Aniline Wax Pull-Up - leathers with darkened hand rests and the shine is gone - Restoration Hardware Churchhill - Please help!

[rsteagall]

Greetings.

I recently bought a used Churchill chair from Restoration Hardware that has an aniline leather. The arms look like they needed a little attention where the hands rest because they had darkened. I used a VERY lightly damn towel to wipe these areas. When I did, the color got a little better - but the shine is now gone. I've since tried to use Leather CPR on the spots, but still... the shine is gone.

I know I probably should have come here first because there is a lot of misinformation out there. Restoration hardware is who told me to use Leather CPR and another website mentioned damp rag.

Right now, I'm at the point that I really just want to restore the sheen/shine to the finish. To me the finish looks a little waxy and I've read some stuff about using some different beeswax products to fix this... but I didn't want to jump the gun like I did before. I'm accepting the fact that the chair is going to get a natural patina that I need not worry about and now wish I had simply done nothing to maintain, clean, or condition.

Please help. Any advise would be great! Thank you in advance!

[Roger Koh]

You may be talking about Aniline Wax Pull-up leathers - we do their warehouse damaged repairs through their contractor - probably the sales people are not aware off.

The darkening of the hand-rest is from body contact, these oil, grease and sweat cause the darkening effect. For penetrated stains you may need Degreaser-2.2 follows by Rinse-3.0.

The shines of the aniline wax pull-up comes both from the activated Wax Effect-8.6 and the Topcoat Aniline-79G (gloss).

The complete holistic restoration for Aniline Wax Pull-up in this case is as follows:

A Degreasing:
1. Degreaser-2.2 > Rinse-3.0

B Leather Structure Primary Rejuvenation:
1. Hydrator-3.3 > Fatliquor-5.0

C. Fashion Wax Pull-up Effect Secondary Rejuvenation:
1. Wax Effect-8.6

D. Shine Urethane Protective Topcoating:
1. Adhesor-73 > Topcoat Aniline-79G

E. Non-stick, run-resistant protection with the classic leather scent:
1. Leather Scent-D (draggy-feel)

This is the leather care kit for Aniline Wax Pull-up leathers

Leather Doctor® Aniline Wax Pull-Up Leather Care Kit-AW3

Contents:
Degreaser-2.2 – 60ml
Prep-4.4 – 60ml
Cleaner-3.8 – 250ml
Rinse-3.0 – 250ml
Hydrator-3.3 – 250ml
Fatliquor-5.0 – 250ml
Wax Effect-8.6 - 250ml
Leather Scent-D – 120ml
Leather (horsehair) Brush-1 – 1pc
3” Poly-Brush® - 1pc
Washable Rags – 5pcs

You may add-on these two products to the kit

Adhesor-73


Topcoat Aniline-79G



Aniline Wax Pull-Up Leather Problem Solving Guide

Product description and instruction can be found in this link: http://www.leathercleaningrestoratio...read.php?t=360

You are encourage to ask questions!

Good if you have pictures, to help to confirm the leather type!


Roger Koh
[email protected]

[rsteagall]

Thanks for your reply. I finally took a few pictures to verify the style/type of leather. Hopefully you can verify the color too since you are familiar with Restoration Hardware furniture. I took pictures of the back and both arms.

Thanks again for your help!

[Roger Koh]

Pictures show that it is Aniline Wax Pull-up leathers.

The color could be Red Brown or a combination of Yellow and Orange – yet to be determined with a sample match.

Color can be tricky if you are just doing only the damaged area; it’s only recommended when you intend to do the entire piece.

That’s why I did not mentioned about putting new color; it would be best we can activate from the existing leather structure by Hydrator-3.3 after degreasing of all foreign contamination.

How do you want to go from here?

And I will explain the reason behind each sequence of process and the possible outcome.

Roger Koh
[email protected]

[rsteagall]

Pictures show that it is Aniline Wax Pull-up leathers.

The color could be Red Brown or a combination of Yellow and Orange – yet to be determined with a sample match.

Color can be tricky if you are just doing only the damaged area; it’s only recommended when you intend to do the entire piece.

That’s why I did not mentioned about putting new color; it would be best we can activate from the existing leather structure by Hydrator-3.3 after degreasing of all foreign contamination.

How do you want to go from here?

And I will explain the reason behind each sequence of process and the possible outcome.

Roger Koh
[email protected]

Roger, sorry for my lack of response. It was a busy week and then on top of that I got he flu!

I agree with you 100% I do not want to mess with a full restoration or anything dealing with color. At least I want to get the shine back on. Right now, I don't even care about discoloration. Ignoring all color problems, it sounds like you are suggesting a degreasing/rehydrate and then a wax pull-up finish?

[Roger Koh]

I agree with you 100% I do not want to mess with a full restoration or anything dealing with color. At least I want to get the shine back on. Right now, I don't even care about discoloration. Ignoring all color problems, it sounds like you are suggesting a degreasing/rehydrate and then a wax pull-up finish?

Yes besides, we want to know if these hand rest areas leather is healthy (stickiness or sliminess is a bad sign when test with wet fingers - it's a sign of leather denaturing - reverting back to rawhide); especially when leathers is exposed to alkalinity.

Let us know the result of your testing.


I am reposting your picture for a better view, and see if I can pick up further information.

And picture #3 shows that the topcoating is damaged - the existing deteriorated topcoating is recommended to be removed; smoothen with 1500grit sanding in between Topcoat Aniline-79G (gloss).


I will re-summarize the entire process WITHOUT putting in new colors, but reactivate from the leather structure instead.


Roger Koh
[email protected]


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