Leather care

[kukuku]

I don't know if this is a good thread for this, but I think many of you have leather couches? Mine is about 4 year old and it's not as slick as it used to be... In fact it's almost annoyingly sticky and dust sticks to it easily. Some parts of it are still good. I wonder what kind of treatment would get it back to normal. I've tried some beeswax type stuff but it didn't really work. Has anyone dealt with similar issues?

[Lane]

general question as far as leather care is concerned, is there anything I should be doing to my boots to let them age well? Maybe protect the leather some more? The only thing I do right now is clean the dirty stuff off from them once in a while, but I do want them to look worn after a while.

[nicelynice]

What kind of boots?

Wipe them down after use with a damp cloth, dry them after they come in from the rain. Use cedar shoe trees to absorb moisture from the inside. Stuff them with newspaper if they're soaked through.

If you're wearing them in snow and heavy rain, use a waterproofer. If you're not, use a neutral leather conditioner once a month or so, more after they've been exposed to a lot of moisture, salt, or other harsh conditions. Saphir Renovateur is a good conditioner.

If they're suede or reverse leather, use a nubuck leather protector if they're gonna see rain. Brush suede, don't brush reverse/nubuck leather.

If they're CCP cordovan boots, just clean them with barbed wire.

[Lane]

some horse leather guidis and calf leather julius combats

any particular weatherproofer/leather protector you recommend?

also, for leathers do you spray anything on?

[coro]

Use Renapur leather balsam! Its good for all types of leather exept suede. Eton97 treated his CCP fencing with it too...

[eton97]

I can certainly recommend it if you want to oil/condition and preserve the leather, but in all honesty if you want them to age nicely and naturally, just leave them be.
At the end of the day all these boots - guidi/Augusta/ccp are IMO best left just to do their thing. If you start conditioning etc you may well add a shine and finished look which takes the character away from the original aesthetic.
I uses to worry about leather conditioning until I polished a pair of unoiled Augusta and they were never the same again :-(
All i do now is vibram, and enjoy.

[TheNotoriousT]

I can certainly recommend it if you want to oil/condition and preserve the leather, but in all honesty if you want them to age nicely and naturally, just leave them be.
At the end of the day all these boots - guidi/Augusta/ccp are IMO best left just to do their thing. If you start conditioning etc you may well add a shine and finished look which takes the character away from the original aesthetic.
I uses to worry about leather conditioning until I polished a pair of unoiled Augusta and they were never the same again :-(
All i do now is vibram, and enjoy.

WORD!!!

[magic]

same as Eton97. i dont condition all my leather stuff and all i do is use a clean dry cloth to wipe after use.

[Yardsale]

Is there an optimal way to hang (or not hang) leather jackets?

[Test]

Did a search and couldn't find anywhere else to ask: can you shorten the sleeves of a leather jacket at the shoulder? Most have zippers at the cuff so it could be an option, but a messy one. I ask because I know some leather tailoring is limited by tight work area caused by the thickness of the leather.

[franz]

Did a search and couldn't find anywhere else to ask: can you shorten the sleeves of a leather jacket at the shoulder? Most have zippers at the cuff so it could be an option, but a messy one. I ask because I know some leather tailoring is limited by tight work area caused by the thickness of the leather.

This seems very tricky and highly expensive!!

Depending on the construction of your jacket, if it's similar to a regular jacket (i.e. sleeves are seperate objects stiched to the jacket body), it could probably be done by a leather specialist, but I'd only trust someone with leather AND tailoring experience.
The thickness makes it harder to sew, but it could prevent the leather from being damaged by the operation at the same time.
I only did that once for a wool jacket, it cost me quite a lot, would not dare imagining how much such an alteration would cost for leather. Maybe you'd be better out buying a new one?

[dmash]

I don't know if this is a good thread for this, but I think many of you have leather couches? Mine is about 4 year old and it's not as slick as it used to be... In fact it's almost annoyingly sticky and dust sticks to it easily. Some parts of it are still good. I wonder what kind of treatment would get it back to normal. I've tried some beeswax type stuff but it didn't really work. Has anyone dealt with similar issues?

Hey man, I've had this problem before too. I actually used some Lexol leather cleaner and it worked like a charm. If it's 'sticky' it probably doesn't need to be conditioned.....it needs to be cleaned as it's dirty from your body's oils, pets, food, different things.

[kukuku]

Hey man, I've had this problem before too. I actually used some Lexol leather cleaner and it worked like a charm. If it's 'sticky' it probably doesn't need to be conditioned.....it needs to be cleaned as it's dirty from your body's oils, pets, food, different things.

Really? I still have this problem, maybe i'll try that. But after researching a bit i'm afraid that the problem might be that the material is actually something called "bycast"-leather which might make things a bit more complicated. This type of leather is made of some bottom-layers of leather and coated with polyurethane, and stickyness can be a result of weakening coating. I'm still not 100% sure my coach is bycast leather, but i'm not buying that kind of stuff in the future, that's for sure, it's only benefit over traditional leathers is cheaper price (and lot of potential problems )

[dmash]

Yea, bycast and bonded leather is really not anything like a 'real' leather sofa. A lot cheaper to make and shotty construction. Bonded sometimes isn't so bad, but bycast is definitely the worst.

Good luck either way!

[Test]

I only did that once for a wool jacket, it cost me quite a lot, would not dare imagining how much such an alteration would cost for leather. Maybe you'd be better out buying a new one?

Indeed, I know doing it to a wool jacket is difficult, an overcoat cost me about $110 at a good tailor. The general problem is that I have normal length arms, thus all leather jacket arms are too long (not RO crazy length, but still long). Thanks for the input.

Would be highly appreciated if anyone that has had it done or knows about shortening leather sleeves specifically could comment.