Bright Blue Leather touch up

[Gary H.]

Anyone have luck with a product to touch up wear spots on the edges of 69 bright blue leather seats? I was thinking some type of shoe polish. Any ideas?

Gary

[Curt S.]

Re: Bright Blue Leather touch up

I worked in the home furnishing industry for just under 40 years. The company I worked for made upholstered sofas , chairs, recliners,etc. During that time and now all industries needing fabrics and leathers bought from the same mills and leather tanners and finishers, including the car manufacturers.Leather has become a major growth area in the business over the last twenty or so years. A leather hide as removed from the cow is approximately 50 sq. ft.. It is thicker than you might think , so the tanners slice the hide into three layers. The exposed layer is termed full grain, the second layer is top grain and the third layer is called the split layer because it has holes and needs to be made whole by bonding vinyl to it. The first layer is the most expensive and softest because the tanner does the least to it, mainly full aniline dying,dye forced all the way through the hide, followed by a layer of clear polyurethane to protect from stains. Now the second layer. Most furniture and all the auto companies bought the second layer or top grain. Because this is the second layer it has no texture to it and grain must be put into it by a heat process that makes the uniform grain,but also makes the leather firmer less pliable. Now we get to the dye. Very few top grains are full aniline dyed, all the way through. Almost all are pigment dyed, a term made up by the leather producers to say paint. Yes, it is paint with flex agents etc so it will not crack until the warranty has expired. So you can get a vinyl/leather dye spray to touch up your welts of your seats. Many threads have been started about how to get or keep your leather soft. In my opinion, it depends which tannery did the process and how much heat and repair they had to do to sell the hide,not what you use to try to soften the hide. We said use only warm soap and water to clean/condition your leather. Hope this helps.