Frank Lucenta

Dealing with surface dyes on skins

Many suede garments on the market today contain skins with lush, bright, deep colors. These colors include jet black, as well as brilliant red, yellow, blue and purple.

Normally, color is dyed into skins in the tannery by the vat dyeing process. There the skins are placed in large drums (or wheels) which contain dyes in which the skins are immersed.

As the skins remain immersed in the dye, the dye penetrates the skin and deposits small pockets of dye throughout the skin, giving it its color.

If the skins do not remain in contact with the dye long enough, the dye will only partially penetrate through the skin from both the top and the bottom surfaces.

When this occurs, a cross section of the skin will look like an Oreo cookie with a white center sandwiched between two darker colored outer layers. If the skins are dyed the proper length of time, the color is uniform throughout the full thickness of the skin.

However, if a brilliant high color or a jet black suede is desired, it is often obtained by the use of surface powders like carbon black to intensify the color of the dyes.

This technique is also used to obtain a white shade on suede skins that would otherwise have to be bleached in order to get them white.

In this case, the white powder is placed over the natural pale grey color of the skin. The powder can readily be detected visually by looking at a cross section or edge of the skin where only the surface will be white.

This method of coloring is sometimes used on white shearling garments. A shearling is a garment made from a sheep skin that still has the original hair on it. The hair has been sheared to within approximately one half inch of the skin surface. The hair side is worn on the inside of the garment closest to the wearer. This gives a nice warm lining to keep the wearer warm in cold climates.

Surface powders are also sometimes referred to as pigment dyes or mud dyes.

All very interesting, you may say, but what practical value is this information?

The problem is that these surface powders that are used to intensify the rich high colors or deep black shades are loose particles of color on the surface of the skin. When these particles are placed in the cleaning machine, the cleaning machine will do its job. That is, it will remove any loose particles from the surface of the skin.

The machine doesn’t care if the particles are particles of dirt and soil or particles of black, white or brilliant colors. The machine will do its job of removing and carrying away these particles from the surface of the garment.

In the case of soil and dirt that’s good! In the case of colored powder, that’s bad!

The loss of the color intensifying powders will significantly alter the depth and brilliance of the color of the garment and may result in what appears to be drastic color loss.

Redyeing will not restore the original high color or deep black shade, although it will significantly improve it.

So what do you do to avoid a claim that would surely occur?

It’s back to the counter and the person accepting the garment. If they are alert and paying attention, they will note that the customer may be complaining that the outfit has already transferred color to other articles of clothing worn with it.

To test for surface powder color, rub the surface of the suede with a white handkerchief or white terry cloth.

If the color rubs off on the white cloth, it is a powder. If it’s a white shearling, rub the surface with a dark cloth or dark terry cloth. If white appears on the dark cloth, it is powder.

In either case, explain the situation to the customer and get a customer release before accepting for processing or refuse to accept it.

If you accept the garment, you should be prepared to clean it by itself on a batch and then drop the cleaning fluid containing the powder to your still.

The customer should be asked to pay an appropriate charge for this special handling.

If you can’t do that, refuse to clean the item and explain why.

If you can do it, then be ready to redye the garment for a fee or get the customer’s signed OK that they will accept the garment with a less vivid color after cleaning.

If the item is to be wetcleaned, that is a batch process where the cleaning fluid is water. The water will contain the powder after wet cleaning. The water and powder will normally be dumped on the drain cycle.

Frank Lucenta is president of Royaltone Co., Inc., a firm that manufacturers the products he developed to make it possible for any cleaner to safely AND profitably dryclean, wetclean and finish any suede, leather, fur and trimmed cloth garment. He also wrote related instruction books that document the process, entitled “Handling Leather and Suede” and “Cleaning and Finishing Leather and Suede.” He also teaches small groups of plant owners and managers how to identify, accept, spot, dryclean and wetclean, press and recolor suedes, leathers, and furs using his Royaltone procedures and products. The next Royaltone Leather training sessions are scheduled for Sept. 12-13 and Dec. 5-6 at the Royaltone Suedemate Leather Cleaning Center in Tulsa, OK. For more information on 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 Infofmation is also availbale on the Royaltone web site, www.royaltone.com.