Help with recoloring buckskin

[JiminTexas]

Here is the deal.... I have a buckskin shirt and pants that are in perfect condition except that I got a stain on the front of the shirt. In trying to clean the stain off I washed the color out of a large spot on the front. Well, the stain is gone, but it looks worse than it did with the stain. Can I bleach out the rest of the color in the buckskin and start over again or will the bleach ruin the leather?

 

[Desert Ratxx]

I'm thinking bleach wouldn't be to good on the leather. Depending what kind of leather you have you could maybe try and re-dye the spot or the whole thing in a darker color. Or maybe even jsut give the whole shirt a good dunking in cool water and see if the color runs from the rest of it.

As a last option just put the stain back on and call it character :wink:

 

[prd0036]

I once used Rit Dye Remover on a hide that was dyed dark red and it turned out brown and looked well worn. I would try that before I would use bleach.

 

As suggested you can try the Rit Dye remover and if that doesn't work get some oxalic acid - it's sold as wood bleach at most hardware stores - after bleaching with the OA wash it good several times in clear cool water - wring out GENTLY and then lay out on a couple of layers of towels to soak up as much moisture as possible - repeat with dry towels until the leather is dry.
The above is assuming the leather is commercial tanned....

 

[flintlockmdj]

What did you use when you washed the color out on the front? I'd try that again on the whole thing if I wanted to remove all the dye. If the color comes out that easily I'd have questions about the colorfastness of the dye job anyway.

 

[crockett]

For what it's worth them Injuns used white clay and it was supposed to work great. I think Crazy Crow sells white clay. I'd give it a go.