Crackling, Scuffing and Tearing are sisters effect of leather dryness - When leather dries of it original fatliquor (ionic charged fat and oil) from average 15% for vegetable-tanned leathers it will continuous to loose its tensile strength. A healthy leather should have a tensile-strength of about 2000psi. Below 1800psi weakness of the leather begins to manifest. Fatliquor is the lifeblood of leathers - Just like our car engine will also require constant periodic top-up of its engine oil - otherwise the engine piston will fail soon. In leather, it is the fat in the fatliquor that plumps up the leather with fullness and the oil that lubricates the millions of interconnecting fibrils that works like hinges to give the smoothness of flex without the heavy creases also know as “coarse breaks”.
Recommend:
Remove all surface soiling, otherwise it will contaminate both the Hydrator-3.3 and Fatliquor-5.0 system.
See this Aniline (A.fs) Full Sauvage Leather Problem Solving Matrix:
See Row #4, 5 & 6 - Cleaning products prior to step 4 and 5 (Hydrator-3.3 > Fatliquor-5.0 > Hydrator-3.3) system will need to match the severity of soiling, “Stain and Odor Type” will also need to be contained prior to rejuvenating the leather with Hydrator-3.3 > Fatliquor-5.0 > Hydrator-3.3.
B - Leather Stiffness and Unnatural Creases Rectification: Leather stiffness is fibers structure that becomes stick together when leather commonly gets wet and in most cases fatliquor leaches out. Severe stiffness results when leather lost its fatliquor under heat over-exposure and should be handle with caution from cracking it. Leather creases are unnatural wrinkles resulting from the collapsing empty leather fiber structure due to diminishing fatliquor (fat and oil) content.To plumps, relaxes and separates crushed, shrunk and stick together fibrils by manipulating away-unwanted stiffness and unnatural creases is as follows - Instruction . . . B1- The thickness of the leather is saturated to an optimum level with moistures oozing out when gently pressed between thumb and fingers with Hydrator-3.3. B2- The leather is cover up with plastic wrapping to control evaporation and let it dwell up to 72hrs for complete hydration or saturation. B3- It is then manipulate by staking, stretching, massaging or cross flexing to relax the leather to satisfaction. B4- With satisfaction and allowing up to 25% combine moisture content or when a cotton dry towel remains dry from wiping and the leather is still damp with Hydrator-3.3, fatliquoring begins before the leather is completely dry. B5- The fatliquored leather is left to slow dry and any surface shining residue is driven into the leather structure by brushing in conjunction with Hydrator-3.3 until milky residue if any turns crystal clear. B6- The surface clear moisture is extract with a cotton towel until towel shows dry. B7- Begin staking, stretching, massaging or cross flexing one more time before the leather is completely dried for the desired suppleness. Best result is manipulating the leather structure to dryness for extra desired suppleness. Read more of Hydrator-3.3 other usage … http://www.leatherdoctor.com/hydrator-3-3/
Leather Approximate Quantity or Percentage of Fatliquor:
The quantities of fatliquor (fat and oil) contents retained in the leather after an universal tannery fatliquoring process may varies up from 14% to 16% depending on the leather types and it usage. This percentage drops as the fat and oil content diminishes or leaches through ageing, water, heat or chemical overexposure.
Leather rejuvenating or fatliquor replenishing is base on weight of the leather in relation to the percentage of remaining fatliquor. A simple calculation of percentage of fatliquor topping up requirement would be as follows:
If the weight of the leather in question is 100gm and fatliquor (fat and oil) content meter reading is less than 1%.
By applying 80gm of Fatliquor-5.0 to it will deliver an end result incremental of 13.3% fatliquor when dry as the 66.6% water contents evaporates.
In the leather rejuvenating Hydrator-3.3 > Fatliquor-5.0 > Hydrator-3.3 system, Hydrator-3.3 plays an important role by relaxing, opening up the inter-fibrillary spaces, facilitating and redistributing colloidal water movement, protonating and doing all the pre-conditioning work prior to fatliquoring including cleaning up any excess surface remnants to have a sticky-free surface. In practice with severe dryness the ratio for Hydrator-3.3 is 2 to 1 of Fatliquor-5.0.
It works out to be approximately 160gm of Hydrator-3.3 plus 80gm of Fatliquor-5.0 to replenish a 100gm dry leather from less than 1% back to the original tannery up from 14% to 16% fatliquor content.
In every bottle of Fatliquor-5.0 by weight content is comprises of 16.66% ionic negative (-ve) charged fat and oil, and 83.33% of water, the water content that encased the fat and oil molecule in an emulsion suspension when hydrogen bond with the ionic positive (+ve) leather protein fiber will break free and discharged clear from the leather structure to the surface.
Instruction:
1 Warm-up and shake well to a full emulsion for better penetration.
2 Apply Fatliquor-5.0 and redistribute with foam brush until saturation.
3 Repeat applications each time water contents evaporate until fully saturated.
4 Drive remaining surface remnants free of milky fat and oil until it turns clear with Hydrator-3.3.
5 Allow natural drying for extra softness.
6 Suppleness of leathers is further stake or massage or flex accordingly with a little wet back with Hydrator-3.3.
Caution:
Insufficient fatliquoring (fat and oil) content may suffer cracking from staking, massaging or flexing.
Tips:
1 When crispy dry, prior surface contaminations/damages may darkens as soiling particulates resurface.
2 Removes soiling particulates with Eraser-4 for all leathers including nubuck and Eraser-5 for suede.
3 Stretching the darken areas lightly will also lightens the appearance.
Read more . . . http://www.leatherdoctor.com/fatliquor-5-0/
Roger Koh
Leather Care System Formulator
Consultant / Practitioner / Instructor
web: www.leatherdoctor.com
forum: www.leathercleaningrestorationforum.com
email: [email protected]
