By the by.....here's an old, old 'trick', remedy,....whatever you want to call it that I stumbled across when going to an 'on site' job abut 25 years ago.

So I walk into a home to work on the leather, I look at it and thing "good God this stuff is as ancient as it's style and going to be as stiff as cardboard! What a pain the butt this is going to be"! (the customer was in their 90's)

To my absolute surprise the leather was a supple as a new set of kid gloves! So for the next too many hours after my commenting and complimenting on the condition of this nice ladies leather I was 'treated' to a looooooooong running story of how her Mother had, in the 19...teens through the 1920's made her wash every thing in the house, floors, base boards, cabinets, and yes.....their leather furniture with Murphy's Oil Soap.

So she had continued to use Murphy's Oil Soap ever since. And since then I too have used it on occasion....still scratching my head and remembering that day, that customer, that leather, every time I do it.

When thinking about it...the soap floats out the 'gunk' and the oil feeds the leather.

I'd have never believed it but I was there, felt the results of many years of this customers use of, yes, Murphy's Oil Soap.......Go figure.


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Regarding your question about Saddle Soap, cracks and such.

My experience with Saddle Soap and the way most use any leather care products is that they never use enough water with the product. Saddle Soap, like Lexol is just that soap and is to be used with liberal amounts of water.

When you use Saddle Soap you should think of how you would wash your face. The Saddle Soap is combined with enough water to make foam...and this 'foam' is what goes onto and into the leather. I've seen people rub the Saddle Soap straight onto their leather and then put just a bit of water with it so it almost looks like a cream.....no so grass hopper. This would be like moistening your face and then rubbing a bar of soap across it until your skin is 'coated'

The water and Saddle Soap should be used together to make a foam on the leather....just like the foam generated in a vigorous hand, face, or hair washing. It's the foam generated that drinks into the leather and 'floats' out the 'gunk'

Liberal amounts of Saddle Soap and water to produce a good foam are used over and over until the 'foam' produced stops drinking into the leather. It's the 'foam' that lifts out the contaminates. You should be rinsing out your sponge, cloth or tool of choice as you use the Saddle Soap/water mixture to produce the working 'foam'

This entire Saddle Soap process is repeated until the 'foam' will no longer drink into the leather and the water coming out of sponge, etc. looks pretty clean.

The foam will actually end up being 'free standing' on the leather when it's 'done' and just like washing your face....you'll know.

Hint....foam doesn't have the body to stay in cracks.....and an over all light wet wipe down/rinse is the last step out side of a nice 'buff off' when it is all dry.

This is a labor intensive project as in many hours and more than one 'tin' of shoe polish size Saddle Soap. To correctly and thoroughly Saddle Soap the complete interior of my 1978 911 SC would be a 4 to 6 hour job.....considering it was done on a fairly regular basis you can see a 'first time' job is going to require a bit of dedication.

Sally forth......I hope this gives you a bit more clarity.

Bottom line Saddle Soap....not Saddle 'paste'.....lots of water....to foam....the foam does the work.


03 STR Quartz/Lt. Grey int.
first 'ride' at 19 ....57 XK140
911 993
2 wheelers....U.S and German
and more.

 

May I add a valuable observation. On new Jaguars, i.e less than 4 years old, the only place you find the leather damaged is at the entry point. In other words, 10 years before your leather starts to show any sign of self deterioration, it will be ruined by abrasion. So on the drivers side at least, it behooves you to put a natural wax that prevents abrasion damage.

I have seen the sharpest edges of the leather worn out in 2.5 years. First thing I noticed when looking at 3 year old XKs.

 

Yup. That edge of the drivers seat and its side bolster are the first things I look at in a car's interior.

To that end, I kinda have an odd way of getting in the car. Instead of dropping down onto the edge of the seat and then twisting into position, I drop down onto the sill with one leg in the car and then lift myself sideways onto the seat already facing forwards. That driver's seat still looks damn good after 13 years and 185K miles. But I still want to give the leather a surprise treat as discussed here.

BTW: Are there any leather pieces other than the top of seat cushion and front of the seat back? Any part of the rear seats?

 

Re: any other leather....the back seats of my 03 STR are all leather as are the sides of the front seats.

As to wear.....the 'gentle' entry is a good idea. I am in the business of repairing the aforementioned seat damage so I see a lot of it. That being said, supple, well hydrated leather is a lot harder to scuff and sand the finish off of. It just has more slip in and out factor.

The coat with wax is an interesting idea. I'm wondering how that would play out on one's cloths.

I make and use a rather sophisticated wax product for the softening of leather for my personal and professional use but must say I've never thought of greasing up my seat.

I think I'll just clean and condition it, enjoy it, and restore it as and when needed. Then again, that's what I do. :-)

Current, 03 STR Quartz/lt gry inter.
(Past tense) 57 XK140 DHC
911 993
2 wheelers....U.S. and German
and 'more'

 

I love your art, it was one of the reasons I went out and got an XKR in caramel, as you know they now only offer colors that resemble vinyl. I also have 2 full Connolly hides from the original Etype- that fantastic London tan. If you are interested drop me a line.

I must confess my upholstery shop guy who has been in business for 30 years is the one who turned me on the wax thing. Being English I have a great fondness for leather and its craftsmanship so I keep up with all the latest recommendations from the leather testers.

In the UK there is a new movement which is also approaching the issue of leather maintenance from the perspective of coating maintenance because they say nourishing the hide actually degrades the coating. Preserving the coating extends the life of the leather. I heard some former Connolly guys also say that using old methods on new leather is counterproductive.

I will try to post links later. Here is one to get you guys started. Advice on leather care, leather cleaning and more brought to you by BLC, the leather experts also check out their product that claims
• Extends the life of leather interiors, significantly reduces wear on leather bolsters, seams, stitching etc at entry/exit points in the vehicle
Leather Protector for Car Interiors

CAUTION: regarding my point of using wax on the bolsters. I would not use any wax that has silicone in it. Silicone will kill leather by making it hydrophobic. Caranuba paste wax (for wood) will work great. This is not greasy. Its really what you put on shoes minus the dye.

 

MWI,

Yes I rember Murphy's oil soap too. Here's an interesting anecdote that happened to me:

Back around 1990 I bought my first leather couch. I used the Murphy's to clean it, heck it even said "for leather" on the side of the bottle. One day about that time, I'm not exactly sure why I called the folks that make Murphy's oil soap. While speaking to them I mentioned using it on my leather.

I could hear the person on the other end draw in thier breath: "sir, are you using it on leather? It is not made to be used on leather." Then they actually asked for my name address and phone number. They even asked for my social security number too (it was back in the days when we never heard of identity theft), and explained that they just wanted to keep a record of this.

I was too young to push back and get to the bottom of it, wish I had. After that phone call (or maybe this was the reason for my call I forget) I looked again - the note that it is for leather was no longer on the bottle.

After their reaction I half expected my sofa to slowly disolve or to be contacted about a class action suit or something, nothing happend at all.

I'm posting this because it is a true story that happened to me and it might be of some interest or caution to someone, nothing more. Truth is, it sure did work well on leather and I'm sure we will never know why they reacted the way they did.

John

 

As promised, here is a link with a treasure trove of answers, including some from the very folks who worked at Connolly. Its most illuminating as to how you best use the right horse for the right course. The most import thing that I picked up was the differences between solvent based lacquers of yore and water based lacquers of nowadays. Naturally, what is good for one would be harmful for the other. Unfortunately its not a very intuitive site for navigation but you guys are pros.
Leathercare Renovations