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Marty
Tinkerer
Username: Marty
Post Number: 7
Registered: 11-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 29, 2008 - 08:12 am: | 
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Some may have seen my recent post in here asking about leather treatments... on another note, how about leatherette? I'm talking about the "fabricy sort of fake" leather seen on early Brownies, etc. While it seems to be more stable than real leather, it tends to get dull and more "papery" looking. I've seen a number of ideas on cementing it and replacing it, but does anyone do anything to restore it's appearance and preserve it? How about automotive vinyl cleaners? Am I obsessing about nothing?
Marty |
Don_m
Tinkerer
Username: Don_m
Post Number: 10
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 09, 2008 - 08:38 pm: |
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Mary--
Leatherette/fake leather on "early Brownies"--/ how early are you talking---20's -30's---Pre "Graduate"
(plastics/pleather)try some Lexol Mrs. Robinson. |
Marty
Tinkerer
Username: Marty
Post Number: 8
Registered: 11-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 - 02:09 pm: |
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Howdy Don M...
I'm talking Brownies from 1900 on up to the late teens. These are old, but still not valuable or rare,so I'd suppose a reasonable answer would be "why bother?" but a row of the things can still be kind of interesting. 
Marty |
Mikel
Tinkerer
Username: Mikel
Post Number: 123
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 - 08:04 pm: |
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Probably the best advice came from the British Museum many years ago.
Unfortunately, I don't have the link but it involved beeswax and several other ingredients. I am sure it would be as good for "fake" leather as well as real leather.
Hopefully a search will turn up the formula. |
Sevo
Tinkerer
Username: Sevo
Post Number: 25
Registered: 09-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 11, 2008 - 03:08 am: |
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Artificial leather from the pre synthetics age is mostly oil treated paper with limited amounts of leather shavings and/or elastics (rubber, guttapercha) added. It can be treated with products approved for museal and archival leather care.
Post WWII vinyl compounds like Leatherette are more difficult to treat, as there is a very narrow balance between short term replenishment of the softeners and long term depletion of the same. Even their storage poses considerable problems for museum archives. On collectible items with museum value I'd do nothing whenever possible - on user cameras where replacement is inevitable, you'd better use real leather, classic non-vinyl artificial leather or modern fiber based artificial leathers like Alcantara for a replacement. |
Glenn
Tinkerer
Username: Glenn
Post Number: 463
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 11, 2008 - 05:58 pm: |
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Mikel,
The product is marketed as 'Renaissance Wax'. I have used it for a number of years on all types of camera coverings and metal work - painted or chromed. The product works well and produces a nice lustre to the finish. |
Marty
Tinkerer
Username: Marty
Post Number: 10
Registered: 11-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 13, 2008 - 09:42 pm: |
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Hmmm. I'll have to try to run some of that Renaissance Wax down... Thanks!
Marty |
Bill_alexander
Tinkerer
Username: Bill_alexander
Post Number: 14
Registered: 12-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, December 28, 2008 - 12:38 pm: |
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Marty,
Every year I haul out all my old Kodaks the Autographic and Box Brownies, some 100 of them I
use a good grade of wax based black shoe polish
and wet cotton , brings them back to luster and
does preserve them to some degree..worth a try
and the dye in the polish covers the worn spots
pretty well. |
