Pongy leathers.

Paul Varnsverry says...

As long as it takes. I'm interested as to why I was told never to use
silicone on leather seats. The car trimmer who told me never explained
why, but it was nothing to do with making them slippery.

 

My aversion to use of saddle soap exists because a very knowledgeable
man called Gordon Ribey, who ran the Melrose tannery in Beverley, and
who had forgotten more about tanning than most people in the industry
will ever know, told me so. And if the late Mr. Ribey gave you the
benefit of his advice, you were well advised to take note.

 

I knew someone else would be able to point to information from an
earlier thread which provided the explanation. Which is precisely what
you have done, thanks.

Like the silicon treatment test I am planning to run, it would be
instructive to evaluate a jacket where one side had been treated with
saddle soap, and the other with mild detergent and a leather
preservative. Any saddle soap fans prepared to pay out for a new
jacket, to follow this regimen, then donate their jacket to science in
3 years' time?

 

Paul Varnsverry says...

When I sold Jaguar interior restoration kits, we advised people not to
bother buying Connolly Hide Food for use on any Jaguar seat trim fitted
since 1964/5, which was all Connolly leather. Connolly formulated their
hide food when all leather supplied by them was vegetable tanned, but
chromium tanning became more acceptable in more recent years and the
old Hide Food has no noticeable effect on hides tanned in this way. The
only thing it does is make the chromium tanned leather smell like an
old 1940s/50s car. Hide Food doesn't have any detrimental effect, but
it doesn't have any true benefits either, unless you like the smell of
old leather.

 

And what's wrong with that?

Vegetable tanning is also a much slower process than chromium tanning,
but the downside with the latter is the risk of health problems as a
result of exposure to trivalent and hexavalent chromium, plus
pentachlorophenol.

A key part of my work is arranging for chemical safety analysis of
every material and component that is used in the production of my
clients' products. These compounds can be present, but they have to be
"locked in" to the fabric of the leather and not be released and leech
through the skin due to contact with rain or perspiration. With
textiles it is aromatic amines released by azo dyestuffs which are the
focal point.

It is a wonder we weren't all dropping like flies before these new
regulations came into being.

 

I stand corrected.My use was on the older type very thick type
standard Biker's LJs which usually take a couple of very thick skinned
cows to make I reckon,not on modern thinner supple leathers.

 

OK, I read the posts about saddle soap now. I really don't
understand why. It seems to be OK but I never had the
courage to do a full destructive test.

So what soap are we supposed to use ?

 

So do you remember that £50 you owe me? :-D

 

All part of the service. ;-)

 

What, there are some gayer than mine?

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

Twelve bottles of Sarsons' finest will be despatched imminently. ;-)

 

IMHO, the record for the gayest leathers is still held by the white,
sky blue and pink racing suit worn by the late, great "Puce" Pete
Warden.

 

Mine were described as "the sort of thing you'd expect to see on a
german male prostitute"

The only piccy I can find
http://www.champ.org.uk/albums/france2005/slides/bikes2.html only
shows the trousers (WTF was I doing? ) but they're of the type you can
see at
http://www.schwabenleder.de/index.c...le&b=modell&c=bilder&d=AeroSupertecSport&e=01
which does indeed make them look very gay. Mine are much blacker than
the black/grey ones pictured, with no silly patterns on them.

Paul, if you're still reading, do you know anything about this mob? I
mentioned them on here when I got them but you weren't around.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, Rope amazed us all with this pearl of wisdom:

Which is why you still have "best before" dates. Even on frozen stuff.

If you want to kill bacteria on pongy leathers, you'd get a lot more of
them by boiling

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, Whinging Courier amazed us all with this pearl of
wisdom:

BTW, chicken will rot in a freezer. It just takes a very long time.

 

<Images of WC and rotten chicken now cloud the rest of my day>.
--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, Ace amazed us all with this pearl of wisdom:

It's not just chicken. ITYF all poultry is the same

 

Surely the aperture size will vary?
--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, Ace amazed us all with this pearl of wisdom:

Pheasants are tighter than geese.

 

Oh yes; the model's pose definitely changes one's perspective!

I have seen one Schwabenleder suit, which Dr Willson - one of my
colleagues on the ACU and CEN standards work programmes - purchased
from them. As I recall, the leather itself was very good, and the
manufacturing was generally OK. I think there might have been a seam or
two that could have been constructed differently, but on the whole
there wasn't much to pick holes in.

IIRC, they manufactured a lot of made-to-measure clothing, but I could
be wrong. One thing I do recall correctly is that they were using lots
of visco-elastic foam padding (also known as "confor foam"), which
feels thick and soft and provides the impression that it will do well
in a crash - the truth is somewhat different. The "Produktion" areas of
their web site includes several shots of staff manufacturing padding,
which looks to me like visco-elastic foam. I couldn't find any mention
of the standard in their site, and I don't recall seeing anyone's EN
1621-1 CE marked protectors which featured visco-elastic foam in their
make up.