What Is Rub Off Leather?
Sounds an interesting material doesn’t it?
Rub Off Leather isn’t what you may think it is, it’s not where you rub off some of the colour to achieve a different texture or look.
Rub Off Finish
Rub Off leather is typically a two tone leather where you are rubbing off the top coat of paint that’s been applied leaving the darker shade in the grain of the leather to create an antique rubbed off look as if the colour has worn off the surface coating leaving a lighter shade below and darker shades deep within the grain structure.
It looks like a very complex and difficult process and look to achieve but much to the contrary it’s an easy look to achieve if only you know how!
Creating a rub off finish is very different to a two-tone finish.
Whereas a two-tone finish is layering a darker shade over a lighter shade and creating a pattern in the process. The darker shade is much thinner than the base layer, so it allows the lighter shade to shine through the thinner darker shade on the top.
Rub Off Leather on the other hand is achieved by rubbing off the top darker layer leaving the darker layer in the grain mainly and the lighter shade showing through as it is in these pictures below.
Two different shades of Rub Off Leather.
The rub off effect is easy to achieve, you need to apply a thinned down darker shade over the top of a lighter shade. This is applied extremely wet so it goes deep into the grain of the leather, once this is dried you can use a rag soaked in alcohol cleaner to rub off the top darker coating leaving the darker coat deep within the grain giving you that antique rub off look.