1989 Chanel lambskin creasing, stiffness, loss of puffiness

Hi Roger, thanks for your warm welcome.
I have a 1989-1991 beige lambskin. I'm not sure if it has been recolored. You might be able to tell. Attachment 10307Attachment 10308Attachment 10309Attachment 10310Attachment 10311Attachment 10312Attachment 10313Attachment 10314

I'd need help restoring it to its full suppleness, puffiness, shape as best as possible. It's my first time doing this so I'd need your help in as much detail as possible. Do you have a video guide which I can follow?
Length of time needed for each step, time lapse between each step and what to expect after each step.

Thank you in advance.
Kindest,
Katelyn

>>> >>> I'd need help restoring it to its full suppleness, puffiness, shape as best as possible.

Simply said, your leather becomes too dry of its original fatliquor (fat and oil) which is why the leather structure shrunk and collapsed resulting in loss of suppleness, puffiness, and the loss of form and shape.

"Fatliquor is the life-blood of Leather". A tannery standard is about 14% of fat and oil in the leather structure. Just like your car engine oil dries up too and will need periodic filling up, got the idea, hahaha!

The fatliquor system is found in every kit, and here is the beginner Kit-A3
Attachment 10315

And here is the link:
https://www.leatherdoctor.com/leathe...e-care-kit-a3/

Here are a copy and paste, let me know if you need further explanation.

Restorative Care:

This is the ultimate restorative or salvage care system that removes accumulated soiling including aged conditioners. Accumulated soiling that fills creases is often mistaken for cracks. Using Prep-4.4 performs restorative cleaning. It works by chemical reaction to emulsify soiling through its penetrating, lubricating and suspending power. Horsehair detailing Brush-1 is recommended to worked into heavily soiled areas sufficiently to avoid excessive agitation that might damage already weaken finishes especially on heavily used areas by . . .

1st step - Restorative Cleaning:
Instruction . . .
1- Apply Prep-4.4 and agitate with horsehair Brush-1, ensuring a uniform application over the entire surfaces a section at a time.
2- Allow a dwell time of 10 to 30 minutes or before it dries prior to towel extraction until it shows clean.
3- Sticky residue is removed by Clean-3.8 with gentle brush agitation and towel extracts until it shows clean.
4- Remaining residues are spray rinse with Rinse-3.0 and towel extracts to a squeaky-clean.
5- Let dry and inspect for satisfaction, otherwise repeat the cleaning process as necessary or proceed to hydrating.

Hydrating is essential to relax and separate the stick together collapsing fibrous structure. Its surfactants help check for the surface tension of blotchiness prior to fat and oil replenishing.

2nd step – Hydrating:
Instruction . . .
1- Spray Hydrator-3.3 to saturate with an even appearance to soften up the leather.
2- Let dwell 10 to 30 minutes and towel extract wick up soiling until it shows clean. Fat and oil replenishing maintains the leather’s structure integrity and pliability thus strengthen this exposed leather from cracking.

3rd step – Fatliquoring:
Instruction . . .
1- Spray Fatliquor-5.0 in like manner as Hydrator-3.3 and let dry naturally.
2- Repeat application in between drying until saturated.
3- The leather is left for slow natural drying for extra softness.
4- Surface strays are wiped with Hydrator-3.3 to free of sticky residue.

4th step – Protecting: Instruction . . .
1- Mist sprays Protector-B spread with a lint-free towel and is ready for use when dry.


>>> It's my first time doing this so I'd need your help in as much detail as possible.

On-Time coaching is available @ US$99/- an hour, just email me if you are interested.

Further reading. . . .

