Dooney & Bourke - Vachetta Leather Bag - Water Damaged (blue dye transfer from a paper bag ).

Hi Roger, This bag has a couple of water stains and also there is blue dye transfer from a paper bag that
was next to it that got wet.
Help.... Thank You Roger
LuisAttachment 774Attachment 775

Leather identified as “Vachetta” leather.

This is vegetable-tanned leather; the coloring is from the tanning agent itself, without extra coloring or finishing – pure naked.

Blue dye transfer from a paper bag:

Sequence of cleaning process is as follows:

1] Reverse Transferring Technique:
1a] Apply Prep-4.4 onto the stain area.
1b] Cut out a slip of rag from the kit and cover it.
1c] Reapply Prep-4.4 over the stain – with no air space in between.
1d] Let it soak 24hrs – until the blue stain appears on the cut out rag.
1e] Replace a clean slip of rag until the stain is reverse transfer to the rag entirely – up to 72hrs with changes in between.
1f] When the stain is completely gone – the entire bag including the belts has to be gone over with Prep-4.4 in an even appearance – in a way to feather-out any marks.

2] Cleaning the Sticky Residue:
2a] Concentrate on the stain area to remove the sticky Residue entirely using Cleaner-3.8 and feather-out marks/rings/lines.
2b] Inspect it for an even appearance.

3] Rinsing Off the Suds:
3a] All suds is rinse off with Rinse-3.0 to a squeaky feel especially on the Prep-4.4 heavily applied areas.
3b] Check with finger if the feel throughout is the same - squeaky

4] Hydrating:
4a] Use Hydrator-3.3, concentrate on the stain removal areas to soak the leather and feather-out entirely.
4b] Inspect is the entire areas are even in appearance, otherwise soak and put into a see thru plastic bag to dwell up to 48hrs.
4c] Make sure the entire bag is soak – that is moisture oozes out of the leather when press with finger – this hydrating will redistribute any marks out evenly.

5] Fatliquor Replenishing:
5a] Use Fatliquor-5.0 apply evenly and let natural dry.
5b] Replenish every 4 hours as the water contents evaporates, the fat and oil is absorbed by the leather until saturation.

6] Protection:
6a] Use Protection-D+


Show pictures if you are doing it right.

Roger Koh
[email protected]


Products you need. . .

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn4/Rogerkoh/V3.jpg
Leather Doctor® Kit V3 : Vachetta Leather Care Kit

Hi Roger here is the progress on this bag
Attachment 788
Attachment 789
Attachment 790
This is after using Rinse 3.0
Attachment 791
This is how it dried, should I rinse it again or proceed with your instructions?
Luis

Repeat the Prep-4.4 on the stain as shown in pictire #1.

Keep the Prep-4.4 continous damp (no air space) for at least another 48 hours for the stain to reverse transfer to the strip of towel/rag.

Lay the bag with the stain facing up.

How long was the dwell from picture #1?

We will talk about how to rectify the discoloration after the stain is gone.


Roger Koh
[email protected]

Dwell time was 2 days, the blue stain is gone from the leather, it is only present on
the thread. but I will repeat the treatment.
Thank You, Luis

I reapplied Prep 4.4 but this time I also used plastic wrap to keep the area from drying.
Luis
Attachment 795

Looks good!

Keep a record of the dwell time, for future reference.

Plastic wrap is to control evaporation, so it does help for the Prep-4.4 to work on the stain (by penetration, lubrication and suspension).

However, for the stain to wick through the paper rag thereafter; the plastic wrapped has to be removed while leaving the paper rag to dry up, bringing the stain through.


Please show pictures of the paper rag "dampness", immediately after the plastic wrap removal.

Show another picture when it is dry.

See if you can see the dye transfer to the paper rag.

Roger Koh
[email protected]

The plastic wrap was left for 24 hrs and then I reapplied Prep-4.4 with a new peace of paper.
Attachment 796
this picture was taken after the removal of the wrap.
Luis

Let's see if the stain is gone when it dries.

This is what it looks like after 24 hrs. It appears that most of the dye was removed except in some areas of the thread.
Attachment 797
I will be leaving for a week on vacation tomorrow, is it necessary of to clean and rinse the leather or can it wait a week
for me to continue working on it? (leaving Prep-4.4 on the leather).
Luis

If the stain is satisfactorily gone, and no intention to use it even after you are back; then it is recommended to remove it with Cleaner-3.8 and Rinse-3.o until squeaky clean.

The other phase of hydrating to even out the appearance prior to fatliquoring replenishing it (to softern) can continue thereaafter.

Hi Roger... I have been using Rinse-3.0 for a while to rinse the leather of Prep-4.0 I think that I have finally rinsed it all out.
What is the next step?

Attachment 842Attachment 843Attachment 844

As you can see after using Cleaner-3.8 and Rinse-3.0 the blue dye is completely gone. I know
that the lighting is different on the first picture but the overall color of the leather is now darker and
there is discoloration on the areas where the blue dye was.
Thank you'
Luis

Use Hydrator-3.3 complete soak it and cling wrapped for 48 to 72 hrs to even out the color.

The purpose is to redistribute and even out the appearance.

You will be able to see through the cling wrapper when it is evens out.

Show pictures if you are doing it correctly.

After wrapping the purse. Where would be the best place to let it rest? Dark room? Indirect sunlight? Direct sunlight? Warm or cold area?
Thank you for your response.
Luis

A warm place will allow the surfactantcy in the solution to be more active.

Tips:

Hydrator-3.3, when used as a leather structure rejuvenator, a complete plumping of the leather structure is highly recommended to realize its full potential. A check with thumb and finger with a little moisture oozing out would be the optimum level of hydration. When this level of moisture is reached, the damp leather is recommended to be sealed off with plastic cling wrapper to control evaporation. Dwelling while fully hydrated for up to 72 hours will deliver the result desired when the leather is further treated for optimum physical appearance.

