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Leather's ENEMIES...
Leather's Enemies including:
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Many products in the market may contain:
Silicone oil or sealers that harden the
leather surface and promote cracking. The leather loses its ability to
"breathe", which is what makes it so comfortable to our touch.
Beeswax is great for saddles and boots
where waterproofing is desirable, but gives a clammy feel when used on
leather car seats and leather furniture.
Petroleum, mineral, neatsfoot oil, or lanolin oils,
which can encourage rotting of leather fibers and stitching.
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Sun Light:
Both UV (ultraviolet ray) and IR (infra-red ray) is typically found as part of the radiation received by
the Earth from the Sun. Most humans are aware of the effects of UV
through the painful condition of sunburn.
Sun is the worst enemy of leather since leather is
no longer have regenerative powers that nature provides and need help to
maintain themselves like human's skin does.
Sun light damaging leather in the following ways:
- Both UV and IR providing strong energy to the
chemical breakdown of the collagen that makes up the leather
- Oxidizing the color coat leading to drying your leather of
its natural oils, cracking and fading.
- Interacting with atmospheric pollutants, producing
chemicals that damage your leather
- Fading and cracking the surface colorant or dye, although
this is far less of a problem with modern coatings.
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Water:
When leather becomes saturated with water, the water temporarily bonds
with those oils lubricating its fibers and floats them to the surface.
The leather dries stiff and brittle. Leather dyes are water-soluble so
excess water can lift them right out. A poor dye job may spot, streak,
or even change color. Rubbing hard on any water-saturated leather can
lift the dyes right out of even top quality leathers.
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Heat:
Heat is bad news for leather; Leather is just a piece of meat. When you
place a steak on the grill, what happens?
The heat tenderizes the meat making it possible to chew. Leather reacts
to heat in exactly the same manner. The heat required to cure the "heat
cure" compounds, actually "cooks" the leather, tenderizing the fibers of
the leather. This will cause a breakdown of these fibers that will
eventually break apart, causing the damaged area to deteriorate and
split apart.
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Dirt:
Dirt enter through the pores into the corium and break down the protein
fibers and weaken the leather.
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Salt (from sweat):
Salt acts as a drying agent as it “sucks the moisture”
out of your
leather making them dry and brittle.
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