[Roger Koh]

These are Aniline leathers that have been left in the sun for more than 5 years, restored back to “Aniline”.

Before


After


Roger Koh
Leather Doctor®

[happy mondays]

whys their nearly a year between the date on your before and after pictures 21/07/2009 and 07/06/2010 IMO I dont even think they have been taken with the same camera  : whats the crack here then?

[robert meldrum]

Westy

What does it matter how long between photos ? A picture is taken, possibly by the owner and it takes them a while to take action. Happens every day in this business !

What you ARE seeing is an example of an excellent restoration job

[Joe H]

Certainly looks a classy job.

[Mike_Roper]

Roger , I have never managed to get aniline that has faded to white back totally , are you going to tll us how ?
Hope so !
Mike

[happy mondays]

Westy

What does it matter how long between photos ? A picture is taken, possibly by the owner and it takes them a while to take action. Happens every day in this business !

What you ARE seeing is an example of an excellent restoration job

Yea it is a fantastic job, my post was a question thats all Robert, imo it would be much better to show the results (before and after) pictures in the same room the work was done, and with less than 11 months in between the pics.

[Buckland]

Yeah it is a fantastic job - this guy obviously knows what he is doing with leather - sorry , correct me please if I am wrong, but this guy is a regular poster on all these forums and to be fair it is spam-ish because I believe he actually produces his own leather cleaning/restoration products -

nothing wrong with a bit of spam I suppose (its also called publicity) but it would be really helpful if he posted some advice and techniques and hints or tips or just SOMETHING really rather than just saying look what a clever boy I am and didnt I do well! hes in canada so presumably he is looking for outlets for his products/system here

we could all hopefully post pics of jobs where we had achieved outstanding results but its a fairly useless pastime unless there is some interpretation of the job as it stood when quoted and the techniques/chems/system employed to achive a good result and the final appearance - also what is he doing posting this in the carpet cleaning section?

My take on hide/leather cleaning and especially the restoration side is that it is arelatively small market when compared to the size of the takeup of leather furniture by british consumers - there are alot of hide suites out there now and many owners will either DIY or not bother. maintenance cleans are 'it' for most upholstery cleaners - do it well take the money and move on - Price competiton among manufacturers and importers (i.e. the chinese) means really that  if there is anything really serious wrong with a suite like the one pictured MOST consumers here would baulk at the cost of specialised quality restoration and simply sell or throw the old suite away and buy a new one - that as I say is my take - no doubt there is a high quality end to the consumer market where these sort of skills/techniques/products could be a good earners but again its a very small sector

so come on mr koh tell us how you do it - your website is not much help!...

[Joe H]

Roger actually seems to like questions, and I think he deliberately does things in such a way to provoke questions.

Yes he produces a range of leather cleaning/restoration products and has been very generous in the past in distributing free samples.

As to restoration - the average joe soap with a leather suite will not bother with restoration, but as you say, there is a high end market and if you get into it then it is very lucrative - as Roger will testify.

As to your question why is he posting leather in the carpet cleaning section.
Well, there is no leather section on this forum so we either do without his expertise or he could post in window cleaning, general cleaning or carpet cleaning. As lots of carpet cleaners do at least some leather cleaning then this seems to be the most appropriate section.

[Mark Lawrence]

Buckland

Regular posters of this forum will know that Roger Koh has on numerous occasions shown step by step processes on leather restores - all very interesting. Not only on this forum but others too.

Its only newbies who see this sort of thing and presume that he is spamming. Yes he promotes his processes - but why not? In my opinion he is way ahead in restoration techniques compared to the UK.

I do however agree that over here it is a bit difficult in carrying out such processes due to cost - this in turn prevents leather restorers in the UK from learning these techniques and carrying out successful restores...me included.

Bit of a chicken and egg situation really.

Mark

p.s. As for the dates - bit irrelevant really. He may have taken some pics whilst on the quote, and they only called him back a few months later. Nowt wrong with that.

[robert meldrum]

Roger Koh has been a regular poster for a few years but his techniques are regarded by a few as over the top and some of his ways have been criticised, however, a little research will show him to be spot on in everything he does.
We, in the UK appear to take a few shortcuts but usually have no problems. Maybe we've been lucky!
Pedatic or not, I've got a lot from Roger's posts and I'm sure many others have too.

[Roger Koh]

Roger , I have never managed to get aniline that has faded to white back totally , are you going to tll us how ?
Hope so !
Mike

The reason why you cannot get your desired color is that the dyestuff used is mainly for “staining” the protein leather fiber; that may have a limit to how much the leather can absorb; or it could be that the topcoat is still there that hinder the absorbency of this staining dyestuff.

To improve your existing “staining” dyestuff, an adhesion promoter can be added to increase the dyestuff for the ability to “coat” even over existing topcoat.

Alternatively you can have “coating” aniline dyestuff either in “transparent” or in “translucent”.

Translucent coating dyestuff is a hybrid of aniline dyes and micro-pigment that has better blemishes hiding properties.

This job uses a mix of coating “transparent” with “translucent” dyestuff to hide some stains.

