Review of floor finish leather hardening options?

schreiber · Post by **schreiber** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:51 pm

I know brand names and their separate effects on leather have been mentioned here but I'm not sure if it got lost.

I'm reading up on floor finishes and it looks like there are oil based, water based, acrylic, urethane, etc.....

Can someone who has done this chime in and let me know what the best results are? Turns out a cheap price is $17 a gallon so far, so I'm not going to be trying every option out there.

Thanks in advance

Kilkenny · Post by **Kilkenny** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:17 pm

I use acrylic floor polish as a leather sealant. Part of my reasoning is that one of the readily available products sold specifically for sealing leather is "acrylic Resolene", from Tandy. Figured if one clear acrylic sealant was acceptable for leather working, another one might also work.

I started with one of the Johnsons and Johnsons compounds, I'll have to check the label at home to see precisely which one. Lowes stopped carrying that and I went with what they are now carrying (at least in my area) - red bottle, I'll have to check the name when I get home.

I would prefer to be getting the J&J product, I think it produced a better result. The current product is adequate - I think the J&J was noticeably better.

Haven't experimented beyond those two brands, and Future, which I also liked but as far as I know it isn't available in bulk at a competitive price.

Mord · Post by **Mord** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:31 pm

Try a restraunt supply store for floor wax in bulk.

Mord.

schreiber · Post by **schreiber** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:04 pm

Well, I wasn't really looking for where or how much - I'm looking for info on what works for total immersion hardening. I've back-and-forthed with at least one Archiver who does this.

The $17 a gallon reference was a justification for why I don't just go buy oil-based-urethane, water-based-urethane, oil-based-acryllic, ad nauseum, and try them all - it'd cost too much money to find out what someone here has already figured out. Once I know what to get, then I'll think about pricing it.

Baron Alejandro · Post by **Baron Alejandro** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:33 pm

I think no matter what other chemical you use, you'll only get a good proper hardening if you bake it.

Kilkenny · Post by **Kilkenny** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 5:06 pm

Baron Alejandro wrote:I think no matter what other chemical you use, you'll only get a good proper hardening if you bake it.

Not really true. Soaking in acrylic floor polish doesn't get as hard as baking, but it's a pretty decent result with a bit less work and fewer chances for things to go bad on you.

If you saturate the leather with something like a resin used for fibreglass, you'll get something rather like fibreglass.

I haven't tested it, but I'm told SealCrete, a concrete sealer, works spectacularly well but takes about 4 months to actually set. For those 4 months you can keep adjusting it - and you may have to keep adjusting it as it deforms in storage or travel - but somewhere right at the end of 4 months, it sets hard and you had best have it in the right form at that point. I'm just not that patient :lol:

You can impregnte leather with various things, producing a fiber matrix in whatever the penetrating material is. If that material should happen to polymerize, well, then you get something in the family of hardened leather