H & M Leather Chair Showing Wear -- What should I do?

[drcollie]

There is no question that formulas have moved to water-based product, and newer coatings do not possess the tenacity of the older, less environmentally-friendly product. That has changed forever, and there is no going back. On a finished (painted) leather, the trick is to not put the paint on so thick that the leather loses it softness and drape. It's easy to load the topcoat up and make it tough with heavy layers, but then it loses its appeal. So coats go on thin, and the thinner it is, the more susceptible it is to either abrasion-wear or small bits coming off (which can look like small white dots). This applies to all leather, from any maker.

Aniline dyes on the other hand are just that - DYED through the leather, not coated on top. The dye is safe as its vegetable-dye, not chromium, but that is classed as Unprotected leather which scares 90 % of all leather buyers. They want something that is termed Protected. My experience has been that unless you are putting heavy-duty chemicals on the aniline hides like motor oil, bleach, oven cleaner, battery acid, brake fluid, and other things that should not be near upholstery, that concern is largely not warranted. Most water-based stains (but not all) will work themselves out of the hide in a day, or a week, or a couple of months if left alone and not fussed upon. A pure aniline is also susceptible to sun fade. However, they don't friction wear as does a painted hide. You can soil them, but that is different than friction wear and chipping.

Then we get to price. And that's the real key for most consumers. We are a Wal Mart society as a whole, looking to save the most money on a purchase as possible. So naturally the lower priced leathers appeal and customers can and do recoil at higher price points in the upper grade leathers. I hear that all the time, every day. Also, the best leathers usually have a mild pull-up effect which means they can show pressure marks, and that turns off a lot of people as well who don't understand leather. The best leathers are European, as a rule they make the top tier hides. Those will be GR 3 / 4 /5 in Hancock and Moore and GR 5 / 6 in Bradington Young. But that can mean $ 1,000 over the price of the painted Chinese leather and the pushback on price comes in at that point.

Here's a photo of the most used piece of furniture in my home, that I took today. We have had this 15 years now, and this is an Italian pure Aniline hide, upper grade on a solid hardwood frame, true 8-way hand-tied suspension. As you can see, while it doesn't look new, it still has lots of life left in it and I have no plans to replace it soon. This was also the sofa the kids were on from ages 5 to 19 in the family room, and it endured a few stains and spills that worked their way out of the leather over time. This was not an inexpensive sofa when new, and I spent the money for a upper class hide, it has more than paid us back many times over. I think most folks would agree this would be acceptable use wear on a fifteen year sofa. Because its aniline, there is no color loss other than some mild sun fade from ambient light in the room.



Most finished leathers DO hold up, but once in awhile there is a bad batch that has adhesion issues or accelerated friction wear. Depending on the age of the piece, this *CAN* be evaluated and if the maker and tannery agree, it will be replaced. This is an un-written, non-warranty kind of thing done on a case by case basis. The first thing is the piece has to be returned at customer's expense to the factory for evaluation. Once it arrives, the leather will be sent off to a lab for testing and if it comes back with traces of any un-approved product used on the hide, or a dealer-applied 'protectant' such as Guardian, then the claim is denied and the customer can either abandon the piece or pay to have it shipped back to them. If the lab test comes back clean then they replace the hide and pay to re-ship in most instances. Having said that I would guess in 30 years and thousands of pieces I have had 10 pieces returned like this and in 8 of them the lab test showed non-approved products were used on the pieces - those customers were unhappy with the outcome. The two that were legit were recovered at no expense to the customer.

There is no easy or 'right' answer to this question. My experience tells me to select better anilines for my own personal use, but I will not push that upon customers as I don't want to get that 5 year old broken down recliner plopped on my sideway with an upset customer demanding I replace it because I made a recommendation that could not hold up to their lifestyle useage. At the end of the day, I cannot know your lifestyle or your usage habits, but for myself personally those European anilines have performed flawlessly year after year - and yes, they cost more.