Besides the coloring, topcoat is necessary to protect, modify its tactile-feel and looks; and comes in Gloss, Waxy-Matte or Natural to match the original.

And these are the products available for mix and match your existing aniline leather types.

Adhesor-73
Aniline Dye-21
Aniline Dye-63
Aniline Color-69
Color Fix-99 (natural)
Topcoat Aniline-79G (gloss)
Topcoat Aniline-59WM (waxy-matte).

For leather structure restoration recommended products are:

Hydrator-3.3
Fatliquor-5.0

And for wet prep leather-safe cleaners is recommended:

Degreaser-2.2
Prep-4.4
Cleaner-3.8
Rinse-3.0

Rub-resistant protector to match topcoat recommendation:
Leather Scent-B (buttery-feel)
Leather Scent-W (waxy-feel)
Leather Scent-S (silky-feel)

With this comprehensive product range you will be able to deal with any aniline leather cleaning, degreasing, structure and surface conditioning and restoration, and refinishing project.


Note:
The above pictures are job done in the USA, using my recommended system.
See the details in the other forum.


Roger Koh
info@leatherdoctor.org

[wynne jones]

Great job Roger!

[Neil Williams]

I will admit that Rogers posts did make me question the ethics of this site when others have to pay to advertise their products.
Having said that Roger was kind enough to e-mail me a product list and prices but unfortunately the postage costs from Canada to here makes the products too expensive when compared to others.
Yes there is truth in the fact that we live in a disposable country, buy it, use it, abuse it, chuck it, backed up by the price of replacement suites either leather or material. Most off the leather suites I have done fall into the cheap bracket and so spending much time on them isn't an option with what people are willing to pay. Having said that I have done an analine suite that cost the customer £7.5k and this was in a terraced property. In much the same way as Rogers pictures, it was a burgundy red suite that had faded to washed out pink. The job took just over 3 hours and I charged nearly £400 but these jobs are few and far between. And then I have had people who won't pay £200 for a re-colour job that would probably fill up the day.

BTW Roger if you're still there, how would you get a water mark out of a nubuck sofa. Initially it was a milk spill but the owner decided to apply a wet towel to it that has now resulted in a large dark ring.

[Roger Koh]

BTW Roger if you're still there, how would you get a water mark out of a nubuck sofa. Initially it was a milk spill but the owner decided to apply a wet towel to it that has now resulted in a large dark ring.

In leather stain removal, we take milk as a colloid of water, oil, fat and protein.

It is the protein component that is the problem that when ferments turns alkaline that resulted in the large dark ring; and coagulate that makes the nubuck stiff.

The recommended sequence of stain removing process is as follows:

1] Use a leather protein stain removal that has a high pH, which acts to deflocculates the protein component of the stain with d’Protein-11.0 (pH value 11.0) or equivalent.

2] When the protein causing stiffness of the stain is gone; neutralize the stain area with Acidifier-2.0 (pH value 2.0) or equivalent; this acidifying treatment would also cause the large dark ring to disappear; that bring the pH value of the stain area to the leather pH neutral of between 3 to 5.

3] Thereafter clean the entire panel with leather-safe Cleaner-3.8 (pH 3. or equivalent and follows with Rinse-3.0 (pH 3.0) or equivalent.

4] Now using such a high pH of 11.0 as step one would also remove the milk’s stain fatty and oily residues; besides the original fatliquor (fat, oil and water) would also be removed too.

5] If left alone to dry at this stage the leather will feel stiff and slightly discolored; to soften would be by physical stretching and massaging that will soften it; BUT may become weak.

6] To overcome step 5] problem; it is best to hydrate the entire panel with Hydrator-3.3 (pH 3.3) to separates the stick-together fibrils; thereafter replenish original fatliquor with Fatliquor-5.0 or equivalent. Hydrating and fatliquoring combination will bring back any color lost back to the stain area.

7] Any foreign residues may wick-up as the fatliquor dries; this is the time that the soil particulates is exfoliated by nubuck Eraser-5 or equivalent to return the entire panel to a “finger writing effect” characteristically nubuck.

8] To enhance the scent and tactile feel of “finger writing effect” a silky-feel non-stick protection is recommended – Leather Scent-S or equivalent.

Further questions are welcome!


Roger Koh
info@leatherdoctor.org

[Mike_Roper]

Back to the aniline, I realise that the dye I use hast got enough 'colour ' in it to do really faded areas and it will only absorb so much then after that would just wipe off surface . So the products you have will not only absorb but also be a surface coat without loosing its aniline qualities turning it into a pigment ?
Mike 

[Roger Koh]

Example when using transparent "staining" dyestuff like Aniline Dye-21 it will come to a stage as what you have described “after that would just wipe off surface”; this is where Adhesor-73 is added so that the dyes viscosity increases with adhesion power to coats the surface.

Then the matching topcoat is applied mainly to achieve its original look; be it natural, matte or gloss.

Appropriate topcoating is necessary to bring out the natural grain beauty especially the gloss; just like varnishing on wooden musical instruments.

Does it therefore turn into pigment?

The answer is NO!

Further questions are welcome!


Roger Koh
info@leatherdoctor.org