I've always liked them. I wanted one but never got one. I really shouldn't since I don't carry wristlets.
Coach Rehab and Rescue Club
- Thread starter greenpixie
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Looks great! Very plump! You did great on the ink too!Regina is done! It only took 2 weeks to get her smoke free. I hope!Thank you so much to everyone for all the great advice and for gasping with me over the ink spreading. I did get the ink out of the front! Now that it's done, I'm so glad I kept the bag and did my first dunking. It was so amazing to feel the bag while washing it. It still had so much moisture in it. Now I want to feel the even better vintage leather! I love how rich the leather and color look after conditioning. The British Tan is much darker and there's more of that red undertone.
Before:
View attachment 4392321
After:
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I got the ink off the front of the bag and there is just a hint of it on the bottom where the ink came from. It looks better in person but this picture highlights it well:
View attachment 4392324
It’s beautifulRegina is done! It only took 2 weeks to get her smoke free. I hope!
Before:
View attachment 4392321
After:
View attachment 4392322
I got the ink off the front of the bag and there is just a hint of it on the bottom where the ink came from. It looks better in person but this picture highlights it well:
View attachment 4392324
Here are the steps for the smoky, surprise inky, Regina rehab with a disclaimer that I am new to this. It is safer to go slower and follow someone with more experience! I got great advice here but I took some drastic steps as I discovered surprises. I would have gone slower if I hadn't had ink seeping out of the bag. Here it goes:
As soon as I got the bag I sealed it in a bag while contacting the seller to see if I could try airing it out. I got some great advice here and aired the bag outside 24/7 until it rained. When inside, it was sealed up with zeolite or charcoal pouches. Eventually I kept the zeolite in the bag when it was outside too. I read about someone successfully spritzing vinegar on a leather jacket to remove smoke. The inside of the bag seemed hopeless; so after a week or so I spritzed the bag with vinegar water and let it air dry. The vinegar helped so much that I did this 3x, but on the 3rd time, the tiny dark spot on the bottom inside turned out to be ink and spread to the exterior of the bag. I panicked and blotted the ink with alcohol and then immediately gave it a bath. After rinsing, I poured vinegar into the bag and made sure it got all over the unfinished leather and into the pockets. It really held the liquid in like a canteen while I swirled it around! At this point, I could no longer smell smoke over the vinegar, but the ink had spread. I noticed more ink wicked out of the bottom of the bag onto a paper towel I stood it on. So it gave me an idea to try to pull the rest of the ink out. I have this amazing water-based surfactant product called Folex. Folex says not to use it on leather unless it can be soaked with water. At this point I was pondering E6000-ing patches onto the bag. So I went for it with the Folex, and it worked! I saturated the ink in Folex and kept blotting the bag with paper towels until ink stopped coming out. Thankfully, this ink must have been water based. It came out so easily from the front of the bag. The ink seemed to be coming from under the leather in the bottom of the bag and seemed never-ending there, but thankfully it's barely noticeable there. It looks like slightly darker leather. I washed the bag quickly and blotted more ink out. So I don't know if the Folex was necessary or water would have been enough to dissolve the ink. I did a final rinse without vinegar (since it was already full of it!) and placed the bag outside to dry. I stood it up on paper towels to wick out more ink from the bottom, and it did pull a little more out. I decided that was the last washing because I don't want the ink to move around anymore now that the front of the bag is clean. I gave it 3 coats of Leather CPR and in this pic the 2nd coat of Blackrock's Leather N Rich had just been applied. I have charcoal pouches in all the pockets just in case there is any residual smoke, but no one can smell anything. I still need to put the hangtag back on, but I worked on the hardware some more after taking these pictures last night. I read that vinegar was good for the brass, but it seemed to cause a film on it. I also read that vinegar and heat lead to verdigris. Is any of that right? I tried ketchup on the turnlock but didn't like having it so close to the leather so I switched to baking soda toothpaste. It helped a lot, but I want to work on the hardware more. I am not ready to take it off after seeing pictures of what it can look like when done by someone (me) who doesn't yet know what she's doing!
It looks wonderful and you did a fantastic job with a challenging rehab project!
I like Wenol best for polishing hardware.
You're a veteran rehabber now!
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A question about dunking vintage Madisons - structured ones, in particular. I tried researching the topic but got very little info. From my understanding, @katev is the most fearless rehabber of those, and very recently you did a beautiful job with that deep-red top-handle Gramercy bag. Mine is structured, too, so the main question is are there any cardboard parts inside that could warp? Also, in my Madison protect the hardware is in really bad condition - how do you deal with brushed brass? I tired polishing a small area with the 2×2 polishing square, but it seems like it removes brushed finish altogether. I'd appreciate all the info I could get!
I know! I am the same way; so I use it inside a bag, but I also will use it as a clutch if I "need" to.
Thank you! It really did plump up!
Thank you! I love your blue one. Do you have any other colors?
Thank you! And thank you for sharing your expertise! I would like to use something I already have if possible...lemons, salt, baking soda, tomato paste? Otherwise I'll have another bottle to store that won't get much use. Is it better to go straight to the Wenol?
That Keller sure got creative here...
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/312547515864
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/312547515864
Seller says "may have been post manufacture." That is horrid.
Experimentation is the hallmark of the rehabber, so go ahead and try what you have on hand. One word of caution, it's best to try them out in an area that doesn't show much in case they backfire!
You know, I finished washing and shaping and moisturizing that Gramercy but I haven't finished working on the hardware yet! Polishing hardware is my least favorite part of rehabbing and I switched gears to work on a bag that I wanted to give as a gift, and another bag that I wanted to wear myself. So I'd better get back and finish that Gramercy! I'm almost certain that I've used Wenol and soft cloths on Italian coach bags in the past without problems, but I will check it out and let you know.
I've now dunked several Italian coach bags without problems. I really doubt that the insides are cardboard, I think they have a stiff leather lining but of course I can't be sure unless I take it apart and I sure don't want to that!
I wouldn't be afraid to dunk one, but they take a long, long, long time to dry! I think that the gramercy took almost a week to dry so just keep turning it and moisturizing the thinner areas like straps - and be patient!
Yes I have, but frequently you don't need to use paints because just cleaning and moisturizing the leather is all that will be needed to give a bag a new life. Paints are only necessary as a last resort.
Please post pics of the bag you'd like to start with so that the veteran rehabbers here can give you advice and tips about next steps, etc.
Welcome, but be warned - rehabbing is addictive!
I've never tried rehabbing this particular bag but I've tried other Legacy bags from the same collection, and I failed miserably. For some reason, no matter what I did generally made the bags worse. I tried to paint the worn colors but instead of the paint covering up the wear, it made it darker as if I had painted it with water. I tried many different kinds of paint and nothing worked. I did paint an entire Legacy bag with wood n stuff leather refinisher but that was after I had dipped the bag in RIT dye. I think that dipping may have made the leather more receptive to the paint. I made a horrible mistake when I dipped in the RIT in that I used the hot water that is recommended and it melted off all the brown edge coating.View attachment 4392698
I do apologize for the many images. Most of the "issues" with this bag are very, very minor. But I just want to spruce them up and look brand new.
I hope your experience is better than mine.