Green Leather (Baize?) On Chair Seats and Backs - Restoration

[Tom Watson]

I'm restoring a group of four chairs for the scout troops trophy room which mostly involves blown out dowel holes and redowelling the joints but also includes doing something with the leather covering.

The covers are leather and sit over a fill of cotton felt, horse mane and curled hog hair.

I've tuned up leather covered stuff before and have used saddle soap and Lexol but I'm a bit concerned about the green leather.

Does anyone have any experience with this and do I need to worry, or can I go about my usual regimen?

btw - these appear to be decent quality factory made pieces, rather than craftsman made stuff.

Regards,

Tom Watson

[Leon]

I do know that leather is prepared in a buncha, buncha, buncha different ways, including being saturated with wax. You might want to take it to some one that does leather restoration to get some ideas. Some leather surfaces are literally painted. A local furniture store may have some information as to the care and feeding. Leather automobile interiors are often painted, if you have a green shiny smooth surface it may have been painted.

[Upscale]

In what regard? Are you worried about the colour bleeding some?

That being said, I've used coloured leather in a variety of projects and although a properly tanned leather shouldn't bleed noticeably, I do have to admit experiencing fading on occasion. The only way you can deal with this is to test an innocuous area with the saddle soap and see what happens. All colours can and do wear eventually from repeated physical contact and do so even faster when constantly exposed to sunlight. So, you're mileage will vary.

General leather wear on a chair from physical contact is not a completely undesirable trait and suggests comfort and promotes the tendency for one to sit on it.

[Sonny]

Was the leather, you bought, meant to be used for upholstery? If so, then it should not need any "tuning up". I'm not sure what you mean by "tuned up".

Leather purchased from an upholstery supplier is ready for application and use. No treatment, of any kind, should be needed to be performed or applied on it. Cloth fabrics will have notations as to whether a ScotchGuard type treatment has already been applied or not, but leather doesn't require such consideration(s), even distressed leather. You should be fine with applying the leather, as is, onto the chairs and, once applied, you are good to go.

For care in the future, if need be, check out this site.

if you plan on using decorative tacks as trim, I recommend buying some from a local upholsterer, not from Wal-Mart or any like outlet. The French Natural brass tacks are typical for that application. Also, unless you have a tool to assist in applying these kinds of tacks, use needle nose pliers to hold the tack stem, for alignment, before nailing. You're likely to bend the stem if you try to use your fingers to hold the tack in position. You don't want to mar your leather with a bent/mis-driven tack. Leather is not as forgiving as cloth fabric. Tie a sturdy piece of cloth, like denim, on your hammer head so that the hammer's metal head doesn't scratch/damage the tack head surface. An upholster's tack hammer has a nylon tip, to prevent this kind of damage. Sonny