Very dirty and used Ekornes Stressless recliner

[Boris]

Hello,

I had come across this Ekornes Stressless leather recliner on the side of the road.

I do not know the history of it, but it looks very used and abused.

I'm unsure how to start cleaning it, but it has a slight smell of cigarette smoke, and feels dirty to the touch.

It also has a small hole, and various cracking.

What would you recommend to try and resurrect a little more life back into it?

Please see pictures below:

Recliner outside:
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Recliner inside:
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Recliner inside 2:
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Hole closeup:
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Cracking closeup:
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[Roger Koh]

>>> I had come across this Ekornes Stressless leather recliner on the side of the road.

I too will pick it up, this is one of the most comfortable armchairs that is stress-free for long sitting.


>>> I do not know the history of it,

The history of leather is a long process that starts when the cow that was grown in the field, its skin discarded from the slaughterhouse, and it is transformed from the tannery into useful leather and sold to the upholsterer to make into this comfortable recliner. If the hide is recycled from used and abused once into leather, then neglected, used, and abused leather can be recycled many more times with the same principle practice in today's modern tannery.

>>> but it looks very used and abused. I'm unsure how to start cleaning it, but it has a slight smell of cigarette smoke and feels dirty to the touch. It also has a small hole and various cracks. What would you recommend to try and resurrect a little more life back into it?

I recommend a holistic approach to resurrecting bringing it back close to the showroom condition possible. Here is the matching combination system.

Step 1: Prep Cleaning.
Stripper 2.3 and Acidifier 2.0 system.

Step 2: Hydrating and Softening.
Hydrator 3.3 and Fatliquor 5.0 system.

Step 3: Structure Strengthening.
Impregnator 26 system.

Step 4: Repairs.
Bond 3D, Patch 4S, Stucco 90 system.

Step 5: Adhesion or Primer Coating.
Adhesor 73 system.

Step 6: Dye Coating.
Aniline 76 system.

Step 7: Top Coating.

Step 8: Non-Stick Rub-Resistant Protection.
Protector B or leather scent Protector B Plus.

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Aniline Leather Redyeing Kit A7.cl
https://leatherdoctor.com/aniline-leather-redyeing-kit-a7-cl/

Read through the individual products and we can discuss the pros and cons of using them to produce the result to your highest expectation.

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Roger Koh
Leather Care System Formulator
Consultant / Practitioner / Instructor / Coach
web: www.leatherdoctor.com (http://www.leatherdoctor.com)
forum: www.leathercleaningrestorationforum.com (http://www.leathercleaningrestorationforum.com)
email: [email protected],
email: [email protected]
phone: 604 773 1878

[Boris]

Thank you for the recommendation!

I see you have kits for both aniline and semi-analine. Some of which carry similar products.

I had watched one YouTube video about a Stressless recliner that mentioned it was semi-aniline.

Would I have to take care for any special instructions on using this kit if the recliner is indeed semi-aniline?

I am reading through the products now.

I see this kit comes with both the Aniline 21 and Aniline 76 dyes. Do you use the 21 first, and then only use 76 if greater coverage is required?

Do you know what repair products you would recommend for those blackened areas?
To me it seems like Adhesor 73 would do the trick, but there are two long creases that look to have worn in deeper than the rest. Would you use Impregnator 26 for something like that?

There are also small dimples from some kind of damage. My best guess would be maybe cigarette burns.
Would I use Impregnator 26 to fill the small dips, and can it be textured by padding it with the patch to help blend it in?

Regarding the hole, since it's recommended to patch the hole suede side to suede side, would you then fill the resulting gap with Impregnator 26?

I'd also like to double check where in the process the repair comes in.

As I understand it, the steps would be:

Clean and Strip:
- Stripper 2.3
- Degreaser 2.2
- Acidifier 2.0
- Clean 3.8**
- Rinse 3.0**

Hydrate:
- Hydrator 3.3
- Fatliquor 5.0

Repair Hole, lines, etc.
- Bond 3D/Patch 4S
- Impregnator 26
- Adhesor 73

Redye:
- Aniline 21
- Aniline 76 if needed
- Aniling Top 76G

Protection Coat:
- Protector B

** Since Acidifier 2.0 can be used as a rinse, is it necessary to use Clean 3.8 and Rinse 3.0 after the initial Stripper and Degreaser steps?

[Boris]

Hi Roger,

Apologies, I had went to the product page for that kit, and spent time trying to compile the steps myself based on those products, before I replied back to your original post to see that you had already done that. This inadvertently caused me to have a bunch of questions.

I'm going to order the products based off your steps.

[Roger Koh]

Thanks, Boris, for your confidence in the Leather Doctor system.

After looking through your order, you will need extra Adhesor 73 and Aniline 76 (Antique-Brown) both in 8oz size to complete Steps 5 & 6.

Step 5: Adhesion or Primer Coating.
Adhesor 73 system.

https://leatherdoctor.com/adhesor-73/


Step 6: Dye Coating.
Aniline 76 system.

https://leatherdoctor.com/aniline-coating-dye-76/

[Boris]

All of the products arrived. I'm going to start with the stripping and cleaning steps soon.

