cleaning aniline leather

Welcome to the forum.

This leather type is the Vegetable Tanned Leather where its natural colors come from the tannin agent itself without additional dyestuff.

If so, this is also known as “Vachetta” leathers.

And since it is vegetable tanned more than chrome-tanned it is very much more absorbent by characteristic.

It will take in more fatliquor than the chrome type leathers.

That is one reason why the leather becomes very absorbent when fatliquor diminishes.

Fatliquor is the lifeblood of leathers, with periodic replenishing it keeps leather from over dryness and reduces absorbency as the leather structure has enough fats and oils to repel penetrating stains.

These stains look more like spill tannin stains than protein based stains.

The difference is that the protein based stains feels stiffer as it penetrates and coagulate and produces obnoxious odors when ferments more than tannin stains.

Stains that derive from plants like tea, coffee, wine, beer and cola are classified as tannin stains.

So we shall treat this as tannin stains in conjunction with restoration cleaning.

You commented that the color darkens after exposing to sunlight.

It’s true unlike all other leathers that fades, these natural tanned leathers behaves just like our skin – it darkens under sunlight too.

The perspiration stains, accumulating of soiling especially unsaturated oily and greasy film of stains go browner in sunlight too.

The sunlight darkening can be reduced by “leather bleaches” with d’Tarnish1.3.

And the hydrolyzed and oxidized phenomena can be rectified by “florescent whitening treatment” with d’Yellow6.7.

These are specialty optional treatment depending how you value your leathers.

Now to help remove and restore the leather basically we need the following products in sequence.

1. softPrepCleaner4.4 – for salvage cleaning the entire briefcase with special attention on the stains.
2. cleaner3.8 – for overall general cleaning and remove all suspended soil particulates.
3. rinse3.0 – to rinse and wipe until rag/towel shows clean to a healthy squeaky clean.

The stains may still be there as it starts to continuously wicking up to the surface.

4. hydrator3.3 – helps to saturate and hydrate the leather structure.
It also helps water movement within the leather structure to further moves the foreign colloid to the leather surface to be wiped while damp or erase-off with leatherEraser4 when crispy dry. The thorough dwelling with extended layers of tissue paper to trap the stains is the key to move these stains out (more details if you are keen to know more of the technique).
5. d’Tannin3.5 – Treatment for remaining tannin residues helps reduce the browning effect.

When all the stains is gone and the color lightens with optional treatment then it time to fatliquor it.

6. fatliquor5.0 – leather rejuvenator is just like what the tannery used originally, but now by spraying instead of by drumming.
This fatliquoring will returns the leather softer and stronger and less absorbent to liquid stains.

The final treatment is to enhance the leather more sensuously with a buttery-feel non-stick protector with a classic leather scent.

7. The scent of leather is more leathery than the leather itself – use leatherScent’B for a buttery-feel or leatherScent’D for draggy-feel with a better grip.

What do you think?

Would like to go through all this process to save your briefcase?

Let me known if you like to have all or some of the above mentioned products in a kit?

Roger Koh
Leather Doctor®