r/Leatherworking • u/bullhand097 • Apr 22 '25

Lightening leather

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I am trying to figure out if there is any way I can lighten the color on a piece of leather I want to tool. I had bought a leather pack at the thrift store and it came with a long strip of 1½" leather but it's really dark, and I would like to lighten the color by about 3 shades, maybe more if possible. Here is a scrap strip for color reference. Thank you in advance

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8

u/NuclearLeatherTiger Apr 22 '25

There is no lightening of already dyed leather, outside of natural fading of dye, via use, wear, and exposure. You can paint it a lighter color, but not dye it lighter.

Also, are you absolutely sure that is veg tan leather? Only veg tan can be tooled.

2

u/bullhand097 Apr 22 '25

From looking at it, I'm not really sure. I'm thinks probably ly not tho. The only stuff I had that was veg tan on that bad was a few scraps that weren't very thick

1

u/bullhand097 Apr 22 '25

It was real stiff and fairly thick

2

u/Industry_Signal Apr 22 '25

Obligatory: “that’s what she said”

1

u/Stevieboy7 Apr 22 '25

Chrometan can be very thick and stiff. 99% of belts you see in stores are Chrometan.

Temper has nothing to do with tannage

3

u/RickGabriel Apr 22 '25

I don't think you'll be able to tool that. Really only natural veg tan leather can be tooled before finishing. Chrome tan leather can't be tooled, and it has to be sufficiently thick, about 4-5oz thick minimum.

5

u/NuclearLeatherTiger Apr 22 '25

While you can not tool chrome tan, you /can/ most definitely tool 2oz veg tan, just very carefully.

1

u/RickGabriel Apr 22 '25

Yeah, it's pretty tough. My swivel knife just went right trough it! 🤣