Hi. I'm a total novice at dealing with leather, I have a leather seat which has a really ucky mark halfway up the back. It is clearly from where some, presumably elderly, person has sat day after day, there is an area about head size which has some deposit which will not come off easily. ( There were quite a few white hairs embedded in it but I've got all these off! ) I've tried putting dubbin all over it to soften up the deposit, which seems to have had some effect, but it still sticks tight to the surface. It's very like the glue you often get left when you peel off a label from something you've bought and it leaves some of the adhesive behind. It's like that but harder. I can just about get little bits off with my nails, but at that rate its going to be several hours of hard work, it would be nice to find something that would soften up or remove the deposit. I've tried most of the things in the house, glass cleaner, furniture polish, t cut, and washing detergent, which took the top layer off the colour - not too bad a disaster as I need to get some dye to recolour faded areas anyway! Any idea? Thanks in advance.
This sounds as though it is head grease whihc has penetrated the leather over time (very common on furntiure but not often seen on car leather). Trying all the different household cleaners will not have helped. The leather will need degreasing with a professional degreaser (this is not a cleaner) and it will be very important to get all the grease out of the leather before trying to replace any colour. Pigment and finish will not stick to any kind of grease so putting colour on as it is will not work. The degreasing process is fairly straight forward but may have to be repeated several times if there is a lot of grease present. Grease on leather is a bit like an iceburg!! you can only see a fraction of it on the surface. The back of the leather (if you could see it) would be absolutely full of it. Will try to post some photos in the next few days.
Hi. Thanks for that judyb. It was matted and hard, but I got pretty much all of it off in the end with t cut! Fabulous stuff, and it has of course got powerful solvents in it. I'm feeding the leather with dubbin to put back anything the solvents take out. Good point, before I try colouring I'll have to get every scrap of oil out of it of course. It took a fair amount of the top colour surface away with the goo, but at least it's clean, I couldn't bear having it in the house in the state it was in - it is furniture, I posted here in the hope someone would be knowledgeable, I went to the Leather Cleaning Restoration Forum with high hopes, but although it allowed me to register, I am Still waiting for my post to be approved over twelve hours later! :shakehead: So I feel like I'm winning, though there's a bit of work still to go, but I really like the seats, they're so comfortable I had to Make myself get up from sitting on my new furniture having a little gloat last night because I could feel myself going to sleep right there! Cheers
The dubbin will be adding to the problem I'm afraid. Cleaning etc. does not remove oils from the leather. It is oils you are trying to get rid of in the first place using a product with oils and/or waxes in it will only take you back a step!!! There is no point in 'feeding' leather with oils when it is oils you are trying to get rid of. Solvents damage the surface of leather but wil not draw out body oils from the inside which is what you need now. A degreaser is the only thing that will do this. As this is furniture and not a car seat there are different perameters that will apply. What type of leather do you have? If you have an aniline style leather and are going to use aniline dye for the colour work it is not so crucial to remove all the oil as the dyes will penetrate through them so having removed most from the surface may be OK. If you have a pigment coated leather (like a car seat) You will still need to use a professional degreaser to get rid of any oils that are still in the leather as what you have removed is just from the surface - paint/pigment will not stick if there is any trace of the body oil. It is crucial to make sure you know what you are dealing with before you start any restoration work. Most restoration work we would advise you left to a professional as there can be many complcations if you have had no experience yourself but if you are prepared to have a go make sure you get good advice on product selection (you do not need lots of products which I suspect you will be told on the other forum!!) and remember you cannot 'fatliquor' leather (and it is not necessary) outside the tanning process. Hope this helps Let me know if you need further info
