Vinyl Covered Leather?????

[wolvenstien]

I have some leather that was given to my by a friend who works in the furniture industry. The leather is upholstery leather. Beautiful OxBlood color. Good feel.

I got some ink on the finished side and decided to take a little Deglazer to it (deglazer is Aceatone right?) and after rubbing for less than 20 seconds I noticed the finish was coming up as a skin away from the leather underneath. Man was I pissed... I played with it and saw what I beleive to be vinyl. The top finish is vinyl... I then turned it over and applyed the aceatone to the rough side of the leatherand the vinyl on the smooth side came right off.

Have anyone of you ever came across this? Is this normal for upholstery leather?

[Bree]

There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. --- John Ruskin

[wolvenstien]

LOL, I hear ya Bree

[bruce johnson]

Wolvenstein,

There are really a lot of variations in upholstery leather. It can be full grain, top grain, corrected, or finished. By itself it seems like uphostery leather has no standards. It looks like you have a leather that has had a pigmented finish applied. Heres a couple links that might help explain some of the various definitions and processes - Hewit and Chesterfield.

I came onto this when someone sent a few of us a warning about some upholstery hides they got to make chaps out of. They bought three hides and cut into all three of them before they found the finish peeled off. No returns.

[Art]

Deglazer is usually primarily ethyl acetate which is much more aggressive than acetone. It will act as a solvent for some glues. I can only guess that the part on top is a sprayed on finish of who knows what formulation that you or I wouldn't recognize as a finish at all, but rather a coating, these are quite common in the upholstery and garment leather industries. Ever notice how uniform car and furniture leather is and how it NEVER crocks? When you produce 80 gazillion yards of it, you can afford special coatings.

Art

I have some leather that was given to my by a friend who works in the furniture industry. The leather is upholstery leather. Beautiful OxBlood color. Good feel.

I got some ink on the finished side and decided to take a little Deglazer to it (deglazer is Aceatone right?) and after rubbing for less than 20 seconds I noticed the finish was coming up as a skin away from the leather underneath. Man was I pissed... I played with it and saw what I beleive to be vinyl. The top finish is vinyl... I then turned it over and applyed the aceatone to the rough side of the leatherand the vinyl on the smooth side came right off.

Have anyone of you ever came across this? Is this normal for upholstery leather?

[Ian]

The answer is pretty simple - all upholstery leather and most garment leather has a finish on it to protect the leather. It doesn't mean what you have is inferior leather. You used a product that was intended for taking the finish off. Seems like it did the job.

[celticleather]

I believe this vinyl-coated leather was originally produced for the automobile industry, in order to give a high-end look and feel to the upholstery of low-end cars. Its purpose was to give greater wear resistance and easier cleaning, but it also meant that poor quality (cheaper) leather could be used to achieve a high-quality appearance.

I'm not surprised that it found its way into domestic upholstery, although I think its use is banned in the UK and Europe, because it produces toxic gases when burned, and unlike leather, it is not self-extinguishing.

[TwinOaks]

Cool! You found an easy way to strip the crappy coating off upholstery leather!

Now all you gotta do is pick a color you want and spray it on!

[MADMAX22]

Its funny that you posted this today because I just got some leather that I purchased off ebay. It was upholstery leather brown looks similer to yours and was pretty cheap about $50 for 50sqft or something like that. It has a nice color I thought though.

ANyways I took some deglazer and managed to rub off some of the covering/coating. It wouldnt come off like yours dows but it is definatly coated on the outside.

Now the question is what does a crafter use this stuff for? Is it a good lining leather even though its chrome tanned? I mean could I line things like bags and such with it.

Anyways what would you guys use it for by chance if you had some? For the price I cant complain, now I just need to figure out what I can use it on.

[wolvenstien]

Cool, thanks for the replies guys.