Pigmented (Two-Tone) - Touching up an area of a two-tone leather sofa

[Steerpike]

I noticed a small mark on the arm of my sofa; I tried to gently remove it using a damp tissue, and to my surprise, this created a small 'light colored' circle. The brown leather color came off onto the tissue. This is a two-tone finish, with a darker 'top coat' on top of a lighter foundation. I then tried to 'blend' that circle to make it look more natural, but ended up making a bigger 'obvious' mark. See photo 1 below.
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Later, I tried again to 'blend' the mark, and achieved some success, but it still looks lighter than any other area of the sofa. At the same time, I tried to blend in a mark close by. See photo 2 below.

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I contacted the sofa vendor, and they pointed out that this is caused by 'body oils' removing the protective coating on the leather. Sure enough, I tried the same 'damp tissue' technique on other areas of the sofa, and could not remove the color, but to me that's still something of a defect, since it's pretty obvious that a sofa is going to have body contact. This is only a 3 year old sofa and gets VERY light usage. After a few more discussions, they agreed to replace the leather on the arm. However, when they sent the replacement (for 'approval' prior to having it installed), I felt it was so far from the original appearance that I'd end up with something worse than the current problem.

So at this point, I'm tempted to try to 'touch up' the affected area, with some kind of brown color that I could 'swirl on' randomly, and end up with a very slight darkening of the area - and then apply something to the entire area to 'fix' the dye in place. Is this feasible? I'm thinking the hardest part of this is going to be matching the color. Thoughts? Should I hire a local expert?

Thanks for your help!

[Roger Koh]

Refinishing is the solution to the problem whether doing it yourself or local expert the matching material and sequence of process is vital for success.

The refinishing process may take these steps:

#1
Deteriorated or weakening finishes from body oil, grease and sweat contact should be removed by proper degreasing system – Degreaser-2.2 > Rinse-3.0.

#2
Existing finishes is lightly sanded with 2000grit sandpaper and make ready for the adhesion coating.

#3
Adhesor-73 is applied by padding with lint free towel or foam brushes.

#4
2Tone-37 translucent secondary coloring is applied preferably by airbrushing to create matching effect.

#5
MicroTop-54 seals or fixes the secondary coloring for better wears.

#6
Protector-B+ helps to reduce wears.

The above is a brief of sequence that rectifies and prolongs the problem.

Thereafter a routine or periodic schedule is recommended to remove the timely body oil, grease and sweat from deteriorating the finishes again.

Mentioned products are found in www.LeatherDoctor.com

If the above sound logical we can go into the details.

Roger Koh
Leather Care Consultant
www.LeatherDoctor.com

[Roger Koh]

Product information for refinishing:

Secondary Color – 2Tone-37
Sauvage leather finish is a two-tone fashion effect with two or more colors that add depth and character to the leather to create a multi-colored appearance. This effect can be done with various application techniques such as random spraying or spraying through a stencil with different shades of colors.

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Leather Doctor® 2Tone-37
http://www.leatherdoctor.com/servlet/the-Secondary-Color-%E2%80%93-2Tone-dsh-37/Categories
Leather Doctor® 2Tone-37 is a translucent hybrid dyestuff design for creating a two-tone, tipping, wiping, and random effect. This is a water based compact resin blend surface coating dyestuff that is also used to create the finer translucent semi-aniline effect.


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Leather Doctor MicroTop-54
Leather Doctor® MicroTop-54 is available in four levels of luster - matte, gloss and satin for pigmented upholstery leathers. A dull or extra matte is created for the auto desired luster level. These lusters are intermixable to produce the in-betweens to match. These are waterbased soft polyurethane topcoats that are lightfast and non-yellowing. They have excellent flow and leveling properties, recoatable and form a flexible tough film.
Luster is available in Matte, Gloss and Satin for home furnishing and Dull for auto seats


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Leather Doctor Adhesor-73
Leather Doctor® Adhesor-73 is an auxiliary for refinishing pigmented, aniline, bicast and simulated leathers. This is a water based compact resin adhesion promoter for:
a) Smoothening abraded surfaces,
b) Ensure proper sealing and adhesion prior to color coating.


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Leather Doctor Degreaser-2.2
Leather Doctor® Degreaser-2.2 is a pH 2.2 leather-safe waterbased degreaser with dye bleeding control. It is design for degreasing leather of penetrated oil, grease and sweat stains from skin, and hair contact, especially the headrest and armrest of upholstery, collar and cuffs of garment, handles of bag including steering wheel. It works best in conjunction with Rinse-3.0 to rinse emulsified soiling or Acidifier-2.0 for rinsing, bleeding control and pH balancing sweaty contamination from leather denaturing into rawhide. This universal leather degreaser is for all leather types including the common pigmented, aniline, vachetta, nubuck and suede.


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Leather Doctor Rinse-3.0
Leather Doctor® Rinse-3.0 is a pH 3.0 waterbased leather-safe universal rinse for all leather types that include pigmented, aniline, vachetta, nubuck and suede. It is to removes suspended soiling by towel extraction while neutralizing harmful alkaline residues and charging the protein fiber ionic positive to increase the attraction between the ionic negative leather constituent like the tanning agent, dyestuff and fatliquor.

[Roger Koh]

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Leather Doctor Protector-B+
Leather Doctor® Protector-B+, a buttery-feel with a classic leather scent is design for pigmented, aniline and nubuck oil pull-up leather types. This is a non-film forming, non-stick, rub-resistant protector that enhances a soft natural tactile feel for imparting a breathable barrier essentially to shield the detrimental effects of sticky soiling and preventing the too common pesky ballpoint from ever ready rolling out its nasty ink. Moreover, for helping to release those tenacious blue jeans dye-transfer stains obviously on light colored leathers easily. Its natural buttery-feel protection increases the leather resistance to wet and dry rubs, thus reduce stretch; scuff and abrasion with reduce friction squeaks.

[Steerpike]

I'm certainly interested in pursuing this approach, and buying all the 'ingredients', but I would have thought the absolute crucial part would be to ensure a perfect color match. I see the dye product above (http://www.leatherdoctor.com/servlet/the-Secondary-Color-%E2%80%93-2Tone-dsh-37/Categories) says "Colors are available in popular Black, Maroon, Dark-Brown, Ochre-Brown, Red-Brown and Orange-Brown". How can I tell if any of those 'browns' are close to 'my' brown?

[Steerpike]

Not sure what happened to my previous post; what I asked was - how do I match the color of my sofa to the various colors available for sale on the site? I'm eager to pursue this. Thanks.

[Roger Koh]

>>> I would have thought the absolute crucial part would be to ensure a perfect color match.


Certainly, see if I can get some samples to narrow down the range.

Final matching is still crucial on your end.

As we shall be working with "translucent" dye/color hybrid rather than the standard "opaque" makes color matching more tricky.

Better pictures without unnecessary lighting may help me better.

Putting a white and black color paper for contrast against the existing color helps too.

Roger Koh
Leather Care Consultant
www.LeatherDoctor.com

[Steerpike]

I have a number of photos I could provide to you, taken under different lighting conditions. Is there a way to get them to you without having to post them here?

Thanks

[Roger Koh]

Please post it here, with a reference number to it.