Dry rot

Ok, this briefcase was deteriorating before my eyes and crumbling in places under my touch. Sad because she is a New York City bag and worth saving if at all possible. I used a combination of super glue, epoxy, and black acrylic paint to preserve what is left. Here are the photos:

And here is what she looked like before I got her, what doesn't show is how the handles were wobbly, there was blue paint on the side of the bag, it is visible in the photos, and the dry rot was just not something you can see in pictures. http://www.etsy.com/transaction/77139860 she was a reasonable price even with the problems!

New projects

Today I am working on a Coach mini briefcase made in New York City and a Tignanello Polished Pockets Hobo bag. I normally only do Coach, but this bag was a really good price and only needed some ink removed from the lining. Unfortunately I wet the side of the bag while I was working on the lining, and the leather turned dark where it got wet. Having worked on another bag that did that, I realized it probably wouldn't dry evenly unless I dunked it, so it got dunked. Well, there is cardboard in the bottom of the bag, so now I am really hoping it hardens back up as it dries, otherwise I might have ruined a beautiful bag!!!

Actually, now that the bag is dry, it was not cardboard, and this bag took a dunking beautifully!

The Coach briefcase is drying, I am just a bit nervous about the cardboard handles, seems like I get groups of bags with the same issues sometimes!! What I love about this bag is the Talon zipper though. It truly is like butter even after so many years!!

Coach New York City Clutch

This bag came in with a horrible ink stain, flat as a pancake, half covered in saddle soap, and just beat up by life!
But, it is an original bag made in New York, and those bags are resilient!!

Ink stains

Ink is really tough to remove from leather, and in most cases it simply can't be completely removed at all, and even partial removal will remove the dye from the bag with it. I got three bags today that all had ink damage. I used alcohol in a spray bottle to pre-treat the ink. I then soaked the bag in water, and used a metal cuticle pusher to lightly scrape the surface of the leather to allow the ink to release into the water. The alcohol eventually became ineffective, so I then used bar soap( I used a bar from a hotel, nothing special) and rubbed it into the stain to release more ink. I kept up this process alternating alcohol, scraping, bar soap, and more scraping until no more ink would come out of the leather. This process did not completely remove the ink, but it lightened it substantially. My hope is that once dry, the stain will be a minor flaw on the corner of the bag, and not the most prevalent element on it as it was when I got the bag. And just FYI, this was a four hour process... the pictures illustrate what I did, but I did it over and over and over again...

British Tan Coach Court Bag

Before pics...

I notice the tag on this bag is different from most and says Coach Leatherware on it instead of just Coach, this bag is super well made too, I have done enough rehabbing to appreciate several differences, the strap is still immaculate, no splitting and no messed up edges that need touching up. The brass still has the coating on some of it, most vintage bags have no coating left on the brass. This tag isn't split like most of the later plain Coach ones, it is also come to think of it, one sided and solid leather! It can't split, lol!! I had two other Cort bags from the mid 1990's, and neither of them were built like this one! This bag is a real treasure!!

Coach Mini Hobo

Here she is all done, she came out soft and supple, and not feeling hard and like plastic anymore. The color is called Vicuna. I had a chat with Coach today and they are sending me a new tag.

The creed mark after removing the ink stains using alcohol. While wet it looked like some of the color had been removed from the leather and the areas looked grey, upon drying it now shows that the leather is still white but the ink is still lightly there.

This is the second bag I got today, basic white with some singe from age, hopefully she will perk up soon!

The creed mark showing some interior ink stains, these were the only flaws on the bag!

New York bag

I got two new to me bags in the mail today and I am totally excited because the first one was listed on e-bay with almost no information. I ordered it hoping it would be something good, and it is! It is a New York City bag!! Here are some before pics for your enjoyment!