Removing Stains from Leather

[togwt]

Hi John

Another good article - however just a few points.



It would be nice if you would at least give some credit to the sources of your information in your articles particularly when you are using it to endorse products.



Whilst LM products were certainly the top of the tree about 5 years ago technology has moved on rapidly and their protector does not stand up in tests the way it did.

We have recently had tested several different products including Swisswax and LM (this was done by an independent company who then came to us with the results) and these did not perform in the way that we had expected. One of them in fact gave little or no protection against dye transfer and oil based stains.



Hope this helps

Regards

Judyb

http://www.autopia.org/forum/autopia...t-reseach.html



http://www.autopia.org/forum/autopia...-articles.html

[Quality Leather]

Ok for anyone who cares. I called up Swissvax/Colourlock/Ledercentrum and learned the following: Swissvax uses products from colourlock in their lineup. (Colourlock is a brand name for Lederzentrum.de a very old leather specialist in Germany that is used inhouse by mercedes, audi, lamborghini, etc.) 12 years ago they teamed up with swissvax as swissvax had their own leather cleaner but no repair and protection kit. Currently the Swissvax Glaze, elephant wax (protection for older convertible leather) and the swissvax colour repair system is actually the same as from colourlock (but in swissvax branded flasks obviously.) You can either read up in German lederzentrum.de or in english colourlock.co.nz or in dutch colourlock.nl. Note these 3 products (Glaze, etc. are much cheaper from colourlock than from Swissvax).

Interesting about Colourlock. I will take a look at them.

One of the most recogniseable traits of an amateur "concourse" leather detailer is that the leather they clean and condition (using their own choice of products, Meguiars, etc.) appears shiny or satin when they are finished. Properly detailed leather should have 0% shine. Not 5% or a miniscule satin sheen, but 0% shine. It should be completely identical to brand new, and dead matt.



Swissvax does this for me. Their cleaner (non forte) is strong enough to clean almost any mark. The leather milk (applied when the leather is mildly warm ofcourse) dries to a satin finish that goes completely matt after you rub it down lightly with a cloth the next day and UV protects. The glaze works as advertised and prevents creasing and offers a layer between the leather and the future dirt.



I found out why you have to apply the glaze before the milk. The milk has oils in it that feed the leather (yet appear completely matt). Using the glaze on top of the milk prevents the glaze from adhering to the leather properly because of this property. Therefore first you glaze, let it dry, then apply milk. The glaze is porous and lets the milk through.



And, it`s not like 1 coat of glaze gives 100% protection against dirt and 2 coats gives 200% protection. It more like 1 coat gives 25-30% protection and 2 will give like 33% protection, so 1 coat is enough (on new leather where it will just sit on the surface.) That`s directly from the mouth of the guy that developed the Glaze.

Maybe I am misunderstanding you, but I disagree. Automobile leather (pretty much all leathers) have varying amounts of gloss or sheen. I have seen plenty of cars with high gloss as well as those that have low gloss. What one wants is for the product not to change the original gloss or sheen. As a side note, I can`t tell you how many people want me to up the gloss in whatever I am refinishing (auto or furniture). This is after I show them what the original leather gloss was.



As for feeding the leather, most products don`t do that. The outside of the leather would have to be porous enough to accept the product. Unfortunately most products won`t penetrate a finished leather.

[togwt]

[As for feeding the leather, most products don`t do that. The outside of the leather would have to be porous enough to accept the product. Unfortunately most products won`t penetrate a finished leather.]



Feeding Leather



Years ago, during the old style of processing, the leather was simply `stuffed` with oils and fats and they were simply left to just sit in the fibre structure. But over time the oils migrated out of the leather, whether through use or heat (such as automotive leathers exposed to the sun which resulted in the fogging haze on the windows).



Consequently, these oils needed to be replaced at regular intervals and so the term of `feeding leather` grew. And rightly so, because back then the leather really did need to be replenished, otherwise it would become hard, shrink and crack. However, leather manufacturing and the development of chemicals used has come a long way.



Nowadays, modern fat liquors are technically advanced using high quality, specially processed natural and synthetic oils that meet very high specifications. These are typically fully reacted to the fibre structure, and as a consequence only minimal amounts can migrate out of the leather. Because of this low migration continually adding creams and lotions to replace lost oils is therefore no longer necessary.