Best Leather cleaning products?

[Walrus Gumboot]

Couldn't find an appropriate forum to post this in, I guess, so, who has the best Leather cleaning, etc. stuff?

 

[Shorty]

Stahl

Leather Master / Multi Master (?)

Fenice

Leatherique

Near Chicago, Leather Master & American Weavin, John & Stephanie Conway - http://www.suedecleaners.com/index-4.html

For more info, contact: - Steve Poulos, Lonnie McDonald, Scott Warrington, Craig Jasper, Doug Heiferman,

Judy Bass ( LTT - U.K.)

 

[The Great Oz]

I'm sure all of the premium brands have something specific to offer, but for the most common cleaning and conditioning work Lexol might save you a few beans and be easier to find.

I've asked people with high-end leather furniture manufacturers about comparing their "house brand" or preferred leather care products with Lexol, and all have admitted that Lexol would fit their specifications.

You can find it at almost any shop that sells leather and leatherworking tools, or if you want to save some money, anywhere from amazon to Walmart.

 

[Living The Dream]

What kind of leather are you cleaning? Nubuck, Aniline or protected? The Hydroforce Leather Cleaning kit shows you how to identify and process to clean. https://interlinksupply.com/index.php?item_num=CL03H

 

[Tom Forsythe]

Leather Master for their breadth of products. I developed the 3 Hydroforce Products in the leather kit above for basic leather cleaning. I believe that they are equal to the comparable Leather Master products. Leather Master has scores of additional products if you make leather cleaning one of your specialty offerings. Their aerosol leather degreaser is quite effective and their little Scratch Away tube is amazing to color repair surface scratches on aniline leather. They have many other unique products that you will need from time to time if it becomes their specialty.

 

[Jim Williams]

Where does one go to learn leather cleaning? There are no scheduled classes anywhere. I do have one IICRC guy about 45 minutes away that has classes but I'm too cheap to pay $1000. It would take me 10 years to make back my investment.

 

[Cleanworks]

Where does one go to learn leather cleaning? There are no scheduled classes anywhere. I do have one IICRC guy about 45 minutes away that has classes but I'm too cheap to pay $1000. It would take me 10 years to make back my investment.

Like they say, "if you think education education is expensive, try ignorance". Clean 2 or 3 pieces and you have your money back.

 

[Tom Forsythe]

https://interlinksupply.com/index.php?item_num=CL03H The leather kit includes a leather cleaning procedures guide. These products are good for aniline and protected leather, It is not meant for nubuck or suede leather, which have a nap seen by your eyes and felt by your fingers. This is only 5% of the leather furniture, but a much higher percentage of leather shoes. 99.9% of the leather in cars will be protected and a good leather to practice on to get a feel for the procedures and expected results. Worn areas can be more visible after cleaning so a close inspection is necessary. This is a starting point. Posting pictures to this forum will generally be seen by someone who knows how to do the basics of cleaning, protecting and revitalizing.

This post reminds me that i have to buy a kit to clean a sofa and loveseat for a friend and my wife. We have a leather sectional (takes about 10 minutes to do a thorough job on wear areas) sofa and 2 leather chairs in our living and family room. If you are looking for furniture in your own house, you will not be sorry if you purchase leather (unless you buy nubuck or suede).

 

[The Great Oz]

If you are looking for furniture in your own house, you will not be sorry if you purchase leather (unless you buy nubuck or suede).

Like everything, that depends. Leather requires a certain amount of care (and conditioning) that will be ignored by most.

In learning more about leather furniture I came to this opinion:
Think of unprotected leather as a tough sponge and you won't be disappointed by how easily damaged. Think of protected leather as a tough sponge with a coat of paint on it and you won't be disappointed by how fragile the paint coating. Think of the owner of inexpensive leather as being a total pain in the butt to deal with, as they bought "tough" leather and don't want to hear that it won't stand up to kids treating it like playground equipment.

Should you spend a great deal of time and effort to become a leather expert? Always good to learn new stuff, but leather furniture sales have plummeted since the glut of cheap "mad cow" hides were used up and prices rose. Outside of high-end products, designers think leather is cheap looking and just plain out of style. The actual cheap stuff from the glut era has already gone to the dump and the mid-level stuff is likely beyond simple cleaning, so your best market is the smallish percentage of furniture that people invested a healthy amount of money to buy and care enough to try and save.

 

[Shorty]

Thanks Bryan, never even heard of Lexol until now.
However, I'll stick with my Stahl products because they are complimentry with all their other products such as leather dyes, etc;

With regard to how much it costs to learn, I do not begrudge one cent of what I have learned, how much it's cost or where I've traveled to to learn about leather.

Here's a few examples:

I live in Cairns, Australia, which is near the top end of the pointy bit on the map.

I've done courses with:
Tony Wheelwright (Leatherwright), in Las Vegas
John Conway in Joliet, south of Chicago (Suede Specialist)
Sindre Fiskerstrand of Leather Master in Sydney, Australia
Steve Poulos, Bridgepoint, Sydney, Australia
Graham Bull & Wayne Pettit of Masters of Leather for Fenice, Sydney, Australia
Darryl Binch, Leather Finishing Products, (Stahl), Ormeau, Australia
Shayne Swaysland, MultiMaster, Sydney, Australia.

Seminar with Lonnie McDonald in Las Vegas, (wish I could have done his course also).
I am extremely lucky in that I was able to purchase Lonnies manuals all those years ago.

If you don't learn to care for leather, you're leaving money on the table for someone else.

