Thread: Restore the leather surface of an English desk without replacement?

Google leather repairs -lots of stuff including cracks available. I have done leather panels on a cabinet -with green cheap nasty spray paint ( was white textured leather that I picked up for $2 at a market) poly over the whole unit. This was NOT a wear surface however (side and door panels) The embossed gold stuff???? no idea.

It's gone to God and needs to be replaced. The only place I know to purchase the embossing rollers is here,Brass Rolls & Wheels | Bookbindesigns | Book Tools & Stamps then you need a means to heat the roller, plus purchase the Gold foil, if you have never done it before purchase lots of extra leather and Gold you will stuff it up until you learn the technique
If you are only doing one it will be uneconomical, the rollers, Gold, are very expensive
For a one off just buy a new one, there are many companies that do this.

It is not a question of my property.It is a general question.
I am interested in how to restore something like this.
If I knew what tools and materials it would need, I would buy such a screw table even in such a condition.
But I don't want to replace the leather.
I suspect, that such a leather surface would cost over $100, possibly $150 or more. Right?


After all, these suppliers of replacement leather surfaces make them somehow.
So there must be paint for this purpose.
Leather paint in the exact color.
Does anyone know the name of the color tone?


As for gold embossing, I know how to do that.
I'm just wondering that there may only be this one or two companies that sell an embossing roll iron and pattern stamps.
Of course it depends on the total price, but it would also be good to be able to buy it in the European Union.
Shipping costs and import sales tax. Alternatively, however, also cheap from China, for example.
You can find some exotic tools on AliExpress incl. welding guns and apparently also gold embossing tape.
But also cheap alternatives to pure gold.
Perhaps someone knows other manufacturers or suppliers of such equipment and the necessary paint.
Practical would also be a ready band that is ironed on, for example.

The leather would have been dyed not painted, try as you might I'm telling you in that condition it is a lost cause needs to be replaced. The only rolls I have seen from china are very low quality.
Yes I know what I am talking about I used to make and fit leather desk tops for local restorers and new manufactures.

I can understand why one would just replace that top as China says. Hes right. It'd probably be faster, not so much work, and be a clean new look . That is almost to clean for my liking though . We did a lot of desk restoration in the 1980s and 90s and the new tops were chrome tanned upholstery leather done outside our workshop. With new gold tooling. I preferred a more rustic restored look to my tops so I started doing them myself.

That top looks rough but if there is no holes in it I would be trying to strip the rest of the leather of its finish and what comes out with its stain then re stain and finish the whole top . If your trying to save what you can and keep cost as low as possible . And I wouldn't do anything about the tooling but try and take any gold off as well if its there . Then when its being re finished just rub some slightly darker colour in it to highlight it . I think we called that blind tooling rather than Gold tooling .

There are leather stains sold at Lefler Leather in Melbourne. And sealing and finishing can be done with shellac . Ive done quite a bit that way on desk tops and chairs from new raw veg tanned leather. I bought the stains from Lefler but never used them . I made my own using timber stains and selaed and polished the leather same as I do woodwork. If you can french polish or use shellac in a basic way even then you will be able to do that. Finishing off like is done when french polishing is a lot better though.

I also restored a very old leather covered chair once that had a hard white old patinated covering . It was a walnut ci 1680 big arm chair that the lady client had and it was her fathers favorite chair before that. She really cared about it but the seat had cracked and split and was falling apart . No books tell you how do do repairs like this that I have ever seen and you have to do what the guys who made it had to do at some stage and make it up. So I did that and did some test patches on veg tanned leather scraps . I played with white acrylic paint and tinted coats of that with my colours and tints to get the same level of build then finished off with shellac and wax for the right shine . It set hard and cracked up just like the original . Then a dark water stain was rubbed over agin the stain the small cracks in the hard finish. It worked very well and matched the leather back.

So paints work as well . Rather than a high build of acrylic and cracking though you can use it as the stain if its the right look . Then seal and finish as I was saying above .

I keep adding to this . I just added some at the top then though of this .
With Upholstery leather it is more like a paint job . The stuff you see on sofas or leather jackets or quality car seats or quality desk tops is chrome tanned . It a soft supple leather. that folds and is easier to use than Vegetable tanned leather. And the colour is solid . You cant see the true leather colour underneath. They do it that way because the real colour is not pretty. Its a Grey colour. I think the leather welding blankets you see are un treated chrome tanned leather. Ive stripped these coloured up leathers with paint stripper and watched the layers come off . Its thick like paint and is sometimes sprayed on in different tints to give a more mixed look which looks better than one solid.

You could go to all that bother although a top in that condition is worn, not just missing colour and you will never replace the grain on the badly worn section it will always be obvious and look terrible.