Before we spend time talking about to keep your leather gloves in pristine shape, let’s talk about a few things you don’t want to happen to your leather: parched out leather, rot from the inside, and catastrophic chemical damage.

Dry Out

You can dry out your leather glove a variety of ways. You can leave it out in the rain, allowing water to soak through and run off with all of its vital oils and nutrients that keep it healthy (a good analog is water’s way of making wrinkled skin). You can also neglect to condition your leather for a long period of time. Another way is to clean your leather glove without conditioning it again afterward. Most of the time, dry leather simply comes down to a single, unifying variable: your leather does not have the oils it needs to keep it healthy.

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What will this look like? Your leather will feel rough, and look very dry. If the leather glove is neglected for a longer period of time, it may develop cracks. This is due to leather’s microscopic makeup; at its core, leather is made up of thousands of tiny fibers, bonded and weaving together. Conditioned leather oils these fibers up, so that, as the leather flexes, these fibers rub smoothly across each other. When these fibers, dry out, they become rough, and with every flex, chafe against each other until they grind to dust – destroying your leather from the inside. It takes a while to get to this point, but this eventuality of parched leather is a good thing to keep in mind.

Rot Damage

There’s an opposite effect your leather can develop – rot. This can occur when oils or water are trapped inside your leather, usually due to excess conditioning, or trapping moisture inside your leather – you can even cause your leather to rot away from mold or mildew. This latter problem usually comes up when leather has prolonged exposure to moist, warm, and shady environments, and demands a separate blog to do justice to. If you’ve got mold problems, check out how to fix that here. Otherwise, all you need to know is that when leather loses its ability to breathe, stale moisture and oils trapped inside the leather can slowly begin to eat away at your leather’s fiber matrix, and before you know it, you’ve got a slushy, drooping leather blob where one you had firm and supple leather. Avoid rotting your leather.

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Chemical Damage

Chemical damage tends to be a little more difficult to treat than parched or saturated leather. This can occur when leather suffers prolonged exposure to sunlight or direct heat, or when commercial cleaners not designed for use on leather come into contact with your leather.

By this point you might be thinking that I’m Van Helsing and you’ve just learned about all of Count Leather Glove’s secret weaknesses. It doesn’t look so tough anymore, does it? WRONG. Not to brag, but leather’s kept its reputation since the days of hunter-gatherers for a reason. It’s alive, it’s breathing, and it is one tough hide-of-a-cow. Even without care, your leather gloves are going to last you years before they finally expire. So why treat them? Because leather is the one material in the world that gives back. If you give your leather glove care that it deserves, it’s going to probably outlast you. So get ready for some tips from the pros on proper leather glove care.

Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: HOW