[stevegunn]

Furniture clinic have got a new toy for matching leather colour.They scan the leather and it mixes the colour exactly whole process took no longer than 5 minutes.

[Mike Halliday]

thats great! when i need a colour match I'll drive the 3 hours up there : :

its alright for you, just down the road.

Mike

[stevegunn]

Not anygood for yourself but if you need colour quickly it could be posted out next day after they receive sample.

[Mike Halliday]

how much is it to send an armchair by next day delivery

Mike

I know...I know, I don't need to send the full armchair

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys,

I got htem to colour match a small sample taken from the inside near the zip.

Customer was very pleased.

Just had a guy on the phone asking for a colour repair but as he wants it by Thursday and I have no time I declined.

I intend to learn how to colour match by eye when time allows.

Cheers

Doug

[*paul_moss]

Doug
I match by eye but it takes practice.
Its worth sending a swatch for doing larger jobs.

The best place to get a swatch is to lay an arm chair on its back then remove the base ( usually just stapled  on) there is normally enough over hang to cut a piece off.
Just send it to Ben and a day later you have your pigment made.

[Geoff Jewkes]

I`ve seen a few posts lately about re finishing / re colouring leather, is it worth getting into ?? Cleaned a lot of leather lately that would benefit touching up etc and I reckon I could sell the service, but whats the outlay / training involved ?? And what sort of money do you get in return

Thanks guys.............................Geoff

[Mike Roper]

Colour matching is the most crucial & hardest part of repair work. As mentioned for largerjobs its better to send and get a mix done for you as you dont carry colours in quantity and saves alot of time , unless you have a good eye for colour. Small repairs will need you to do your own mixing , and its very rewarding when its right.An air brush will help it to be more forgiving as it can be feathered out. There is a massive market out there for anyone willing to put the effort in , but you wont learn it overnight.
Mike

[LTT Leathercare]

From our experience and from dealing with companies that have these machines (Andy has dealt extensively with these in the states and in the UK) they cannot work on todays finishes on leather.

Machines that scan leather cannot read the sheen (matt or gloss) level on leathers and they certainly cannot read 2 tone leathers, therefore the colour will always be wrong.
There are many companies who have invested in these machines and the results have been very poor.
We have a file of examples at LTT from machine mixed pigments which came out the wrong colour and when I say wrong I mean they are a completely different colour.

Also as the base pigments change with different dye batches the machine has to be reprogrammed for each batch which takes a long time. It also is a real pain swapping from one type of colour to another (ie. pigment touch up to restoration product)

Mixing pigment colours for restoration is far better done by eye. We would have invested in one of these a long time ago if we had been convinced they work. They usually end up standing in a corner, redundant.

LTT match colour by eye to any swatch sent to them, either for touch up or restoration and can do two, three and four tone leathers and aniline leathers
 
As Mike rightly says the colour mixing is the crucial part of the work and if it is wrong it will look worse than before.

There is a large market for this work if you learn it well and are dedicated to what you do.

Doug, we have a good system for teaching yourself to colour mix which is very rewarding and also produces colour cards to carry with you as you work.  Colour cards are a good reference point when you are trying to colour mix on site.

[Dean Haywood]

surely taking a sample colour from a hidden area is not going to give you an ideal colour match on contact areas of the furniture, these areas will have a change of colour due to various factors inc possible damage to the finish. you have got to match the colour to the area you are repairing, this is best done with the naked eye.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I agree Dean but what if you are recolouring a large area as was discussed earlier? surely getting the piece back to its intended colour would be better.

Shaun

[LTT Leathercare]

Taking sample pieces from the underside of the furniture does always cause problems due to the wear areas being a different colour as you rightly say.  For doing repairs on small areas it is far better to match the colour on site by eye which takes practice.  If a colour is matched to a new piece of leather the problem is to blend the repair area to match the rest of the panel..  This is one reason it is difficult to supply the general public with repair colours that work (as some companies do) as they do not have the expertise to do the repair successfully.  Some companies even sell pigments to the general public to mix themselves ( this must cause some real problems).

Restoration colours for larger areas can be mixed from samples taken as the colour should be restored to the original.. Problems arise when recolouring one panel which then does not match the rest.  This is where technical expertise comes in to blend colours over an area.  This of course cannot be done by just having a colour mixed by machine as you need to know the principles of colour mixing to enable you to complete the job successfully.

[vangaurd]

touchy subject this is getting . what with free leather cleaning, courses etc
whats the next freebie?