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[Boris]

So here are the products I'm starting with:

- The A7.cl kit
- Extra bigger bottle of Aniline Topcoat 76G
- Extra quart size of Stripper 2.3
- Extra spray bottle of Acidifier 2.0
- Extra bigger bottle of Aniline Dye 76
- Extra bigger bottle of Adhesor 73
- Leather repair Kit A8.r

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I'm currently working with the Stripper 2.3. There are light brown areas where it seems like it is not doing anything. Maybe the leather here already had any coatings worn away?

The Stripper 2.3 is able to clean off the dark brown areas, however it takes quite some scrubbing with the brush, and a few applications of Stripper 2.3 to get results. I'm able to do this about 1 square inch at a time.

I've tried using the Eraser, however the brush seems to make more progress.

It will definitely take me a few days to go over the whole chair with the stripper at this pace.

I've used up the small spray bottle of Stripper 2.3 that came in the A7.cl kit, and was able to do about 5% of the chair.

Here is a 51 second video showing about 25 minutes worth of continuous scrubbing with the brush:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX1nE4hh2lc

Here is a photo showing just how much the stripper can take off. This was nearly an hour's worth of scrubbing:

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[Roger Koh]

This is a two-tone fashion finish, the primary color is light-brown and the secondary the dark-brown.
The light-brown is usually a pigment paint that produces a mono-tone appearance, it is usually tougher than the secondary coloring which is more decorative to produce the desired texture effect.
A color repair to damage is performed with Leather Paint Micro 54 from this link
https://leatherdoctor.com/leather-paint-micro-54/.
Here is an example of color shading:
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[Roger Koh]

>>> The Stripper 2.3 is able to clean off the dark brown areas, however, it takes quite some scrubbing with the brush, and a few applications of Stripper 2.3 to get results. I'm able to do this about 1 square inch at a time. I've tried using the Eraser, however, the brush seems to be making more progress.

The leather horse hair brush is safe but slow, to speed up the stripping perhaps a Strip Brush 9 should be tried out from this link:
https://leatherdoctor.com/strip-brush-9/

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[Boris]

Hi Roger, since I already have the Aniline Dye 76 products, can I just use that and skip the Paint Micro 54?
I'm not looking to reproduce the finish accurately. I'm just looking to get it in a nice looking usable state, whatever color it turns out to be.

Regarding stripping the finish -- I think I may have a small nylon brush laying around -- I can try this to see what the effect is.
I've also ordered a horse hair brush in two other sizes to see if it would help with progress.
Just for fun, I also found a set of small horse-hair brushes for a rotary tool. I was going to try this on low speed to see how it would perform.

[Boris]

Thanks Roger,

Considering I already have all the Aniline Dye 76 product, can I just use that?
I'm not looking to necessarily reproduce the original finish. I'd just like the recliner back in a usable healthy state, regardless of what color it ends up being.

I had a small hobby nylon brush laying around that I tried. It may have been a tiny bit faster, but it was hard to tell.

I've ordered some slightly larger horse hair brushes to see if that may increase the working area by a little bit.

I've also ordered some small horse hair rotary tool brushes to see if this method would still safely remove any finish if approached slowly.

[Roger Koh]

>>> Considering I already have all the Aniline Dye 76 product, can I just use that?

Yes, the primary base color is optional, and the top secondary color intensity depends on layers to cover up any color differences.

Thanks for sharing with us your experience in stripping unwanted finishes the safest and fastest method.

[Boris]

So I've made little progress on the recliner, but I've done some tests to try and establish a method.

I think the headrest may be more stubborn than other areas, as some test spots on the seat and armrests stripped a little bit easier.

I took this quick overview video highlighting some of the more obvious damages to the recliner itself:

1min 1sec:

https://youtu.be/OMFK3YP8teE

This is when I first started testing the eraser and horse hair brush:

1min 40 sec:

https://youtu.be/rlLJ0EmpaoA

I had unfortunately caused some damage to the leather with the eraser when I was still getting a feel for how the products worked. It's a bit hard to watch now, but it was a learning experience:

1min 27sec:

https://youtu.be/qU1_ppUaVqo

I've tried a nylon brush I had laying around, but it didn't seem to make too much of a difference.
It seemed to me that the Stripper 2.3 was doing more work than the actual scrubbing itself, so I decided to test a spot that would dwell in the product for 3 minutes:

1min 47sec:

https://youtu.be/sPznecz50aI

I did want to try a horse-hair brush on a rotary tool. Surprisingly this did less than just brushing it by hand. But it was worth a try:

1min 18sec:

https://youtu.be/JLXAipDnlJc

The spot that had dwelled for 3 minutes took half the time. This gave me some hope.
I decided to try and spray a larger area, cover it in plastic wrap, and let it dwell for 5 minutes.
Unfortunately, I think the leather may have absorbed the liquid in this case, as it was dry when I peeled the plastic off, and did not seem to make a difference from no dwell time at all:

2min 14sec:

https://youtu.be/mFG3tNFnQ_c

Next steps for me are to disassemble the chair so I can work on the individual pieces easier.
It looks like the most effective method in my case would be to spray one small spot to let dwell for a few minutes while I work on another spot, to continuously have a spot dwelling in Stripper 2.3 as I move.

[Roger Koh]

Boris, it was quite relaxing and educational watching these videos.

I used the 'Strip Brush 9' which is a stiff nylon, and I find it works faster than the soft horsehair brush, can you show us in picture of your nylon brush used?

We can also discuss the best approach to repairs and restoration from your overview video after this stripping step.