Would a 1999 production be likely to have a nice outcome? Hoping to have this bag Saturday.
Which leather conditioner would you use on this bag.
I've done other bags from the nineties and very early 2000's (like, 2001, 2002), all of which were unlined, and everything turned out fine. I honestly see no reason why yours wouldn't work out equally well.
Personally, I'd say your 1999 bag would be ok with Apple conditioner. I know
bunny and
hyacinth (two people off the top of my head) recommend Lexol for the especially old leather, but your 1999 leather isn't *that* old, relatively speaking, so I would think Apple should be fine.
I'll add the caveat that in my own personal case, I've used Apple on literally all of my older bags, from these NYC-made, right through to my early 2000 bags. (I
do have a personal reason though, which will make more sense when I get to the actual conditioning, and certainly wouldn't be an issue for many others.) This "NYC
Black Basic bag" will be getting Apple, just as the NYC
Brown Basic bag at the beginning of this thread did too.
--------------------------
Ok, the pictures are obviously going to be very boring for a little while.
This morning, I took the overnight-paper-towels out of the bag, and spread the bag out on our bed for the day. It was still damp to the touch, particularly when you touched the "suede inside", but it's drying very nicely.
Note, it *is* also dry in the sense of being "non-conditioned", primarily due to age. The bath (with the soap in there), *did* make it a *little* stiffer (remember, soap works chemically by bonding to and removing oils).
But it was worth it to get those candies out. And I'll say again, I'm *not* worried about the stiffness. The Brown basic bag (at the beginning of this thread) was also very stiff when I first found it, and it is now thickly smooshy. And I expect similar results for this black Basic bag as well.
So I guess what I'm saying is that if the soapy bath does stiffen the leather a little further, it's not a big deal, especially compared to the dryness that age and years have already induced. DON'T PANIC. If you have grease/oil-based stains (or in this case, those melted candies), the soap is worth it to get that yucky stuff out. Even if the soap does dry the leather a little, the eventual conditioning ***will*** revive it perfectly fine in the end. At least based on the times I've gone through this. (Hope that made sense.)
It's been sitting on the bed while we were out today, with the bag's structure/stiffness holding itself open for ventilation. It feels only the slightest bit damp by this evening, so I'm going to let it have tomorrow (Monday) to dry the rest of the way. My guess is that I'll be able to start conditioning late Tuesday.
So two pics (nothing exciting, but here they are
) ...
First pic ... the towels that had been in the bag overnight. Any darkness you see is shadows from my photography. If there's any black dye on that last batch of towels, it's not really visible to the naked eye.
Second pic ... how I left the bag, this morning at around 9am, for the rest of today. Like I said, because of the stiffness and the shape of the bag, it's holding itself open by itself. If it wouldn't have, I would have stuck something in it to prop it open, but preferably not in such a way as to leave a "bump" in the drying leather. For example, a series of thread spools as internal pillars. As long as it's not leaving "bumps" in the drying leather.
In a couple hours, I'm going to just move it over onto a turkish towel elsewhere in our bedroom, and let it sit through tomorrow. Like I said, I'm guessing Tuesday for starting to condition, and it will probably take three conditionings, which I'll probably do "every other day". I'll keep taking pics of that as well.
.
So I'll catch this up tomorrow evening.
