HiLiter Help

[Mudbug007]

I use quite a bit of hiliter on my tooled leather. But I don't ever seem to get the results I want, so I thought I'd ask you Leather Gurus about it.

Mainly, when I apply HiLiter, I apply it liberally and then wipe it off with a dry cloth. But it seems to darken my leather and at times, the cloth will even soak up the HiLiter in the bottom of the tooled leather.

I also have the Antique Paste, but it doesn't seem to do as well as the HiLiter.

What can I do to keep the HiLiter from darkening my leather? Normally it doesn't darken it much, but I want the tooled leather HiLited, not my complete leather project!

 

[sheathmaker]

It's been a very long time since I used HiLiter. It was back when I made just about everything, and was not specializing is just sheaths.

As I recall is was a water soluble liquid with a very heavy concentration of the color chosen, that I used on tooled or carved designs. I applied it very liberally with a water DAMP sponge. Let it set for maybe one minute, and brushed it back off with a rinsed damp sponge. Thus removed the HiLiter from the raised area and flats and left the darker color in the cuts and impressions. It will darken all the leather slightly but the crevices are really darkened and high lighted.

If your tooled impressions are not very deep it is possible to remove the HiLiter from even the recessed areas.

Paul

 

[jaymack9100]

I'm assuming that you've already applied resolene or some type of resist on your tooled piece before you apply the hilite dye/gel/paste. In my opinion, there is no way to prevent the hilite from darkening your piece a little. if you wipe too much or hard, you take the hilite out of the tooling and can rub the resist off the leather.

Maybe if you use a non waterbased resist such as Clear-Lac. I think you can still get this from Springfield Leather. Clear-Lac has toluene in it, so make sure it's very well ventilated wheen you use it. My skin reacts to clear-lac, so I can't use it.

Good luck! John