Aniline Wax Pull-Up leathers – restore shine and tactile-feel.

Hello,
I recently purchased a used aniline leather couch that has some wear on the leather.
Attached are some pictures of what it looks like.
The seat cushions as well as the armrest have the most wear while the backrest cushions are in good shape.
I am looking for a procedure and your products to treat the leather.
Before I treat it, I would like your opinion on whether I can get the couch looking like new, if I should hire a professional or if there is no way it can look like new.
Please let me know your thoughts, thanks.

#1
Backrest
Attachment 3553


#2
Seat cushion
Attachment 3554


#3
Whole couch, 85" long
Attachment 3555


#4
Comparison, back and seat cushion
Attachment 3556

>>> I recently purchased a used aniline leather couch that has some wear on the leather. Attached are some pictures of what it looks like.

This leather is positively identified as Aniline Wax Pull-Up.
The original appearance looks like picture #4 almost entirely dark brown and you may see similar job done from this forum as well.


>>> Before I treat it, I would like your opinion on whether I can get the couch looking like new, if I should hire a professional or if there is no way it can look like new.

If you can follow instruction, you can restore this leather back to its originality. Even a “professional” have to follow a system. Makes no difference once that follow a proven system will get a better result.


>>> The seat cushions as well as the armrest have the most wear while the backrest cushions are in good shape.
I am looking for a procedure and your products to treat the leather.

Here is the general procedure for restoring both the leather structure and appearance.

A: Restorative Cleaning:
Use Degreaser-2.2 > Rinse-3.0 or Acidifier-2.0 for bleeding control for surface soiling.
Penetrated greasy soiling will require the further work of Hydrator-3.3 to wick out soiling particulates.

B: Redyeing (optional):
Aniline-21

C: Leather Rejuvenation:
Hydrator-3.3 > Fatliquor-5.0 system to replenished diminished fatliquor for leather suppleness when dry.

D: Wax Effect Rejuvenating:
Replenishing the fashion pull-up effect

E: Adhesion Coating Prior to Gloss Topcoat (optional)
Adhesor-73

F: Gloss Topcoat (optional)
AnilineTop-21G

G: Non-stick, Rub-resistant protection
Protector-B+

We will go into more details how to accomplish the above steps when you are ready.


Roger Koh
Leather Care Consultant
[email protected]


Attachment 3557
Leather Doctor Kit Aw7.cl – Aniline Wax Pull-up Leather Dye Refinishing Kit
Leather Doctor® Kit Aw7.cl, aniline wax pull-up leather dye refinishing kit is designed for dyestuff and topcoat refinishing after degreasing in a holistic approach. Most severely penetrated, prolonged and neglected stains from the bare head and hands that show a darkening effect with a sticky feel have its topcoat and dyestuff probably deteriorated by the oil, grease and sweat. When the stain feels sticky, it is a sign of leather denaturing and reverting to rawhide from breaking of bonds with the tanning agent. When sign of color is transfer to a white towel, it indicates that the dyestuff has also break bonds with the protein fiber. When leather is stiff or show signs of whitish residue migrating, it shows that the fatliquor is breaking bonds as well with the protein fiber. The main component of the leather protein fiber is amphoteric while the other constituents are not; shifting of the pH mainly caused from sweat to alkalinity affects the pH imbalance. To revert from denaturing into rawhide prior to topcoat refinishing, contaminated alkaline soiling is removed with Degreaser-2.2, a waterbased (pH 2.2) multifunctional degreaser that emulsifies greasy contamination besides controlling dye bleeding and charging the protein fiber ionic positive for strengthening the attraction between the ionic negative tanning agent, dyestuff and fatliquor. Deflocculated and suspended soiling is towel extracted, thereafter rinse and pH balanced with Acidifier-2.0 to prevent the leather from reverting to rawhide. When leather feels sticky or slimy it is a sign of leather denaturing, a squeaky feel when wet is a sign of healthy leather. Hydrator-3.3 relaxes stiff leathers and removes surface tension free from surface blotchiness prior to fat and oil replenishing. Fat and oil is replenished with Fatliquor-5.0 to rejuvenate the leather for the desired suppleness when dry. Wax Effect-8.6 rejuvenates the structural wax pull-up effect and coagulates a cloudy waxy coating on the surface to be heat activated into the characteristic glossy sheen. Protector-D+ enhances a non-stick draggy-feel to shield against sticky soiling, besides healing and concealing lightening scuff and abrasion marks. Note that the mentioned product suffix number denotes its pH value in this holistic leather-safe aniline wax pull-up leathers topcoat and dyestuff refinishing system. Please email [email protected] for custom matching services or choice of color: Black, Yellow, Orange, Red, Red- Brown, Rubine, Blue, Navy-Blue or Dark-Brown. This kit comes with reduced weight option to save on shipping thus the 250ml concentrate ratio such as Acidifier-2.0, Wax Effect-8.6, Hydrator-3.3 and Fatliquor-5.0 has to be cut or filled up with distilled water prior to use.


