Wow. I never would’ve guessed. That’s easier to come by. Thanks!
Coach Rehab and Rescue Club
- Thread starter greenpixie
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Leather conditioning/restoring products question...
what are your favorite go to products and in what order do you apply and for what purpose? Sorry, this could lead to some lengthy responses. I’m trying not to buy everything that’s recommended but I still don’t have CPR and Leather Therapy. I have Cadillac and Blackrocks and have been able to work wonders with them. I just got Leather Honey and I’m not sure what difference it would make over Cadillac. I also have Bickmore Leather Preserver in my Amazon cart and am thinking about using it on boots instead of bags. Thoughts on these/others?
what are your favorite go to products and in what order do you apply and for what purpose? Sorry, this could lead to some lengthy responses. I’m trying not to buy everything that’s recommended but I still don’t have CPR and Leather Therapy. I have Cadillac and Blackrocks and have been able to work wonders with them. I just got Leather Honey and I’m not sure what difference it would make over Cadillac. I also have Bickmore Leather Preserver in my Amazon cart and am thinking about using it on boots instead of bags. Thoughts on these/others?
I did dunk it with warm water. It’s from mid to late 2000s I believe. Not hot but warm. I’ll keep it in mind next time. Thanks for the tip!!
I use leather honey when a bag is super dry and I want some darkening. It is a mess to use. Leather CPR is thicker than Cadillac. I feel it does a better job for rehabs. I've used Bickmore too. I think it is about the same as Cadillac.
Is it possible that that the previous owner applied shoe polish to the black wallet and that's why it is losing so much color?
I've rehabbed several wallets and I have had mixed experiences.
Below is an example of an Ink Bleecker wallet that I dunked and it came out great without any problems.
Coach Rehab and Rescue Club
I love Stewardess bags and tan is the prettiest color, good luck! I am not very good with piping damage and when working on a bag with those kinds of cracks, the best I could ever do was use leather glue to try and stabilize it and then touch up with paint to camouflage it a bit. I will be...forum.purseblog.com
But here is an example of a Butter Madison French Purse Wallet that was drying all wavy and stretched out. I tried various methods to get it back into shape - including steam iron and press cloth and pressing it under heavy weights - but without much luck. I finally decided to fill the slots with plastic credit and gift cards to reshape and it eventually dried dried in fairly normal condition:
Coach Rehab and Rescue Club
Great solution! I wish those FOS pictures weren't so pitiful. I would have bought one too. It looks marvelous! It is a shame those straps get separated because they’re so specific. The Gracie I had for a while was missing the strap as well. Good on you for finding a solution! It's like using a...
In general, if the wallet is fairly clean and in pretty good shape then I just surface clean it, but if it is very dirty or I am displeased by the results of surface cleaning, then I take a chance and dunk it. Good luck!
Y’all are going to be over me and my wallet...
Now as I massage round 3 of leather cpr in - the black is starting to almost pill off as I rub. Like if you get a label wet when trying to remove from a glass jar. Could this be shoe polish rubbing off? Do I stop and just blackrocks and be done?
The honey certainly seems messy. The bag I applied it to wasn’t especially dry and I didn’t let it sit over night to absorb so perhaps that’s why I didn’t see much difference. I read that some people apply honey after dunking before Cadillac and have good results. I’ll try it on the next one I wash.
Regarding Bickmore, I was thinking that it would be some sort of waxy shield that really protects the leather, kind of like Sno Seal. That stuff is great for boots but it really darkens leather and won’t let a patina develop. It transforms it into something completely different than a supple leather like I want on a bag.
Y’all are going to be over me and my wallet...
Now as I massage round 3 of leather cpr in - the black is starting to almost pill off as I rub. Like if you get a label wet when trying to remove from a glass jar. Could this be shoe polish rubbing off? Do I stop and just blackrocks and be done?
Not sure if you’re encountering the same issue that I am with my first rehab in progress, but I also felt like the driest areas on my bag were pilling in tiny amounts as I rubbed CPR in (probably the 2nd and 3rd coats). That feeling went away after another coat or two of CPR - nothing looks amiss, and it also feels much better after applying Blackrocks
I generally use CPR then black rocks. On a super dry and worn black stewardess I recently purchased, I used CPR while it was drying and then did a coat of chamberlains healing balm all over the bag, and a second application on the worn spots on the piping, and boy did that work a miracle. I followed it with a couple more coats of CPR and then blackrock today and it looks new again. I know black generally rehabs well but this one felt like the top layer of the leather had been rubbed off from wear all over and I was worried it might not come back. Pleasantly surprised and happy with the finished result!
That looks amazing!! I just finished a rehab and the corners on my black court look like junk. Is Chamberlins the miracle worker? I’ll post pics tomorrow to get your thoughts if you don’t mind.
Thank you! Yes, I thought it started looking healthy and smooth again after the Chamberlains healing balm. I don’t know if I would have gotten the same result if I had just stuck with CPR the whole way, and I’ve had great results with just CPR + a finish coat of black rocks in the past (on the recent duffle rehab for example). So I’m not sure chamberlains is essential but I liked how hydrated the leather seemed after I used it and let it soak in overnight. It feels oily and like applying lip balm to the bag to give you an idea of consistency, and it looked shiny and oily at first but that went away as it absorbed.
I believ it was @katev who had a great post about her process with a lot of detail and that is what I used as my guide when I started. I’m still new but it’s worked well!
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What was your process for this? I picked up a brown stewardess from goodwill and it was in rough shape - verdigris everywhere and dirty inside. I ended up dunking it twice and no matter how many coats of conditioner I applied, it felt waxy and looks scaly where the leather bends - top of the flap and toward the bottom where the bag bulges. Nothing I do seems to make the leather soft, supple, or healthy looking again and I have never run into that on a coach bag before. Tips?I had a rehab bag that I stopped working on because no matter what I tried, the leather felt “waxy”. I tried your hand sanitizer suggestion (mine said 65% ethyl alcohol) with a tiny bit of acetone and it helped get rid of the waxy feeling, so thank you for posting this!
I took the hand sanitizer and sprayed it into a bowl & then I added a small capful of acetone (100% pure one). I then took a cloth and soaked it in the mixture and rubbed the bag in sections, making sure I didn’t leave any streaks. The waxy feeling was gone instantly . Once the acetone/sanitizer mixture dried on the bag, I did a coat of renapur just to prevent the leather from drying out and cracking. The bag I did it on was black, not sure how it would work on a brown one. Perhaps you could test it on a small un-noticeable area before doing it to the entire bag? Anyone else that has experience with fixing the feel of leather, please add your input as well!
Thanks, here is my basic process for rehabbing vintage, unlined, glove-tanned leather bags:
Coach Rehab and Rescue Club
Hi all, I just bought two older bags off Poshmark (authenticated here at TPF!) and they definitely need some love. Are there websites or blogs that you all would recommend to learn how to rehab? Or is there a thread here that is for rehab newbies? I'm not sure where to begin! The second bag...
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