Here are the pictures
Attachment 850Attachment 851

I understand the need to remove the air space between the plastic wrap and the leather, but because
of the shape of the purse it is very difficult to accomplish this. If you have a tip to get around
this problem please share.
Luis

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...chettacopy.jpg

The two black circle areas show a higher rate of absorbency than the rest of the areas as seen from picture, need to be extended to the entire leather surface.

It is easier to achieve an even absorbency if the entire areas is clean with Prep-4.4 > Cleaner-3.8 > Rinse-3.0 prior to hydrating with Hydrator-3.3. This purpose is to even out the interfacial tension of the leather.

The reason for an even hydration is to redistribute the chemistry within the leather structure to merge and is only when the entire surface is of the same level as the two black circled areas. The question is how to even out the saturation that is the priority, air spaces is not critical for evaporation control (only if it is for reverse transferring of stain to the paper-rag) but the thorough wetting out is.

I would suggest hydrating the leather in this manner, lay paper rag over the surface and wetting it out with Hydrator-3.3 to act as holding reservoir for the hydrator, and then cover it up with the cling wrapper just for controlling evaporation. You may check it periodically 4, 8, 12 or 24 hourly does not matter. You have to inspect that the entire surface is evenly wet out, before the dwelling time starts. In this situation, the paper-rag objective is not for wicking out any stains, so air spaces is not critical, but fully hydration is. Without a good dwelling with full hydration, you will not be able to even out the color difference.

I hope you understand what I mentioned.

Please redo it and see if we are going towards the right direction.

I think I understand, since I am running low on Prep-4.4, I made a lather with distilled water and use a horsehair brush to apply it.
I will check the purse for progress every couple of hours and reapply the solution if needed.
Attachment 852Attachment 853
Thank you
Luis

After 2 hours I saw that the blue liner inside the purse was bleeding
Attachment 854


So I am blotting the inside of the bag with paper towels and will place an air mover to dry the bag from the
inside to prevent the blue dye to wick to the leather on the outside surface.
Attachment 855

It appears that I went to the beginning, in the last picture you can see the blue dye in the tread.
Hopefully it will wick back to the inside of the bag.
Luis

Well, I think you have understood the reason for doing what you are doing.

Do you see progress in the color differences during wet and during dry?

Tips:

The dye bleeding can be control somewhat by applying a mist of Acidifier-2.0 to it.

If the are loose, pull them out during the dwelling instead.

Here are the results after 24 hrs. As you can I was able to keep all the blue dye in the inside of the purse.

Attachment 856


I think that the Prep-4.4 fully penetrated the leather, it feels cold, damp an is limp.
Attachment 857


This last picture shows that there is still a color difference between the
areas that where original stained with blue dye and treated with Prep-4.4 and the rest of the leather.

Attachment 858



I will cover the purse with wrap to keep it from drying until I hear from you what
is the best way to proceed.
Thank you
Luis

"Here are the results after 24 hrs. As you can I was able to keep all the blue dye in the inside of the purse."

The dye stain can be erased using suede Eraser-5 when it is crispy dry, the remaining can be repeated with mist spray Hydrator-3.3 and let the dye stain to wick to the surface; when crispy dry again, repeat erase it until the stain is gone.

"I think that the Prep-4.4 fully penetrated the leather, it feels cold, damp an is limp. I will cover the purse with wrap to keep it from drying until I hear from you what is the best way to proceed."

Yes, leave it under wrap for another 24 hours for internal chemistry redistribution, thereafter let it natural dry and replenish fatliquor evenly concentrating on the lighter areas and feather out (the lighter areas is also due to the lost of fatliquor and the tannin from leaching and moving away from those Prep-4.4 treated areas. The lighter areas will be progressively improved from fatliquor replenishing and when dry treated with d’Tannin-3.5 of the migrating lines and feathering out).

Roger Koh
[email protected]

Here are the pictures after 24 hrs of air drying.

Attachment 881
Attachment 883
Do you want me to apply the fatliquor now, or wait until the leather is fully dry.
Luis

We already see the color differences, most likely the fatliquor are strip off by the Prep-4.4.

Apply Fatliquor-5.0 more the area and feather it out seamlessly across the entire face of the bag to close up the color difference.

I will talk about how to deal with the d’Tannin-3.5 to improve the appearance as well.

So see the improving result from the fatliquor first.

The leather feels smooth and silky 24 hrs after applying the fatliquor.
But the color is not uniform.

Attachment 884Attachment 885


This picture is of one of the side panels
you can see that the color variations is much greater.
Attachment 886

Thank you Roger

Do you have d'Tannin-3.5?

And do you have an airbrush?


We will now reduce the darkening effect and even out the difference in color intensity.

Yes to the first question, no to the airbrush but I can probably
pick one up tomorrow. I am sure that there is a learning curb for its use, so
I will not be good at using one.
Luis

the classic Paasche Model H

I picked it up this morning. What is the next step?
Thank you Roger.
Luis

I don't thing that I am yet an airbrush expert, but I have been practicing with the gun
for the last couple of days and I think that I have got the hang of it.
How do we proceed from here?
Thank you Roger.
Luis

Let's see what gun you have to give you some tips. . .

The one you recomended... the classic Paasche Model H
Luis

The efficient working of the airbrush is very much dependant on the air that supply it.

Anyway. . .

The first step is to lightly spray on the dark edges allowing the d’Tannin-3.5 to just soak in without excess of dripping or streaks.

Leave it to natural dry for inspection prior to the next application.

The final application is to feather out the entire bag with an even application.

The result will only be apparent when the solution dries.

Let’s have some pictures of your on-going application.