# Correct care for nappa leather



## Mike_T

Hi everybody!

I know that contemporary leather upholstery has some synthetic coating, so use of any conditioners is undesirabe.

But what about classic nappa leather? I've got a BMW E36 with white nappa lether seats. I doubt it has any polyethylene coating. I think that use of some nourishing conditioner is necessary to keep the leather soft and avoid cracking.

What's the best leather cleaner and conditioner for classic nappa leather?

Thanks in advance!


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## Furniture Clinic

Here is a definition of Nappa leather from Wikipedia;



> Nappa leather or Napa leather is a full-grain leather, typically dyed, made from unsplit kid-, lamb- or sheep-skin by tanning with salts of chromium or aluminium sulfate, and noted for softness and durability. It is often used in high-quality leather products such as high-end furniture and accessories such as wallets and luggage. One example would be interiors of luxury vehicles.


Although Nappa is a premium type of leather, in a car, it will still have a pigmented coating and so use of conditioner wouldn't really serve any purpose. Instead, you should use a leather protection cream to protect the pigment rather than try to condition it.


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## judyb

The definition of Nappa leather above is correct but these days it is often simply a name given to a Full Grain (top quality) leather in car interiors so can cause some confusion. The leather is likely to be pigment coated with a clear coat finish particularly as it is white.

Protect from new (or after a deep clean)
Maintain with a regular cleaning/protection product
Deep Clean once or twice a year

Conditioners are not necessary but on white leather a protector is crucial as it will help to guard against the problem so dye transfer. Keeping it clean will also help to prevent the pigment from cracking as it is generally the effects of dirt and constant abrassion that cause the pigment to crack. Using a protector will help make it easier to keep clean as dirt will be held on the surface where it can be easily cleaned off.

Hope this helps


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## TOGWT

*Leather Industry Definitions*

_Aniline leather_ - is leather that has not received any coating, the pigmentation is added to provide an even colour and is completely transparent, so that the original grain surface can be seen completely unhindered

_Semi-Aniline leather_ - is defined as leather which has been aniline dyed or stained, incorporating a small quantity of pigment (a thin clear sealant that provides a uniform colour and affords some protection) not so much as to conceal the natural characteristics of the hide.

_Pigmented Leather _- a leather whose surface has a finish containing pigment particles that render the finish completely opaque
Coated Leather - the surface coating applied to the leather substrate does not exceed one-third of the total thickness of the product, but is in excess of 150 µ (microns).

_Nappa Leather_ - is the tanned skin of a sheep and generally denoted as high quality full grain leather.

*Automotive leather *

Is a rather difficult category to define as OEM descriptions of leather finishes vary, often very differently from that of leather industry manufacturer's descriptions. Automobile manufacturers have blurred the distinguishing lines on what exactly constitutes leather, so it can cause confusion.
Before 1980 most automotive leather upholstery used was a high quality top grain Aniline dyed hide. Only the highest quality top grain (the top 0.05 inches of the hide) was selected for their use, this grade of leather is now only used in less than 10% of automobiles). They had no pigmented protective coating, and over time they acquired a patina and a soft hand that was typical of this kind of leather hide. All of which requires old world skills and products to maintain them.

This type of top-grain premium leather is mostly used in prestige European automobiles; Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lotus, Lexus and Rolls Royce, US automobiles like Cadillac and high-end German automobiles such as Audi, BMW, Daimler AG, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche. This is the market sector both Leatherequi and Connolly Hide Care were originally formulated for

The leather now used for US, Asian and some European automotive upholstery has a pigmented finish to produce a uniform colour and is protected with a urethane covering

Modern automotive leather upholstery is classified as finished leather, which means that the surface is protected with a urethane covering and this is why it cannot absorb wax, lanolin or oil-based 'conditioners'.
.


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## Furniture Clinic

TOGWT said:


> Before 1980 most automotive leather upholstery used was a high quality top grain Aniline dyed hide. Only the highest quality top grain (the top 0.05 inches of the hide) was selected for their use, this grade of leather is now only used in less than 10% of automobiles). They had no pigmented protective coating, and over time they acquired a patina and a soft hand that was typical of this kind of leather hide. All of which requires old world skills and products to maintain them.
> 
> This type of top-grain premium leather is mostly used in prestige European automobiles; Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lotus, Lexus and Rolls Royce, US automobiles like Cadillac and high-end German automobiles such as Audi, BMW, Daimler AG, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche. This is the market sector both Leatherequi and Connolly Hide Care were originally formulated for


I am not sure where you go this information from but it is incorrect. Whilst the leather used was thicker than the leather used now, it was not aniline leather. It was a full grain leather but from my experience it always had a pigmented coating.

We have every rolls royce & bentley colour matched, with original samples supplied from the original sales books dating back to 1965. All of these are pigmented. All of the pre 1965 colour samples we have are also pigmented.

This is also the same with all the other car makes we have samples from. I have never seen a car leather with aniline leather in. It just isn't suitable, it would fade to heavily in the sun, and stain easily too.

These leather did have a nitro cellulose coating on, rather than a polyurethane coating like most modern upholstery.


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## Mike_T

Adam Staerck said:


> I am not sure where you go this information from but it is incorrect. Whilst the leather used was thicker than the leather used now, it was not aniline leather. It was a full grain leather but from my experience it always had a pigmented coating.
> 
> We have every rolls royce & bentley colour matched, with original samples supplied from the original sales books dating back to 1965. All of these are pigmented. All of the pre 1965 colour samples we have are also pigmented.
> 
> This is also the same with all the other car makes we have samples from. I have never seen a car leather with aniline leather in. It just isn't suitable, it would fade to heavily in the sun, and stain easily too.
> 
> These leather did have a nitro cellulose coating on, rather than a polyurethane coating like most modern upholstery.


So a nitro celulose coating doesn't incept any conditioner too?


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## TOGWT

Thank you, I appreciate the info on the top-grain leather


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## Furniture Clinic

Mike, that's a painted coating too and so it won't accept any conditioner.

With the likes of Connolly hide food that was frequently used on older interiors, whilst it did have some form of wax content, it also had some form of solvent in it. I believe this solvent slightly softened the nitro cellulose coating giving the illusion that the leather had been 'fed'! When actually all it was doing was softening the painted coating that had hardened.


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## Mike_T

Thank you Adam. I've started all this asking because I have some issue with my nappa leather seats.

By mistake, I left one window opened all the night one day an obviously it rained. :wall: Since then half of the seats got rough and lost their elasticity. I've tried nearly anything to bring the softness back, but without any luck.  

Could you advise me what to do? Your help will be highly appreciated!


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## judyb

Although a certain level of moisture is required to keep leather in good conditioin when leather gets oversoaked the leather fibres swell and become distorted. If the leather is then dried quite rapidly the fibres canno return to their original state causing loss of elasticity - the area will feel harder and rougher to the touch.

Unfortunately there is very little that can be done to rectify this swelling and the panel may need to be replaced.

Hope this helps


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## Furniture Clinic

We do have a product called leather revive, which will help soften leather and make it more elastic. As the leather has a coating on we couldn't guarantee how effective it will be, it will soak into the leather in the damaged areas, but for maximum effectiveness you should strip off the existing lacquer and colour.

In doing this, the Leather revive will work to its full capability, and when re-applying the colour the seat will look new again, however this does make the job a bit bigger.

If you didn't want to undergo this procedure, but do want the job done, you can always get in touch with one of our franchises who will be more than happy to do it for you. Our branches can be found here (http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/UK_Branches.htm)


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