Originally Posted by
Roger Koh
>>> Is this a result from not properly prepping the leather with the degreaser?
Hydrator-3.3 > Fatliquor-5.0 > Hydrator-3.3 system commences once the leather sweatband is free from grease and its pH balance to charge the leather protein fiber ionic positive (+ve) to hydrogen bond with the ionic negative (-ve) fatliquor (fat and oil).
When the leather contamination from body grease that clogs up the fibrillary spaces, there is little room for the fat and oil content to make contact with the leather fibers.
The sweat contamination shift the leather fibers ionic negative (-ve) as leather is an amphoteric material, thus it will need Acidifier-2.0 (with a pH value of less than 2.0) to pH balance the leather protein fiber back to the ionic positive (+ve) state.
Fatliquoring works by hydrogen bonding, and pH value of the leather has to be conditioned to an acidic pH value of between 3 and 5 with the help of Acidifier-2.0.
What I am sharing with you is the theory and practice of leather chemists in every modern tannery.
The practice follows the proven theory and may go wrong when the preparation is not up to standard, as in this case.
>>> Or was the sweatband just already too damaged?
It is possibly correct that beyond a certain threshold, the sweatband is too damaged to be restored.