Getting the smell out of leather

[Sarge324]

Hi, first time here.

I have a really bad situation. I've gotten a wonderful leather watch roll as a gift for my birthday a year ago from my friends. I've attached an image from the seller listing.

The problem is my cat decided to vacate it's bladder on it. I've responded the second I noticed however it was around 2-3 minutes after it happened. I've cleaned it fully from urine with baby wet wipes and paper wipes however the smell was still there.

After that I used a mild hand soap in lukewarm water and a soft rag to try dab on the most affected areas. I've cleaned most of stains from the leather as it  seems, however it still smells like urine.

How do I clean this properly? I've googled a lot but most of guides are for smooth couch leathers and heavily waxed leather. This is an only veg tanned leather as I understand it's somewhat rough on the outside and gets polished with use and inside it's really rough.

How would one clean such a thing. It smells so bad and I don't want to throw it away or destroy it in my lack of knowledge.

Please any info you have or contact to ask someone let me know. It's a wonderful gift and it's not cheap.

Best regards

il_1140xN.1950693427_9ks5.webp

[toxo]

I would scrub the whole thing in a very hot bowl of water with some washing up liquid. When dry go over it thoroughly with leather balm/food/conditioner/beeswax etc to put the oils back into it. If you want it to smell nice some cocoa butter also.

[mike02130]

Take a container and put in a box of baking soda with the leather.  Maybe cover it loosely?

[Dwight]

If blue dawn dish soap won't take it out . . . my guess is you are out of luck . . . but I'd just bury it for a week in a box of baking soda first.

That may do it . . . if not . . . dawn and hot water . . . will probably deface the leather some  . . .  but some oil back on it and massaging it  . . .  you might get it back.

I have an outdoor cat for very similar reasons.

May God bless,

Dwight

[TomE]

Bad kitty!  Vinegar is used to neutralize cat urine odor and also to kill mold on dirty horse tack.  Might be worth a try.

[fredk]

Wash it down with a strong lemon juice/water mix

[Ed in Tx]

Why not use one of the commercial products available that remove pet urine odors? I don't know any by name but they are readily available even at Walmart.

[Sam83]

Agree with the post above. Your best solution to this is an Enzyme Cleaner. There are many and they all work the same way. The smell of cat urine is one of those things that will resurface unexpectedly if you rely on just soap, water, vinegar, etc. It'll be fine and then you'll catch a waft of it unexpectedly somewhere down the line. The enzyme cleaning solutions are the only thing that will permanently rid you of the smell. Good luck!

[Sarge324]

Thank you everyone for your inputs. I'll with warm water and lemon juice mixture if that doesn't work ill give it a go with vinegar. I don't live in the USA so a lot of really good cleaning products are not an option for me since I can't get them or at least can't get them until I decide to pay for shipping and taxes more than the value of the entire leather bag.

Also think that cocoa or coconut butter to recover the leather is a good idea so I'll do that after I get the smell or at least most of the smell out of it.

[Handstitched]

19 hours ago, fredk said:

Wash it down with a strong lemon juice/water mix

This has come up once before  on this forum hasn't it ??  But I can't remember who had the same problem? 

Could make the leather into ' cat pee purses ' ???  Ha !!

sorry   

HS