When you are fully competent, then move on to leather repair & recoloring. $$$$$$$

When I would travel to the 'states, I would generally be away for about two weeks at a time, International Flights don't always work in with course schedules.

Do a search on Google & you'll find that there are plenty of courses in the 'states.

It may cost you a grand to do a course, plus time away from your business, plus other expenses, all of which you can claim back on your tax.

Once you know what you are doing, your overheads are cheap compared to running a truck mount.
You can work out of a car instead of a van or box truck.
Most everything is done by hand, so no expensive equipment.
No equipment failures.
So much easier on the body.
No frozen or burst pipes in winter.

MOST IMPORTANT, your return on your leather training investment is so much higher than carpet cleaning.

Hope this gives you some incentive.

 

[Jim Williams]

Thanks Bryan, never even heard of Lexol until now.
However, I'll stick with my Stahl products because they are complimentry with all their other products such as leather dyes, etc;

With regard to how much it costs to learn, I do not begrudge one cent of what I have learned, how much it's cost or where I've traveled to to learn about leather.

Here's a few examples:

I live in Cairns, Australia, which is near the top end of the pointy bit on the map.

I've done courses with:
Tony Wheelwright (Leatherwright), in Las Vegas
John Conway in Joliet, south of Chicago (Suede Specialist)
Sindre Fiskerstrand of Leather Master in Sydney, Australia
Steve Poulos, Bridgepoint, Sydney, Australia
Graham Bull & Wayne Pettit of Masters of Leather for Fenice, Sydney, Australia
Darryl Binch, Leather Finishing Products, (Stahl), Ormeau, Australia
Shayne Swaysland, MultiMaster, Sydney, Australia.

Seminar with Lonnie McDonald in Las Vegas, (wish I could have done his course also).
I am extremely lucky in that I was able to purchase Lonnies manuals all those years ago.

If you don't learn to care for leather, you're leaving money on the table for someone else.

When you are fully competent, then move on to leather repair & recoloring. $$$$$$$

When I would travel to the 'states, I would generally be away for about two weeks at a time, International Flights don't always work in with course schedules.

Do a search on Google & you'll find that there are plenty of courses in the 'states.

It may cost you a grand to do a course, plus time away from your business, plus other expenses, all of which you can claim back on your tax.

Once you know what you are doing, your overheads are cheap compared to running a truck mount.
You can work out of a car instead of a van or box truck.
Most everything is done by hand, so no expensive equipment.
No equipment failures.
So much easier on the body.
No frozen or burst pipes in winter.

MOST IMPORTANT, your return on your leather training investment is so much higher than carpet cleaning.

Hope this gives you some incentive.

You talked me into it. As soon as I survive tax time I'm signing up with our local guy.

 

[Shorty]

One other very important item::

You have much less competition fighting for the cheapest price.

 

[Tom Forsythe]

Like everything, that depends. Leather requires a certain amount of care (and conditioning) that will be ignored by most.

In learning more about leather furniture I came to this opinion:
Think of unprotected leather as a tough sponge and you won't be disappointed by how easily damaged. Think of protected leather as a tough sponge with a coat of paint on it and you won't be disappointed by how fragile the paint coating. Think of the owner of inexpensive leather as being a total pain in the butt to deal with, as they bought "tough" leather and don't want to hear that it won't stand up to kids treating it like playground equipment.

Should you spend a great deal of time and effort to become a leather expert? Always good to learn new stuff, but leather furniture sales have plummeted since the glut of cheap "mad cow" hides were used up and prices rose. Outside of high-end products, designers think leather is cheap looking and just plain out of style. The actual cheap stuff from the glut era has already gone to the dump and the mid-level stuff is likely beyond simple cleaning, so your best market is the smallish percentage of furniture that people invested a healthy amount of money to buy and care enough to try and save.

One great aspect of this country is each market has different styles. Leather is everywhere in Salt Lake, in high end stores and mid range stores. Leather in low end stores is a bi-cast leather which is a composite and will break down readily. It is meant to be thrown away and replaced. Leather is a classic western look in spite of what designers do to change styles and the tendency for some designers to sell expensive impractical furnishings. I always buy the higher end of protected leather and am amazed at how great it looks after years of daily wear.

Of course, I am biased as I sold leather furniture for a few years. I learned how to maintain it and do simple repairs on it. I worked with Steve Poulos, Steve Johnson and Dave Hanks to develop a leather cleaning course over 20 years ago. I taught this course all over the country, from Tampa to Anchorage from 1998 to 2001. The biggest challenge in leather cleaning is that a consumer can do a fair job of leather maintenance (if they have the right products and right leather) and not need your services.

 

[The Great Oz]

The biggest challenge in leather cleaning is that a consumer can do a fair job of leather maintenance (if they have the right products and right leather) and not need your services.

So if you get into leather care you need to learn about fixing worn away pigment and cracks, as those are what will drive the 'protected leather' customer to have work done. We've found that 90% of our leather cleaning work is unprotected leather, the less common type that requires more customer finesse. The other 10% is frightfully expensive but often neglected.



PS: I have some expensive leather pieces that have outlasted their styling. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

 

[Shorty]

In the tropics, I've found sweat/body oils to be the biggest contributor the finish break-down, especially on the bicast/bycast/pu imitation leathers.

We advise all of our customers on the importance of regular maintenance & even carry a leather kit on board to sell to them if required.

Courtesy of Steve Poulos, a few years ago.

 

[Nomad74]

Am I being helpful?

 

[dekeil]

Vapor steam

 

[Hack Attack]

Vapor steam

I've got 1 somewhere, but I do leather so infrequently that I've finished the job before I think about where the hell have I put it?