Stosh

You do great work. Please make normal speed videos in the future so others can learn from you. By the way, slow motion is not necessary.

I'm seeing a lot of posts here showing two links, this is one of them. The top link goes nowhere, but the bottom one works fine, even today. Here is the working link again: http://leatherworker.net/forum/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=31895

After a few false starts, I tied these two searches: https://www.google.com/search?q=purse+flip+toggle+hardware and https://www.etsy.com/market/flip_lock I saw a variety of closures that works on the same principle, but I did not see one that was cylindrical as in your photo. Most were some kind of horizontal bar, but maybe this will lead in the right direction...

I know I am being pedantic, but there is no ethyl acetate in Klean Strip Denatured Alcohol. A 2014 SDS showed that there was <2% ethyl acetate, but as of 2015, there is none. It is now approx. 50/50 ethanol and methanol.

BDAS - Fiebing's deglazer is certainly not "mostly ethyl alcohol" as it makes up less than 9%. Ethyl Acetate, which makes up more than 50% of deglazer, is a much different solvent regardless of how it is made. You must be thinking of Fiebing's dye reducer, which is ethyl alcohol plus a small percentage of isopropanol. Deglazer costs $20 in quarts. You wouldn't buy 4 oz. bottles to do a chair. While it is true that denatured alcohol is cheaper, it won't effectively strip a finish, even after hours of scrubbing. (It didn't touch the finish on my shoes.) Sunflower49 might want to try a 4 oz. bottle of deglazer and compare it to denatured alcohol. Denatured alcohol is always handy around the house (reducing dye, and all kinds of cleaning chores), so even if it doesn't work on the chair, it won't go to waste.

I feel for you. I don't think you will be able to remove the new finish without also removing the old finish under it. I should probably stop typing here... The upholstery industry finishes/refinishes leather very differently than we do. I did a good bit of research a while back into refinishing a beloved (though not irreplaceable) recliner I have. Here is link to a company on Youtube that does what your "craftsman" did, if you want to see the steps a professional goes through in restoring leather upholstery: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjZoytEDMZCDZfNfyz1WfTg Doing it right is a lot of work. It does involve a spray gun, but you don't give that gun to a monkey... I have not done anything with my chair...however, I did refinish a pair of shoes using traditional leathercrafting products. If you want to remove the finish entirely and start over, I would not use lacquer thinner, acetone, alcohol, or any other hardware-store product. Instead, I would use Fiebing's deglazer. Angelus makes a similar product, and both are made to strip finishes from leather shoes so they can be refinished. I used the Fiebing's on a pair of old shoes that I wanted to try a "patina" finish on. The deglazer worked well for the task, completely removing the old finish and even lightening the chocolate brown dye a bit (a plus for me, probably not for you).