Attachment 3558

Thanks Roger. Can you please walk me through the first step of Restorative Cleaning.


A: Restorative Cleaning:
Use Degreaser-2.2 > Rinse-3.0 or Acidifier-2.0 for bleeding control for surface soiling.
Penetrated greasy soiling will require the further work of Hydrator-3.3 to wick out soiling particulates.

If you refer to the leather problem-solving guide, restorative cleaning would mean removing all foreign soiling both penetrated and surface before we can move on the next phase of process. It is the contribution from all the processing stages that deliver the end result and especially for a aniline finishes, it is transparent and the beauty and blemishes will all show through – there is no cover up – it has to be clean at the purest state.

The first phase is highlighted as A: Restorative Cleaning using the suggest product system. However, soiling may comes from various type based and may require specialty products to remove them all as you see under “Stain Type” from the guide.

Looking at picture #2, restorative cleaning becomes the toughest as we are working on unknown and forgotten stains, the rest of the phase is quite straightforward.

In practice, in this situation we will pick the worst soiling condition cushion and work it out.

1: Degreaser-2.2 is worked into the leather structure with the help of horsehair Brush-1 and Eraser-4 as most of the stain are penetrated and what we see may be just a tip of an iceberg, the greater volume may slowly move out in each drying cycle until all appears clean. Suspended soiling particulates are extracted with a white terry towel until towel shows clean. Next is the rinsing either with the standard Rinse-3.0 or Acidifier-2.0 for bleeding control and protonating the amphoteric leather protein fiber at the same time for more greater ionic attraction between the protein fiber and the leather constituents like the tanning agents, dyestuff and fatliquor.
Below surface suspended soiling will need Hydrator-3.3 to bring it out of the surface by facilitating colloidal water movement. Optimum hydrating is achieve when moisture ooze out when press between finger and thumb. When this moisture level is achieved evenly, it is left to dwell for up to 72hours under control with cling wrapping. When moisture level diminishes it is top up periodically. Massaging the leather through the plastic wrapping will help colloidal water movement, redistributing the leather constituents and wicking up foreign soiling particulates to the surface to be extracted when wet and erased with Eraser-4 when crispy dry. After the 72hours dwell time, extraction of surface soiling the leather surface is cover-up with stretchable paper towel that comes with the kit, this “reverse transfer” technique helps to trap soiling particulates as it wick through the paper towel as an extension of the leather surface instead of still remaining on the leather surface.
When the paper towel is peel off when crispy dry, surface erased with Eraser-4, the surface is subject to a scrutinizing inspection. Any non-grease related soiling may still be around and have to be treated individually until the surface is free of any foreign contamination. All the proceeding phases will be a straight forward process hardly a “U” turn, but for restorative cleaning may need repeats and often “U” turns.