restoration Help restore old leather wallhanging

[Squilchuck]

I need advice cleaning and restoring an old veg-tanned leather wall hanging with lettering and floral carving.  It is large - 5.5' x 3.5'. It seems to be thick skirting  leather.  It has been hanging on a office wall for about 40 years.  The leather condition is dry but not stiff or cracked.  It has general dirt, probably cigarette smoke, some small stains, and places where people tried to clean it (see photos - don't mind the shadows or glare).  In places it looks like it was color stained and streaked, or maybe they tried to clean it and caused the streaks, or maybe they wanted it to look "antiqued".  On tack and such, I use Feibings 4 Way Care cleaner, or saddle soap and neatsfoot oil, but I am not sure how to treat this thing.  Probably would use just a cleaner/conditioner and not neatsfoot oil as I don't want to darken it much.  Maybe first  a light wash with a weak oxalic acid solution to get out the spots and generally clean it, then use the conditioner/cleaner?   Thanks for the advice.  --John

[Dwight]

Hey, John, . . . can you show us a full picture, . . . I'm curious as to what else is on there.

Thanks, may God bless,

Dwight

[NVLeatherWorx]

Actually, your line of thinking for the direction you have plotted is pretty much right on.  I was commissioned a few months back to do some restoration on two leather art pieces that were framed and had been stuffed in a closet for over 20 years and forgotten.  When I received the pieces they were both very dry but not cracked or trying to dry rot but one of them also had some stains on it (later found out that they had been spit on a long time ago).  I first hit them up with a treatment of deglazer (they had been sealed and some was still present) and then followed that up with my own mixture of soda water, lemon juice, and white vinegar to do some general cleaning.  Once the leather dried from the cleaning I gave it 4 applications of Pure Neatsfoot Oil (with 24 hours rest time in between each treatment) to give some life back to the leather and then finished them off with a finish blend of 50/50 Resolene and distilled water.  There was some slight darkening from the overall process but it didn't come from the oil, it came from the Resolene sealer.  However, the level of darkening actually returned it to the original shade that it was when they were first carved and tooled so it wasn't an issue for the owner as he grew up with them until he left the house to see the world (they were hidden when the artist, his father, passed away). 

The best thing here, for me, was that I didn't charge him for these restorations as these were real works of art:  one was the mural of "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and the other was a mural of a quartet in a Bar; both were heavy with detail and the stains were pretty much non-visible when it was all finished.

Hope this helps.

[Squilchuck]

Dwight, here is a full picture.  Kind of hard to get a good photo with it on the floor.

[Dwight]

I'm looking at that almost in awe at the huge amount of concentration, and effort put into getting that done, done right, and no mistakes.

The originator could probably point out a few "miscues" in it, . . . but THAT is far up and above anything I would want to tackle.

Thanks for sharing, . . . that is a treasure just in Americana if nothing else.

May God bless,

Dwight

[electrathon]

Beyond deglazed I don't know what to tell you.  But I agree with Dwight, very cool piece.

[TarheelRon]

Fascinating piece for sure. For what it's worth, you might try contacting conservators at a state or federal historical museums; i.e., Smithsonian or National Park Service (     https://www.nps.gov/hfc/cfm/contact.cfm ) .  Tennessee State Musuem has Andrew Jackson's leather hat box on public display and it still looks good. 

 

[Squilchuck]

Thanks for the advice.  The museum literature was not too helpful because they use lots of chemicals I was not familiar with and, from what I read, they frown on adding oils.  Here is what I did after much thinking and reading.  I deglazed with two passes, used oxalic acid on spots (I was afraid to wash the whole piece after deglazing seemed to bleach it), cleaned with clear glycerin saddle soap, applied a coat of Bee Natural saddle oil, applied RTC resist and then Fiebings light brown antique stain, then another coat of RTC.  All the spots and many of the old stain/finish streaks came out. The oil darkened it a bit, but probably more like the original color.  I had some problem with keeping stain in the tooling and lettering where the cuts or beveling was shallow.  I tried several passes with stain.  It seemed like the deglazer may have done something to make the cuts shallow or left  some residue that did not come out - they seemed bleached?  The deglazer is harsh, so I did not want to keep whacking the leather with it.  Also, deglazer shredded my nitrile gloves and deglazed my fingertips before I noticed it. I rarely use the stuff.  After all, it came out nice.  It is not like new and I wish the stain would have stuck better, but I am pretty satisfied.  I'll post a photo when they mount it on the wall.