You could try just conditioning it with CPR and Blackrocks. If that doesn't work, you could dunk.Super, super, super dumb newbie question here: I've seen Meltonian recommended here many times, but isn't that similar to shoe polish?
Black Meltonian Leather & Shoe Cream is the "shoe polish" I applied to my City bag years ago and which I recently struggled so hard to remove. Perhaps I should have left it on??
I've been using black Meltonian on my Danskos for ages so I assumed it was ordinary shoe polish.
No, I didn't dunk the bag because it's not dirty. I went over the handle with saddle soap because it looked dingy from skin oil, but it's fine now. It's just the piping at the bottom of the bag where the color is worn off.
My order of CPR and Renapur from Amazon will finally be arriving today. (Yeah!) And I have Black Rock on hand.
I use this bag A LOT but I don't think I've ever done anything to condition it except maybe put some Lexol on it.
Any advice on keeping it looking good is most appreciated!
Coach Rehab and Rescue Club
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Super, super, super dumb newbie question here: I've seen Meltonian recommended here many times, but isn't that similar to shoe polish?
Black Meltonian Leather & Shoe Cream is the "shoe polish" I applied to my City bag years ago and which I recently struggled so hard to remove. Perhaps I should have left it on??
I've been using black Meltonian on my Danskos for ages so I assumed it was ordinary shoe polish.
No, I didn't dunk the bag because it's not dirty. I went over the handle with saddle soap because it looked dingy from skin oil, but it's fine now. It's just the piping at the bottom of the bag where the color is worn off.
My order of CPR and Renapur from Amazon will finally be arriving today. (Yeah!) And I have Black Rock on hand.
I use this bag A LOT but I don't think I've ever done anything to condition it except maybe put some Lexol on it.
Any advice on keeping it looking good is most appreciated!
Excellent question, BPS, and I asked it myself when I first heard of using Meltonian in colour refreshing a few weeks ago. Apparently Meltonian is the only shoe cream recommended and is very different from the shoe polish that we are warned about. My intention was that the colour refreshing would be a permanent solution and time will tell if it is successful. I will report back here when I've used the bags to see how durable it is. It certainly looks and feels great and perfectly natural right now.
Prior to learning about Meltonian my colour refreshing was done using tiny amounts of acrylic paint mixed with large quantities of CPR. Like whatev and americandreamiing, I think your best first step is to dunk in hot water (to bring the dye in the leather back to the surface) and then condition with CPR and Blackrocks. You may find the bag doesn't require more than that. 
Please keep us posted on your progress! 
Super, super, super dumb newbie question here: I've seen Meltonian recommended here many times, but isn't that similar to shoe polish?
Black Meltonian Leather & Shoe Cream is the "shoe polish" I applied to my City bag years ago and which I recently struggled so hard to remove. Perhaps I should have left it on??
I've been using black Meltonian on my Danskos for ages so I assumed it was ordinary shoe polish.
No, I didn't dunk the bag because it's not dirty. I went over the handle with saddle soap because it looked dingy from skin oil, but it's fine now. It's just the piping at the bottom of the bag where the color is worn off.
My order of CPR and Renapur from Amazon will finally be arriving today. (Yeah!) And I have Black Rock on hand.
I use this bag A LOT but I don't think I've ever done anything to condition it except maybe put some Lexol on it.
Any advice on keeping it looking good is most appreciated!
@BigPurseSue I agree with the folks recommending a bath, conditioner, and Black Rocks to restore the piping on your British Tan bag. It's unlikely that you will need to color the corners. If you don't want to give it a bath you could just try Black Rocks and see if that works, just remember to apply it sparingly and quickly wipe off the excess.
Below are before and after pics of a British Tan Willis 9927 that I rehabbed and you can see how much better the piping looked after a bath, conditioner, and Black Rocks.
BT Willis Before:
Coach Rehab and Rescue Club
I spray mine too, then condition with Blackrocks. I think the wax in the Blackrocks adds a level of protection. I have Blackrocks too, thanks for the tip!
forum.purseblog.com
BT Willis After:
Coach Rehab and Rescue Club
I spray mine too, then condition with Blackrocks. I think the wax in the Blackrocks adds a level of protection. I have Blackrocks too, thanks for the tip!
forum.purseblog.com
@BigPurseSue I agree with the folks recommending a bath, conditioner, and Black Rocks to restore the piping on your British Tan bag. It's unlikely that you will need to color the corners. If you don't want to give it a bath you could just try Black Rocks and see if that works, just remember to apply it sparingly and quickly wipe off the excess.
Below are before and after pics of a British Tan Willis 9927 that I rehabbed and you can see how much better the piping looked after a bath, conditioner, and Black Rocks.
