Cigarette Smell

[JayEhl]

Hi,

I may have made a mistake and bought a bunch of leather from an estate sale this past weekend that is very good shape except for the cigarette smell stink.  This is already dyed veg tan half hides in the 4/5 -- 7/8 oz range but a couple of embossed chrome tans.  Right now I've got them all spread out hanging along the walls of my garage with a couple of fans circulating the air but the garage door is shut when I'm not home.  Living in south Houston I am really worried about the humidity so I'm going to the store to pick up  a couple buckets of 'damp rid' that should help.   Can anyone else make a suggestion?  Is it just going to take a few weeks of this practice?   I was thinking if I take a couple of hides and cut them to belts widths if it would speed up breaking up the smells?  Any other suggestions?

 

 

[Frodo]

place the hides in a plastic tote with a sealable lid

toss in a couple of  lilac or lemon  dryer sheets and leave them sealed for a week,  check them,  and repeat if needed

this worked for me. your mileage may vary

 

I collect pennies.  I bought a 1856 slanted 5  braided hair liberty large cent

when I opened the box it smelled like an ash trey   I was very upset,  But it was just the packaging that was stank

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by Frodo

[Spyros]

When I make something out of timber or leather, this is what I use when I don't like how they smell

 

 

[Handstitched]

The cigarette smell is maybe why there was an estate sale in the first place ?   

Would making something, like belts for eg.  remove the smell? 

HS 

[fredk]

47 minutes ago, Handstitched said:

Would making something, like belts for eg.  remove the smell? 

No, the smell will still be on the items

1 hour ago, Frodo said:

place the hides in a plastic tote with a sealable lid

toss in a couple of  lilac or lemon  dryer sheets and leave them sealed for a week,  check them,  and repeat if needed

This should work, but I'd use cut up raw onions first, then sliced up real lemons after

[Spyros]

Also pretty much all products by Saphir smell fantastic for a long time , but they're expensive

[JayEhl]

4 hours ago, Frodo said:

place the hides in a plastic tote with a sealable lid

toss in a couple of  lilac or lemon  dryer sheets and leave them sealed for a week,  check them,  and repeat if needed

Thanks!  I'll have to cut up the hides to fit into a tote but that's a can do item.

2 hours ago, fredk said:

This should work, but I'd use cut up raw onions first, then sliced up real lemons after

Thinking of the raw onion, I guess it would need to be in some sort of container like a plastic bag or something?   After a week or two it would turn into mush, not to mention it's own odor.

~JL

 

[JayEhl]

2 hours ago, fredk said:

3 hours ago, Handstitched said:

Would making something, like belts for eg.  remove the smell? 

No, the smell will still be on the items

My thought of cutting up the leather to belt lengths to hang up so it would be easier to manage and more air would flow around them (using my fan).  It would also make the items more recognizable, maybe easier to manage than huge 6 foot swaths of leather hanging up on the garage walls.  

 

3 hours ago, Handstitched said:

The cigarette smell is maybe why there was an estate sale in the first place ?   

The smell wasn't that bad in the garage where they moved everything from the house for me to see so I really didn't notice it until we moved through his house for them to show another room.  The cigarette smell was really bad, then.    Then we moved from the smell of the house back to the garage and then I got to noticing the smell of the hides even more.   I just didn't know better and should've thought why someone else didn't already take it.   That's why I said earlier that I hoped it wasn't a mistake!    Anyway, my hope is to get this smell cleared up most of the way before it mildews.   Still open to other ideas.   

[fredk]

1 hour ago, JayEhl said:

Thinking of the raw onion, I guess it would need to be in some sort of container like a plastic bag or something?   After a week or two it would turn into mush, not to mention it's own odor.

No, the onions shouldn't turn to mush, they should just dry up. Onions are noted for eliminating fresh paint smells in a room and for getting rid of odd or bad smells in a refrigerator. Once you start to smell the onion you know its done its job then you replace it with a fresh cut lemon. The lemon scent eliminates the onion scent and when you smell the lemon you know its done its job as well

I / we used to use this method for freshening the interior of 2nd hand cars

Depends on how much work you wanna do on these hides. I'd make up a weak onion/water wash and sponge the hides down with that, maybe a couple of times. Not soaking wet, just sorta dampen them. Then if they take on the onion scent I'd sponge them down with a weak lemon/water wash. Leave them hanging where they can get plenty of fresh air around them

jus sum thots

[JayEhl]

1 hour ago, fredk said:

Depends on how much work you wanna do on these hides. I'd make up a weak onion/water wash and sponge the hides down with that, maybe a couple of times. Not soaking wet, just sorta dampen them. Then if they take on the onion scent I'd sponge them down with a weak lemon/water wash. Leave them hanging where they can get plenty of fresh air around them

The onion wash seems like a good idea and will try out.   But I'm trying to envision the process to make the concoction.  just chop up one or two onions into the bottle with some water ?    spray down lightly and brush over with sponge?  Thinking that would work but wanting to make sure I'm on the same page as you.   

[fredk]

Have you got access to a home kitchen blender? Chop up a big onion*, put in the blender with some warm, nearly hot, water, not a little amount, about 1 pint. Blend until you have a watery onion mush. Pour this through a strainer. Mix the resulting onion water into about 2 gallons of clean warm water. Dip a big sponge into the bucket, wring it out but leave it fairly wet. Wash this over the hide. 2 gals should do several hides     

*More onions = stronger solution

[JayEhl]

 

1 hour ago, fredk said:

......kitchen blender?    ..with some warm, nearly hot, water, not a little amount, about 1 pint. Blend until you have a watery onion mush

ahhh,,.... that's why I asked!  Wouldn't have thought to use a blender to make a mush.      

[Frodo]

No need to cut the leather up

Go to home depot  or wally world and buy a 4foot long plastic storage tote

$35.00   55 gallon tote

• Interior dimensions (at bottom of tote) 39 in. L x 14.75 in. W x 17.25 in. H

 

[Handstitched]

20 hours ago, fredk said:

No, the smell will still be on the items

@JayEhl

I had another, perhaps 'ye olde' method of removing smells. Bi Carbonate of Soda. It was once used inside fridges to get rid of unpleasant smells, like mold, musty smells from left overs etc.  I'm not suggesting put the leather inside the fridge, but perhaps inside a sealable  20-40ltr tub  with some bi carb.  It may take a while,  but it might just work . We used it inside cupboards to freshen them up . A bit of bi carb and lemon juice ( or for the Aussies) some eucalyptus oil  in the bi carb.  Makes a change from moth balls. 

HS

[JayEhl]

Man you guys are awesome!    Thank you for all the great ideas. 

I bought two buckets of damprid to help with moisture in the garage which is my biggest issue.  Not sure if it's available everywhere but for anyone that may be curious:  https://damprid.com/

Next thing I'm going to try is the onion wash thing and then cut into larger sections to place these with onions in totes, this evening.  I've got a couple empty ones but will need to hop to the store to get a couple larger ones @Frodo spoke of.    I'll have to report back, but will take a couple of weeks, I should think.