brown and I'm just using one single dye, no real antiquing, just a recolour.

Thanks in advance!

Never used Saphir to strip. But IME, you can cover the red tint using oxalic acid or use a green dye. Green will take away the red and turn it more tan/brown.

Or, you could definitely cover it with several layers of dark brown dye.

 

[Stigland]

So I finished the recolouration and I figured that I'd share it with you.

Here they are before with the right (actually left) shoe stripped of the finish but not a lot of colour. This pic was taken inside with a bad camera so they look less red in the pic than they did in reality.



This is after, also with a bad camera but with better lighting:




I have to say that I'm overwhelmed by the results and I'll be doing some more dying with more shoes.

In the end I used Saphir decapant, I don't know what the long-term consequences of this will be but it seemed to work fine.

I'd like to thank everyone in this thread for providing some really good learning material, please tell me what you think!

 

[weregoingunion]

I didn't start reading this thread until I had dyed some boots pretty thoroughly, and now I've learned what I could have done differently. However, I still have some questions.

I used saddle soap to "strip" these boots and it either removed a lot of the original color or it highlighted which spots had naturally lost color due to heavy abuse. Either way, it made me extremely wary of using saddle soap on my nicer leather dress shoes because somehow a significant amount of the original dye came out in the process. (These boots were worn basically daily for a year, and I had to use shoe glue to get the rubber soles back on. I don't plan on getting much more use from them, and hence they were a good pair to experiment on.)

Since I dyed them a darker brown that they were before, I don't think it matters too much that they weren't properly deglazed. They would obviously look better had they been deglazed though. I used Feibings Medium Brown dye, and it is much more red than I thought. I don't know how dyes are made, but the original medium brown on the shoe doesn't seem to be composed of red at all. This makes me wonder how brown dyes are made (both for restoration and for the original coloring process): are there different ways to make brown? I'm thinking there must be different ways to create brown because I experimented with putting shoe polish on some napkins, and noticed that some browns have absolutely no red at all regardless of whether it's applied lightly or heavily while others seem to be very red unless they're put on heavily to create a dark brown. Anyone know how this works? Also, how can I get a medium brown color without dealing with red?

I wanted the boots to be a medium brown that was similar to their regular color, but there was so much red coming through that I had to make them pretty dark to cover any traces of red. In the end it looks OK, but I'm wondering how I could have accomplished the medium brown I was picturing.

Also prior to reading this thread, I had no idea that the leather needed to be dyed and "cleaned" so many times, but I was aware that multiple applications would be necessary. I also learned from trial and error that at some point the leather would stop soaking up the dye and would then need to be wiped off. I was using Kiwi Leather Lotion (Cleaner/Conditioner) to wipe off excess dye. It was kind of bothering me that I could never seem to get it to STOP coming off so that I could start polishing, but each time I applied the lotion, only a little bit would come off. In other words, the lotion doesn't seem to remove much color even though it keeps coming off slowly. I ended up applying about 3 coats of dye to most of the boot, and it is pretty dark, even after applying the lotion. The toecap seemed like it could not soak up any more dye, and the dye looked like it was drying on top. After reading this thread, I'm thinking I need to CONTINUE rubbing off the excess dye until no color transfers to the rag. Is this true?

I went out last night and got some Lexol Conditioner. I sprayed some of that on a rag and starting wiping the shoe and WAY more color started coming off than when I was using the Kiwi Leather Lotion. (I find that odd because the Lexol is a conditioner while the Kiwi is a conditioner and cleaner.) I haven't had any time yet to keep applying and wiping, but even after wiping, it didn't seem to remove much color. There was a lot of dye **********, but the shoes look about the same.

This makes me wonder how my boots could ever absorb 10-15 applications of dye. They seem to be heavily saturated after 3. I wasn't clear when reading this thread, but in between applications of dye, what are you all using to "rub off' the dye? It looked like Rider was using Renovateur/Crema Alpina and even cream and wax polishes in between. I read that others were using Lexol. Is this all that is necessary? What about deglazing in the middle of dying? Is that only necessary if you've made a mistake, or is it a useful technique for blending previous coats of dye for antiquing purposes?

I wasn't going for an antiqued look, really, but the leather seems to naturally soak up the dye in different shades. The heel is the weirdest part and it is by far the "reddest" part of the shoe. It wouldn't seem to soak up any more dye after three applications. The toecap is the darkest part, but that could have been because I used more dye there. The rest of the boot is somewhere in between. I'm kind of confused about where to go next or just leave them. I polished one of them with Meltonian brown cream polish, and it looked pretty good. However, I can still rub off copious amounts of dye at will, so I don't really want to leave them like that. I had kind of thought the polish would help seal the dye in, or that this was just part of the process. Should I keep using Lexol to rub out all excess dye? That was my next thought, and I wonder how much color will be removed if I continue doing that. If it removes A LOT of color, I will be required to add more dye. Should I just keep going back and forth until it gets to the shade I want without being able to remove dye with Lexol?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Yellowevo84]

Weregoingunion. First of all do you have some pics to post so we can see the results. I will try to answer some of your questions. First of all dyeing shoes is a lot of trial and error and unfortunately until you do over and over you will find what works and what doesn't for you. However there are some things that don't change. Preparation is the key to a proper dye job. Saddle soap is used to clean and help strip some of the surface layer off the leather but will never take it completely off. You need to get a proper deglazer and use this after the shoes have dried properly from the saddle soap. If you only used saddle soap on your boots then chances are the dye never really penetrated fully into the leather. This is more than likely why you keep getting dye Rubbing off on your cloths. Adding more dye and polish is just going to be a patch. If you really want to go through the work of fixing the problem then you really need to clean everything of and the strip/deglaze the shoe properly and let dry fully then reapply the dye. However if these are just for trial and error it might not be worth the time. Now to answer your question about the Browns. Every leather will react differently to dyes and the color may not always be the color you expect. The color will react to the shade of the leather also. For example a light color tan with a medium brown dye applied will come out a different shade then a darker tan leather with the same dye applied. This where the trial and error part comes in. I hope this at least answers a few questions.

 

[Yellowevo84]

Something new.

Before. Had some very heavy scuff marks on one shoe.

Stripped and the first layer of dye

Finished

 

[Yellowevo84]

Been a while since I did a deep purple.

Before

After

 

[Yellowevo84]

I thought I would post a new one but show a few more pics of the process for other people. It's important to build layers during the process.

Before. Just not well loved.

Fully cleaned and deglazed. I was amazed how much color came out of these
[VIDEO][/VIDEO]

First layer. I call this the Chetoes stage

Second layer. Turned into the flaming hot Chetoes lol

Unfortunately I was up late doing the other layers and didn't have good lighting to take pictures but further layers were added in various shades of reds.