Having the horrible habit of taking large amounts of work home with me --its all the SDMB fault-- I went out to the Souq and bought myself a nice big leather bag/briefcase.
A wonderful, sturdy, handmade oxblood colored baby.
There’s a weeny problem. The coloring comes off on me clothes. Very annoying. Mostly on my pants when it rubs against them as I walk.
Any ideas about how to combat this?
Please do note: Taking it to the mfg is not an option. This is a souq folks, they laugh at you when you do stuff like that.
You’ve already made the purchase, and used it. Returning it may not even be an option. Here is an option for you.
The Fiebing Company of Milwaukee, WI offers a great selection of leather finishing products. I have on my desk in front of me something called their “Acrylic Resolene”. It is a clear liquid used to protect and seal leather.
I have used it when finishing leather items. After the dye has set and dried, I use the Resolene to seal the leather. It sounds like your leather bag isn’t sealed, and the dye is rubbing off.
The stuff isn’t very expensive. The 4 oz bottle I have has served me for a lot of years. Perhaps if your new carrying bag is very large ( over say, 14" x 20" ) you might wish to buy two bottles.
Depending on where in the country you are, you might find a local tack shop or leather goods sales store that carries Fiebing’s line of finishes and dyes.
I hope this helps. <sniff sniff> Nothin’ like the smell of leathah in thah mornin’
Okay, I didn’t read your profile first. Sorry ! :wally
I thought maybe you BOUGHT it in a sook, but were residing in Middlesex now. Duh. I’ll call Fiebing’s in an hour when it’s business time in Wisconsin, and ask them who sells their stuff in the Middle East. Where do you live? Cairo?
I’d have e-mailed you this note, but you don’t accept e-mails from Dopers. You’re welcome to e-mail me if you wish, so I can give you the info and get this off the Boards. Or, I’ll post it here in this thread. Whichever.
Mom’s Quick Fix: get an old rag and rub off the worst of it so you can live with it while you’re waiting for your mail-order leather sealant to arrive.
Mom’s Long-Term Fix: If it has bare spots where you rubbed off the dye, color it in, with more dye (or even Magic Marker–hey, don’t knock it), then seal it.
** Sook **.
** Souq **.
** Souk **.
This reminds of the the Straight Dope book column on how to spell Muammar Khaddafi’s name. ( I know, a link would be nice here, but I checked the book archives and came up blank ).
Hijack city. Anyone know how Sook is spelled? I’ve been in the one in Marrakech. Ooooh man. what a place. Out of an old movie, it was. Snake charmers, dental extractions WHILE YOU SIT IN PUBLIC!, spices to die for. ( Saffron, $ 15.00 a pound. What’s not to like? ).
SOUQ
The “souq” or traditional markets are an enjoyable way of shopping in Riyadh. There are souqs specializing in certain products.
For instance, the antique souq sells a variety of old copper and brass objects. Others are the women’s souq, tent souq, second-hand souq, fruit and vegetable souq, fish souq, pigeon souq, falcon souq, camel souq, musical instruments souq, car souq, car parts souq…
Most western-style shops tend to have fixed prices whilst the traditional souqs expect the customer to bargain over the price. Before you make a major purchase, find out what others have paid for a similar item. Shop around, as prices will vary.
To expand on SirRay’s comment - a souk is an open-air market in the middle east, sorta like a flea market (only maybe a little classier, depending on what they’re selling. maybe. but a lot more atmosphere) Wasn’t the infamous fight scene from the first Indiana Jones movie in a souk?
And there is no correct spelling because the word comes from a language with a different alphabet. So any spelling that conveys the right pronunciation is ok. (same with Moammar Qhadafy’s name) Using “ou” or “q” makes the word look more foreign and less like a hillbilly accented word. At least to me.
Is this the correct pronuncition? S as in Sam, oo as in moon, k as in rook?
Having grown up in North Africa I have a fair amount of experience with poorly dyed leather. There is no good solution. Sealants will change to look and feel of the leather and will eventually wear off if non-penetrating. Penetrating sealants make the leather stiffer. Eventually enough dye will wear off that it will not stain your clothes as much.
Hey, looks like we have some leather experts here so I could use some help with my own leather problem.
I bought some Rockport deck shoes, they’re real simple loafers with a flat rubber sole. But when I bought these shoes, they were stuffed with paper, and positively soaking with oil. I’ve had the shoes for 4 years and the oil still isn’t dried out, every time I wear them, my socks are stained brown. I hate to apply some wet solution and wreck the structure of the shoes, and a leather sealant doesn’t seem like the proper stuff for the unfinished leather insides of these shoes.
Any suggestions? Yeah, I would have taken them back but I have 13EEE feet and it’s hard to find shoes my size.
always give me the black hand from the dye leaching. I’ll take my new gloves and soak and wash them in warm water and detergent, working them til they no longer turn the water black. Then I alow them to dry and treat them with lotion type leather protector. Works great.
Chas, since they are deck shoes, why the worry about using a liquid on them, they’re made to get wet. Doing your shoes like my gloves may change the color slightly, but they don’t seem to be useful now anyway!
Eh, Chas, is it actually oil, or dye? If it’s actually oil, I’d try cleaning them with saddle soap. They sell it next to the Kiwi shoe polish at the grocery store. You get a sponge wet (not sopping), rub it on the saddle soap and get some of it on there, then rub it on the shoe. The idea is NOT to scrub the shoe with soapy lather, but rather to sort of massage the slightly wet saddle soap into the leather. This acts to remove sweat and skin oils from harness leather, I don’t know why it wouldn’t at least help your shoes.
Then after it dries, you can buff it with a dry cloth if you want, if there’s white stuff on the surface of the leather.
If oil still comes out of the shoes, try doing it again. There has to be a limit as to how much oil a piece of leather can ooze, especially after four years.
If it’s dye, this might help, too.
If you get leather deck shoes really sopping wet, they dry stiff.
).