leather deglazer

[mrappe]

How many people use this on new leather before dying. At Tandy it is expensive and when i rub it on it evaporates so fast i cannot tell if it is doing anything. I have seen somewhere where acetone does the dame thing. Anyone tried that?

[ChuckBurrows]

Plain old alcohol will work fine most of the time and if that still doesn't do it then acetone will work most of the time. One can also use oxalic acid aka wood bleach.

For alcohol I mainly use plain old 70% rubbing alcohol but you can use either the 90% or denatured alcohol if you prefer.
Or you can make your own deglazer which is basically nothing more than alcohol with the addition of acetic (ie vinegar) or citric acid (ie lemon juice).

The main reason to use a deglazer is to remove the "glaze" often left on the surface due to the leather processing. I mainly use it after tooling to remove any "stains" or the oils from my hands ie fingerprints, etc.

[GunClick Rick]

Hey Chuck is there a way to bleach buff hair to look white?

[ChuckBurrows]

Rick - I never tried it but would think that peroxide might do it just like it does on those peroxide blonde floozies.....

or you might try regular bleach?

[Slowhand Bob]

Also remember that some of them gals end up with shades of orange, blue or pink when they git to playing with them chemicals.  Might have a hard time convincing fokes that what you have is pink buf!

[rickk]

For what it's worth, Feibings die prep has an ammonia smell. It also is a dye solvent to the max, encouraging penetration. When I run into a problem with "deglazing", it is usually way past the point of no return. Most of the work is done. I am applying dye and it won't go it. I reach for  the die prep while te dye is still wet and start swabbing it on . It saves my "arr" about right then and there.

[ChuckBurrows]

Here's a link to the MSDS for Fiebings Deglazer so there is no need to "guess" what's in it.......
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:xg-ji3OVAhQJ:www.zackwhite.com/downloads/Deglazer.pdf+FIEBING+DEGLAZER+MSDS&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiaPvp0LRj4K_EEHjv6Xq96nVId7P1MLM2S74P72rQZgt7nTCq6OrmDwCpPfM0SJ42o18b8hYoJClUdxp75z3PIemdgDrCrSnwfCjj12FtZ0QT8JIn2jX9vjfkQPn5Ym97mDUl9&sig=AHIEtbQbWfrURTJwL0d5ObKCz3LiqQ3B1w&pli=1

There is no ammonia in it - the two main ingredients are ethanol (i.e grain alcohol) and ethyl acetate (the ester of ethanol and acetic acid - a common solvent which is a mix of acetic acid and ethanol via condensation)

So as I noted above deglazer is nothing more than a mix of acetic acid (i.e vinegar) and alcohol (in this case grain alcohol i.e Everclear) but rubbing or denatured alcohol will work just fine.

At one time I used the Fiebings but about 40 years ago I found a much cheaper and just as good alternative and have been using it ever since.............pay the extra for the name brand if you choose, but what I recommended works just as well and is a whole lot cheaper. Also plain old alcohol works just as good as a thinner and is again a whole lot cheaper.

FYI - deglazer is not always necessary but it never hurts - the glazing on the leather surface is due to the plating process - at one time the leather was pressed between large plates. Today it is more common to use large rollers for the process. The oils and waxes used in the currying process build up on the rollers over time and when they are not cleaned the buildup gets transferred to the leather surface, and it is not always spread evenly thus spot/areas occcur

[mrappe]

Thanks for the info. i will have to make some of my own. How much vinegar would you use?

[ChuckBurrows]

I prefer lemon juice if I even use it, (straight alcohol works at leat 98% of the time for me) but either way about a tablespoon or two per quart of alcohol.........

[rickk]

Chuck Burrows, the MSDS you posted confused me as my nose kept telling me ammonia, but I unconfused myself a bit a few seconds ago.

There is a "deglazer" and there is a "dye prep". 

I have been using "dye prep".   MSDS : http://siri.org/msds/f2/cgq/cgqdw.html

According to Feibings web site, "deglazer" is made primarily for removing old surface finishes. Dye prep is made for use on leather that has never been finished before.  I never new that until a few minutes ago as for some reason or another I started off using "dye prep" way back in the beginning and never looked back.

So, now that my confusion has been cleared up, Mrappe, maybe try using "Dye Prep" and see if it works any better for you than "Deglazer"

Rick

[Don Nix]

Oxalic Acid is my preffered method along with denatured alcohol.
With the oxalic acid you can play with the strength a little bit if you have a bad spot or two.
It workes well afyer you have finished your leather work to remove oil stains left from  handling the leather.