Restoring doctors' and midwives' cases

Old doctors’ or midwives’ cases are treasured objects with a history. This article shows how they can be restored step by step and what can realistically be expected.

IMPORTANT: What is possible and what is not

Old doctors’ and midwives’ cases usually have very brittle, dry and sensitive leather. Depending on their condition, they can be restored more or less successfully. Only leather in very good condition remains truly resilient after treatment, and that is the exception rather than the rule.

In most cases, the leather can be restored beautifully, but it is no longer suitable for daily use. Restored cases and bags should therefore only be used for decorative purposes; otherwise, the leather will develop new damage very quickly.

Step 1: Cleaning

First remove loose dust and coarse dirt with the Leather cleaning brush brown. Follow up on remaining soiling with a cloth only very lightly moistened with water. Caution: do not make old leather truly wet, as this damages it considerably.

Then carefully smooth areas that have become rough with the Colourlock Sanding Pad and carefully wipe away the sanding dust.

Step 2: Degreasing

Before all repairs and colour refreshing, carefully degrease the leather with Leather Cleaning Spirit. Residue from old care products would otherwise impair the adhesion of subsequent materials.

Step 3: Repairs

For brittle or torn leather, first prepare the repair areas with Binder Neutral. Binder Neutral significantly improves the adhesion of all subsequent materials. Dab it on several times with a sponge until the area is slightly tacky, then allow it to dry.

After applying Binder Neutral, fill cracks with Colourlock Fluid Leather neutral. Freshly applied Fluid Leather is milky, but becomes transparent after drying, which can take up to two hours. As it sinks slightly while drying, repeat the process until the surface is even.

Back large tears and loose leather fragments from the reverse side with Backlining Cloth, using Colourlock Leather Glue.

Step 4: Colour refreshing

After the repairs, blend the colour of the surface with our Leather Fresh tints. Apply it with a sponge after Binder Neutral. This gives the leather a more even colour appearance.