BT Willis Before:
Coach Rehab and Rescue Club
I spray mine too, then condition with Blackrocks. I think the wax in the Blackrocks adds a level of protection. I have Blackrocks too, thanks for the tip!
BT Willis After:
Coach Rehab and Rescue Club
I spray mine too, then condition with Blackrocks. I think the wax in the Blackrocks adds a level of protection. I have Blackrocks too, thanks for the tip!
Wow! That looks great! I find it most interesting that you were able to get the pen marks out with alcohol. Mine also has a couple pen marks on the front.
Love your story about how you assembled different pieces of hardware and a new strap. I find it really sad that Coach no longer makes replacement straps for these older bags. What happened to their lifetime guarantees of support?
I ordered a new turnlock from Buckle Guy.
Thank you for the inspiration! I now have much to think about.
Be very careful with pen marks. You can potentially make them more noticeable with alcohol, or really with almost any harsh cleaner, because the alcohol tends to bleach out the area around the pen mark without always making an impact on the ink.
Thanks!
Ink marks can be tricky and it may actually damage the bag to try and remove them - I've had both good luck and bad luck when trying to remove pen marks.
The safest thing to do is to give the bag a bath in regular blue Dawn suds and gently rub some soap into the area with the pen marks, sometimes that works. Also conditioning with Black Rocks tends to even out the color and that may make the pen marks much less noticeable.
I really like getting hardware from Buckleguy, but be sure to save the oval washer from the back or your original turnlock. The turnlocks that Buckleguy sells are good quality but they have 4 indentations in the back washer (unlike the original coach turnlocks) and that may make your bag look like a fake.
We've been told that the replacement turnlocks Coach uses for their own rehabs have indentations. We never use that feature by itself to determine authenticity. It just adds evidence when we already have other indications of non-authenticity.
The flat oval washer can be purchased in bulk (pack of 100) from the company DOT Fasteners. They call it a “common sense washer”. Incase anyone is interested, here is a link:
^Fair warning: they use UPS & the shipping is a bit outrageous. You can also find the washers on Ebay for a much cheaper price in smaller quantities.
I don’t remember what I was googling when I stumbled onto these washers. I think it had something to do with Bonnie Cashin being inspired by her convertible’s turn locks that made me look into automotive/boating hardware for turn lock parts
I wanted to post about them here when I first found them but I have the attention span of a fish sometimes & completely forgot
The flat oval washer can be purchased in bulk (pack of 100) from the company DOT Fasteners. They call it a “common sense washer”. Incase anyone is interested, here is a link:
View attachment 5275261
^Fair warning: they use UPS & the shipping is a bit outrageous. You can also find the washers on Ebay for a much cheaper price in smaller quantities.
I don’t remember what I was googling when I stumbled onto these washers. I think it had something to do with Bonnie Cashin being inspired by her convertible’s turn locks that made me look into automotive/boating hardware for turn lock parts
I wanted to post about them here when I first found them but I have the attention span of a fish sometimes & completely forgot
That's great and they also have them in nickel-plated finish!
Gorgeous! I love that shade of green! Nice job.
And they are cheap! They are sold separately by someone for $10 apiece. I reuse the old one but thanks for the link to this company @Coachaddict4020 !That's great and they also have them in nickel-plated finish!
I couldn’t stick to my bag ban (why do I even bother saying it?!) & impulse purchased this Post Pouch! Kindly authenticated by @Hyacinth
I put a lot of work into this bag. I removed all the verdigris, dunked it, CPR’d it, Renapur’d it, polished all the hardware, fixed the strap edging & used contact cement to tighten the stretched out d-ring loops. I don’t know where I found the zap of motivation but I just kept going until it was done!
Before:
After:
I put a lot of work into this bag. I removed all the verdigris, dunked it, CPR’d it, Renapur’d it, polished all the hardware, fixed the strap edging & used contact cement to tighten the stretched out d-ring loops. I don’t know where I found the zap of motivation but I just kept going until it was done!
Before:
After:
STUNNING! Holy canoli!I couldn’t stick to my bag ban (why do I even bother saying it?!) & impulse purchased this Post Pouch! Kindly authenticated by @Hyacinth
I put a lot of work into this bag. I removed all the verdigris, dunked it, CPR’d it, Renapur’d it, polished all the hardware, fixed the strap edging & used contact cement to tighten the stretched out d-ring loops. I don’t know where I found the zap of motivation but I just kept going until it was done!
Before:
View attachment 5277335View attachment 5277336View attachment 5277337View attachment 5277338View attachment 5277340
After:
View attachment 5277341View attachment 5277342View attachment 5277343
I wish I could get my blacks to look this rich. Ive tried all the popular conditioners and tried buffing. But mine always seem to end up looking lackluster.