Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
No one could ever say you're afraid to innovate!  |
I wish I could say it was...
I learned to do this at a commercial leather cleaning facility, the sort that your neighborhood dry cleaners send your leather to, after you sign a waiver saying they are not responsible for damages... Years ago I found an old sheepskin jacket at a yard sale for 50 cents. It had been soaked in a mudpuddle (at least that's what it looked like) then wadded up into a ball and stuffed in a corner of a hot attic for 25 years. I bought it, went to a dry cleaner who flat out refused to accept it, but gave me the name of the commercial facility he used in Boston. I rode down there and managed to get a tour of the place, and some good advice about cleaning leather, advice that boggled my brains as it was sooooo counter to everything I knew up to that point about leather. And at that point I had been crafting it for about 10 years already!
The 'damage' part that we waive away isn't the leather itself getting ruined. (It takes a lot to ruin leather.) It's the stitching that hold the leather garments together when they are thrown into humongus washing machines with really seriously powerful detergent mixes, thoroughly soaked and pounded while weighing more than a Volkswagon! Often the stitching just can't take the weight of the leather around it. Or if the garment is thin leather that's been chrome tanned, the stitching might tear right through the leather itself. You can't imagine the weight of a soaking wet leather jacket. Not just wet 'outside.' Completely soaked. I can't put one into my washing machine. It would just give me an error msg of 'Overloaded.' That's why I washed my jacket last week in the bathtub, (tramping on it like Lucille Ball doing grapes, with a cleaning solution of 'Simple Green,' 'Joy' dish washing liquid, and 'Tide' detergent,) then laid it out on the floor to dry half way before I risked hanging it to dry completely. But now that it's dry, I needed to rejuvenate the leather with a conditioner, really working it into the skin. The jacket isn't too heavy now, so it can go into the dryer to get beaten on with a dumbbell! An hour of that and the jacket looks brand new, but soft and supple just the way a well worn jacket should feel!
Stitchawl