Help! Who cleans leather???

[CleanItGreen]

OK, so its not that big of an emergency but I got your attention!

Got a call from a person needing 3 pieces of leather furniture cleaned. I haven't done any leather, just fabric upholstery, and offered to either find someone who cleaned leather or to do it myself at a small discount but he agreed to let me "research" for him. I'd like to get the business and it can't be that hard to do compared to what we do all the time. My question is what do you leather cleaners use? What's best products and what's best process? Towels? Brushes?

[Tom Ingram]

I believe JonDon has a kit. I bought some leather cleaner from them and cleaned my couches. It did a nice job.

[Lounge Lizards]

Is the leather A = Aniline, N = Nubuck, P = Pigmented/Protected, or is it a Semi Aniline, Wax or Oil Pull-up, or that dreaded BiCast/Split abomination??

Are there any stains impregnated into the leather?

Any sweat?

Any mould?

Any odors?

Any top coat issues such as peeling, etc;?

I believe that Leather Master or the Chemspec range of cleaners/protectors is pretty good over there.

Just like one would I.D. a carpet fiber prior to choosing the correct cleaner, proper I.D. of the leather is also extremely important.

One thing I have noticed over the years is that if leather cleaning & maintenance was so easy, why is it that only a very small % of carpet cleaners do this work?

A word of caution, if in doubt, go without, most insurance companies will not pay out for your mistakes, and you may end up buying some damaged leather furniture that you don't want.

This is some some Bicast/split furniture.

I advised the R.E. agent to return this when it was 6 months old.

The owner did not want to as he had picked it and it was leather & I did not know what I was talking about.

This photo was taken another 9 months later, 15 months old and ready to be dumped at the waste rubbish dump.



This is a rather soiled "P" type leather with damaged top coat.

[CleanItGreen]

I have some leeway with this as he is going to replace them if he can't get them cleaned. Thanks for the warnings about leather type.
Tom, I'm going to check my Jon-Don store Monday.