LeatherFatliquor-5.0 conditioner by Leather Doctor is an anionic negative (-ve) charged micro-emulsion of fat, oil, and water for rejuvenating all leather, and suede types. Leather fat-liquor conditioner is typically used in conjunction with LeatherHydrator-3.3 to relax and open up the fibrous leather structure. Leather fat-liquor conditioner softens the leather when dry with stretch-ability, compress-ability, and flex-ability while enhancing its rip tensile strength greatly. Fat-liquor conditioner is for replenishing the original fat and oil that diminishes through sun bleaching, aging, heat, and alkaline overexposure or cleaning. On application, the water-encased molecule breaks free when ionic attraction takes place between the fat and oil with the leather protein fiber. The excess free water content wicks out leaving a breathing space behind for leather natural transpiration. The fat plumps the leather with fullness from easily collapsing into creases and wrinkles during stress or flex, while the oil lubricates the fibers so that they slide over one another smoothly like millions of inter-connecting hinges. This helps to keep leather at its optimum physical performance and prevent premature aging. This universal LeatherFatliquor-5.0 is for all leather types including pigmented, aniline, vachetta, nubuck, suede, hair-on-hide, and woolskin. Size options are available in 'Fill' and 'Con'. Fill is concentrate in the bottle to be cut/mix and fills with distilled water prior to use to save on shipping. The 'Con' is concentrated to be cut/mix with distilled water at a ratio of 1: 5 prior to use.

Leather Approximate Quantity or Percentage of Fat-liquor:
The quantities of fat-liquor (fat and oil) contents retained in the leather after a universal tannery fat-liquoring process may vary up from 14% to 16% depending on the leather types and their usage. This percentage drops as the fat and oil content diminish or leaches through aging, water, heat, or chemical overexposure. Leather rejuvenating or fat-liquor replenishing is base on the weight of the leather in relation to the percentage of remaining fat-liquor. A simple calculation of the percentage of fat-liquor topping up requirement would be as follows: If the weight of the leather in question is 100gm and fat-liquor (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% fat-liquor when dry as the 66.6% water contents evaporate. 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 fat-liquoring including cleaning up any excess surface remnants to have a sticky-free surface. In practice, with severe dryness, the ratio for LeatherHydrator-3.3 is 2 to 1 of LeatherFatliquor-5.0. It works out to be approximately 160gm of LeatherHydrator-3.3 plus 80gm of LeatherFatliquor-5.0 to replenish a 100gm dry leather from less than 1% back to the original tannery up from 14% to 16% fat-liquor content. In every bottle of LeatherFatliquor-5.0 by weight, content is comprised 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.


Attachment 10316
Roger Koh
Leather, Skin, Hair, Eye & Acne Care System Formulator
Consultant / Practitioner / Instructor / Coach
web: www.leatherdoctor.com
forum: www.leathercleaningrestorationforum.com
email: [email protected]

Hello Roger, thanks for the step-by-step instructions. I will get this kit then. How about the inner pocket that is glued shut from 'old age'? How can I fix it with this kit?

Thanks,
K

>>> How about the inner pocket that is glued shut from 'old age'?

It is possible that the aged finishes got fused together, and when separating might cause delamination from the weaker side.


>>> How can I fix it with this kit?

The Protector-B/B+ is for the prevention of such sticking together, as it produces a non-stick surface.
Depending on how stubborn the stick-together of the finishes is, using this Protector-B/B+ may help, and leaving it alone will prevent future sticking-together.

Hi Roger, would you say that I should peel it completely open (because the pocket section is completely stuck) and use protector B/B+ inside after I peel open?
What about the corners? Would just using the kit make it look better? Is there a same colour dye I could use to touch up the corners?

>>> Hi Roger, would you say that I should peel it completely open (because the pocket section is completely stuck) and use protector B/B+ inside after I peel open?

Option-1: If you just want to use Protector-B/B+ thereafter to prevent future stick together, then yes, just use the Protector-B/B+ to apply and gently peel them apart.

Option-2: If you intend to make some finish repair then use Hydrator-3.3 and do the same peeling apart.
After refinishing repairs then you use Protector-B/B+ to protect from sticking together.


>>> What about the corners?

The corners will need repairs and matching color refinishing.


>>> Would just using the kit make it look better?

Please be specific about looking better.
Restorative Care:
This is the ultimate restorative or salvage care system that removes accumulated soiling including aged conditioners. Accumulated soiling that fills creases is often mistaken for cracks. Using Prep-4.4 performs restorative cleaning. It works by chemical reaction to emulsify soiling through its penetrating, lubricating and suspending power. Horsehair detailing Brush-1 is recommended to worked into heavily soiled areas sufficiently to avoid excessive agitation that might damage already weaken finishes especially on heavily used areas by . . .


>>> Is there a same colour dye I could use to touch up the corners?
You can see an example of color matching here:
https://leatherdoctor.com/leather-co...ching-service/