Handling conditions of manufacture
e have examined several kinds
of conditions of use that occur as suede and leather garments
and accessories are worn. These conditions of use are the
result of wear and tear damage caused by the customer. Now we
will examine conditions of manufacture. These are things the
manufacturer of the garment did that can present you with a
potential problem in accepting, handling and processing suede
and leather garments and accessories. Conditions of manufacture
can occur in the tannery where the skins are
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Let’s begin our study at the
beginning, which is at the tannery, where the skins are
received from the slaughter house to be tanned, so they will no
longer be subject to rotting. Here the skins are sueded, dyed
and painted to create suede, reverse suede, naked leather, cuir
savage leather and painted leather skins, suitable for making
garments and accessory items.
Suede lint
One thing that occurs in the tanning
process is the buffing or suedeing of the skins. Suede is
characterized by a surface nap or the velvet like surface. This
nap is created as part of the tanning process. Normally the
flesh side of the skin is sueded, although the surface of the
skin (the smooth side) that is the side of the skin from which
the hair was removed, may also be sueded to form a reverse
suede or Nu Buck.
The suede nap is raised on the skin by
passing it through a machine that has a wide roller like wheel
with an abrasive surface similar to sand paper, sand cloth or
pumice. As the skin passes beneath this roller, the abrasive
surface contacts the surface of the skin and plucks up the
surface to form a nap or the velvet like surface we call suede.
Raising suede nap
As the suedeing process proceeds, some
small pieces of the surface of the skin are pulled loose to
form a suede dust or lint. This suede dust or lint remains on
the surface of the suede. Other small pieces of skin are left
hanging by a small strand.
The loose suede lint is then removed from
the surface of the skin by passing it through a dust removal
vacuum unit that is intended to vacuum clean the loose lint
from the surface of the skin.
However, all of the lint is not always
removed from the surface of the skin. The result is that the
loose lint will come off of the suede during the time it is
worn and will be deposited onto the other articles of clothing
being worn with the suede.
The loose lint will also come off the
surface of the suede during cleaning. If you are not cleaning
suede or leather, this will not be a problem to you. If you are
cleaning suede and leather you will want to make a provision to
capture and screen out this lint. This procedure will be
discussed later in much more detail.
So what about suede lint coming off onto
other articles of clothing? Well, the customer may ask you what
you can do about it. There is something you can do and make
some money doing it. You can take the garment in for
de-linting. It will usually be a relatively new article, so it
won’t require cleaning. It just needs de-linting.
How to do it? One way is to use a clean
hand vacuum cleaner machine equipped with an upholstery tool
and vacuum off the excess suede lint. Another way is to tumble
the suede in your clean and cool reclaimer or dry-to-dry
drycleaning machine on the aerate cycle.
Remember, tumble it cool! A clean, cool
laundry dryer may also be used with no heat. Just the tumbling
action and cool air flow will de-lint the suede and the
customer will be pleased to pay you a reasonable fee for doing
it.
Skiving
Another condition of manufacture is called
skive marks. These are usually rather large, often oval shaped,
discolored, mottled blotches found on the backside or underside
of a smooth leather or sueded leather garment.
This condition can go unnoticed if the
person accepting the garment is not trained to look for it
because the condition is normally concealed by the lining of
the garment. Why should the drycleaner care what the skin looks
like on the back side when there is a lining covering it?
The skive marks become a problem when
three factors exist: First, the lining is a loose lining which
is not sewn in at the hem line.
Second, you do not look under the loose
lining with the customer there before the item is accepted for
cleaning.
Third, the customer raises the lining
after you have cleaned it. Now the customer sees for the first
time — with horror — the unsightly and very obvious
mottled, discolored blotches on the back side of their very
favorite, brand new, beautiful, expensive suede or leather
garment — the garment that they think you have ruined
because you somehow put all those ugly, unsightly blotches on
it.
Sure, you can explain it away. You can
tell the customer that the blotches were there all the time.
They were there when the garment was purchased. They got there
at the tannery. They are the result of the tannery shaving off
the underside of the skin to make the thickness of the skin
more uniform because it varies in thickness from one part of
the skin to anther as it comes from the animal. You can tell
the customer that the tannery did this shaving or skiving
process to give the skin a better feel.
The skiving was done after the skin was
dyed and for that reason, a portion of the skin and the dye was
removed causing this condition to exist on nearly all fine
suede and leather skins. The condition does not normally affect
the garment’s outward appearance or wearability.
If you tell the customer all of that, you
will be telling it like it is. But you’re doing it all
after the fact and you know it’s a lot easier to explain
it before the fact.
So the way to handle it properly is for
the counter person to raise up the lining and show the customer
that the skive marks are there before they leave the garment
for cleaning. Then these skive mark blotches can be explained
before the garment is cleaned and there will be no doubt in the
customer’s mind as to whether or not you put the blotches
there or that you did anything to harm their fine suede or
leather garment.
Instead, you will have enhanced your
professional image with the customer by displaying your
detailed knowledge about this “highly specialized”
area of leather cleaning and by imparting new and interesting
information to a valued customer.
Frank Lucenta invented the Royaltone
process and created the products for his method of cleaning and
finishing leather and suede. He also wrote related instruction
books that document the process. He teaches plant owners and
managers how to identify, accept, spot, wet clean, dryclean,
press and recolor suedes, leathers. The next Royaltone leather
training sessions taught by Frank and Bruce Lucenta are
scheduled for February 7-8 and April 11-12 at the
Royaltone Suedemate Leather Cleaning Center in Tulsa, OK. For
more information on the training sessions or on spotting charts
in either English or Korean, call (800) 331-5506, (918)
622-6677, fax (918) 665-6017 or e-mail frank@royaltone.com. Information is also available on the Royaltone
web site: www.royaltone.com.