Post subject: Do-it-yourself leather repair
You’ve seen it on TV - the famous, magical, do-it-yourself leather repair kit that eliminates a major tear in any leather surface “in just minutes!”. The color is always perfect, and so is the grain-pattern. It’s simply amazing. So, there must be something seriously wrong with me that it takes me up to a couple of hours working on similar types of damage to achieve results that look like that, even with 15 years of constant, day-to-day practice. And on TV, it happens “in just minutes!”.
Rather than throw my tools away in despair, I simply remember back on all the times that customers have called us out to their homes, or brought their furniture or automobiles into our shop after having attempted to use these repair kits. Small problems have turned into big problems, big problems have turned into utter devastation - “in just minutes!”. And it’s not as if all of these customers are technically inept. Many of them are people who remodel their own homes, restore their own cars, etc. They’re experienced at DIY, and aren’t afraid to tackle the type of projects they aren’t familiar with. So, could the companies selling these do-it-yourself leather repair kits on TV be, dare I say it, misrepresenting how easy the repair process really is? Hmmmm.
Leather repair requires time, attention to detail, and a willingness to forego instant gratification, despite what TV and website advertisers claim. There is no magical formula or product that will give good, long-lasting results with little or no effort. If there were, I wouldn’t be able to make a living doing what I do. However, that doesn’t mean that do-it-yourself leather repair is impossible, or even impractical for any consumer. It simply means that it needs to be approached with a realistic, open-minded intent. So, if you’re easily bored by technical details, and are hanging on desperately to the vision of great leather repair results “in just minutes!”, you might want to go get one of those kits. Just remember, you can call us if it doesn’t work out.
Here’s a quick overview of the leather repair process. There are two types of typical damage to upholstery leather. Damage that affects the topical color only, and damage that affects the under-lying leather fibers. To address each type, there are two primary components of a leather repair kit. The first is fill material (also referred to as fill or repair compound), which is used to fill any void the damaged area presents (cut, burn, gouge, etc.). The second is the surface finish (color-matched by you or a professional from a base set of colors to the desired color). Unless of course, the kit you are using has eliminated what the kit provider has deemed an un-necessary step, and combined the pigments directly with the fill compound. In the interest of not boring you beyond all reason, let me just say that this is bad on many levels. If you’re the type that absolutely must know, then e-mail me, and I’ll bore you further with more specifics to make my point.
An internet search under “leather repair kits” will yield site after site that offers do-it-yourself leather repair kits. Usually, it’s something called Leather-“blah”, where “blah” is any descriptive term that implies “As if it never happened – in just minutes!”. Many of these kits are chemically based on vinyl repair products. Whether these sites/advertisers suggest that their kits are suitable for leather, or leather and vinyl both, I’d like to give you as short a version as I can on why they’re a bad choice.
The fill compounds used for vinyl repair are oil-based, because oil impregnation is the under-lying chemical basis for vinyl as an upholstery material. The solids present in vinyl, apart from the oils they are mixed with to make them soft and flexible, are essentially similar to PVC plastic, which is (as you know if you’ve ever held a piece of PVC pipe in your hands) a very stiff, hard plastic. This is all fine, if you’re using oil-based fillers on vinyl, where the damaged area of the material is chemically similar.
Unfortunately, leather is quite different. It is an organic material that, once tanned and processed, is absorbent by nature (imagine a leather chamois that you’d use to dry off your car). If you were to apply an oil-based filler to leather, you would see that (“in just minutes!” – no, not really, but much faster than you’d imagine) the oils present in the fill compound would migrate out of the repaired area into the surrounding, absorbent leather. The fill compound would then revert to its natural state (stiff PVC plastic), because the oils are no longer present to soften it, and would stiffen and crack, when required to flex (e.g., sitting on the repaired area). So, I guess you’re OK, if you fix a section of your seat, or arm-rest, and then never sit there. That’s why we use water-based resins in our kit chemistry, so the above described issue doesn’t occur.
Now we come to the color application. It is the section of the repair process where you either apply color to conceal the fill compound application, or you apply color to restore the area where the color has been removed from the leather surface due to wear, damage, or chemical intervention.
There are two components that make up leather or vinyl finishes. The binder, which is basically a clear film or resin, that encapsulates or binds (hence the name) the individual pigment particles in place. The individual particles of pigment make up the actual color, and the binder is the thing that holds each individual particle in place, each over-lapping its neighbor, so that when it is viewed, the field of over-lapping particles is seen as an un-interrupted field of a certain color. This is the same principle represented in any paint medium, from house paint, to car paint, to canvas acrylics, etc.
The binder determines how flexible the finish is. If it is a stiff resin, then the resulting finish will not have good flex properties. If it is a soft, pliable resin, then it will have good flex properties. And flex is good, since leather is required to do so anytime it is sat upon. But many flexible resins don’t have good chemical or wear-resistance. What’s to be done? Blah, blah, blah. I could spend far too much text telling you why certain resins, in conjunction with other resins will give superior results in each given circumstance. Here’s my point.
I need fill materials and finishes that will flex for a long period of time. I need fill materials and finishes that have good chemical resistance (from water, to caustic cleaners, to solvents). I need finishes that have a low profile, and won’t obliterate the natural grain pattern of the leather, yet will flex with the leather as necessary. I need all these things, so I can do my job for the people who are willing to pay me to do this for them.
What you get when you choose an ADVLeather.com repair kit is the same thing that I use when I perform these repairs. I’ve spent endless hours, fussing around with various materials and resins, and these are where I ended up. When I attempt a repair, my goal is to provide a permanent solution. I do, for many customers, every day. If you’re willing to invest the time and effort necessary, then the repair you want is there for you to accomplish. We include the detailed instructions. We’re there if you need technical support. We want the result of do-it-yourself leather repair to be what it looks like on TV, but without the “in just minutes!” baloney.
There you are. I wanted to write this to address the issue of DIY leather repair. It’s something that comes up a lot in our every-day business. A lot of people want the option of dealing with their leather furniture themselves, just as they want to be able to deal with that bathroom tile repair, or that kitchen faucet leak. And if you made it all the way to the bottom of this post, you are just the type of tenacious, detail-oriented person who’d make a successful do-it-yourself leather repair.