[derek west]

how many guys on here are fully confident and qualified to do leather repair. and who were you trained by.

derek

[derek west]

just me then
derek

[Mike Osbourne]

Derek

Why do you ask? :

[Mike Halliday]

I've done 8 repairs to leather (not including colour repairs) only 4 of them were 100% but with them all the customer was happy.

I've done 6 colour repairs, all were 95% perfect.

[derek west]

Derek

Why do you ask? :

if theres enough positive answers  (allthough its not looking good) i'll let ya know mike.
if there isn't, then you'll never know.
derek

[Mike Roper]

Done a good number of leather repairs / recolours , been going to LTT since 2003 periodically for training. As for confident ,well yes , except for colour mixing on site which sometimes goes ok but other times just doesnt.
Anyone who can crack the colour mixing has cracked leather repair end of!
Mike

[robert meldrum]

On the nail Mike

I've done the courses at both F C and LTT and have been cleaning leather for 20 years but done little in the way of repairs.

However................having just passed my 65th birthday I intend doing very little carpet cleaning and concentrating on leatherwork

Just put together a site for the purpose and about to start marketing my services. My main difficulty has been that I don't wish to get involved in removing furniture from homes to carry out repairs, so I must find a way of spraying without contaminating the customers home.

[derek west]

did you guys know there are 8000 online searches per month for leather repair. thats a lot of work.

i'm new to repair work but my colour mixing is spot on, all be it only 4 out of 4.

derek

[robert meldrum]

I thought mine was spot on 'till Andy A showed me otherwise. If you're achieving good colour matches that's brilliant and probably a gift . One we'd all love to have !

Where did you find out about the number of searches................

Hopefully not including Yell or Thomson's !

[derek west]

bob (i am okay to call you bob aren't i? apologies if not)
just google,
got chris boswell to look into it for me, unfortunately to get a website up in the mix for the uk will cost a lot of money, its just a shame theres not 30 or 40 of us up and down the country who could form a type of network, 3 or £400 each would get us a fair share of that work, but thats just me dreaming i suppose, especially from the responce to this thread.

swings and roundabouts on my gift though cos my filling leaves a lot to be deired, all though that will come with practice i hope.
derek

ps... my wifes colour mixing is just as good and she's not even been on a course, allthough she has got A level art under her belt.

[gwrightson]

I went along to ltt in Harrogate and learnt alot, very informative, very friendly and relaxed.

as this was only recently I am no expert but do enjoy this aspect of work and have repaired and coloured a tr6 seats , touched up a porshe drivers seat, and amazed a couple of custys who where having their suites cleaned , and i touched up some minor scrapes 
just experimenting with a shredded jacket at the moment . and have a bmw seats to trasform from black to red in the pipeline.

I will be booking in more training in the future with ltcc and my thoughts at the moment are to retire to Spain in the not so far away future and keep leather repairs as an earner in Spain.

Geoff

[robert meldrum]

Derek

There have been a couple of leather cleaning / repair jobs on here recently Doug Holloway posted one on April 30th which was never taken up

There have been others

I reckon it's a lack of confidence or possibly many are put off by the thought that some jobs are best done off site and don't have the premises, big enough van, helper.

If you're not set up to deal with this you won't be able to cope with much of the work.

I'm back at " playing around " with repairing / refinishing to avoid having to take furniture away for repairs.

If I can't get the work done on site I have someone local who can cope with the off site works.

[Amethyst]

I'd second the lack of confidence thing. I've done the IICRC leather course and FC workshop. I'd love to do the LTT 3/4 day course. In my part of the world there doesn't seem to be a great demand - shame because its great fun. As regards the repair side it is the colour mixing issue - especially if you have to do it on the customers premises. It would be perfect if you could do all your work at home but, as more and more furniture (especially cheaper end) doesn't have removable cushions this seems to be a rare occurrence.

[derek west]

bob
i'm lucky as i have an upholsterer friend with a work shop and a big van, he passes colouring work to me and when the time arises will let me use his work shop and will pick the furniture up for me,plus if i need a new panel fitting he will do it, but not everyones that lucky.

it was just an idea i had, as i'm in the process of getting a leather website built, thought there was a lot more of us on here,

he passed this onto me this week and his custy was over the moon with the results.

like i said it was just a thought.

there is a lot of work out there, but you have to chase it, just like you have to chase your carpet jobs.
derek

[LTT Leathercare]

Colour mixing is always the hardest part of the job for all leather technicians.  Repair techniques are relatively straightforward but it is always the colour mixing side that in general technicians do not have the patience with.    There is no magic solution.

Colour mixing services are available but this makes the job a 2 part job instead of getting it done in one go and will never teach you to colour mix yourself.

Pigment coatings/finishes today are getting more and more complex and so colour mixing becomes increasingly difficult. 

Photospectrometers are now largely redundant as they cannot read the complex variety of colours used in tinted finishes etc.

We are currently having great success on many modern two tone finishes with a range if tinted finshes which come ready to use in aerosol cans and many times now these are supplied rather than a pigment as they do the job much quicker and easier.  Once you have got used to the way they work they can cut down repair times considerably.

Getting back to colour mixing - this always comes with time and practice but technicians (even the most hardened ones) will still have good days and bad days. 
Have you created your own colour chart? These are a great way of
cutting down your colour mixing time and they also teach you what the colours do - there is no point in using a colour chart created by someone else as all colour systems will be different (even if they have the same name).  Stick with one colour system, create your colour charts and you will find the process a whole lot easier.  They are also great for carrying with you to give you a starting point in a customers house.

LTT also do a standard range of 'creams' now which can cut down on colour mixing problems as creams are generally the ones that people struggle with the most.

Derek good to see you getting stuck in the repairs are looking good. 

Andy

[robert meldrum]

Andy

Have you not considered mail shots to your list of trained tech's with " new products " innovations, etc, which is bound to result in business.

" Milking the list "is probably the least expensive form of marketing around and by using the free facility of the e'mail it's even more cost effective.

A number of carpet cleaning suppliers keep us informed of " what's new / what's on offer / interesting stories, etc "

I do a fair bit of leather cleaning but have only done a few repairs, but being a geriatric, I'm looking at developing the leather side as it's physically easier, which I hate to admit.

As mentioned, I hope to find a way to " finish " without contaminating peoples homes. I know there's a way of doing this but don't remember the details.

rob m

www.carltoncare@aol.com

[Mike Osbourne]

I've done a few repairs but not had much business so it's s bit chicken and egg.

I hope my course in a couple of weeks will rectify that because part of it is learning how to market leather repair.

[derek west]

which course is that one mikey boy?
derek

[Mike Osbourne]

I cannot say Derek as this causes agro for the mods and I would prefer to save them the grief.

You are welcome to email or phone me though for further information.

[gwrightson]

I dont think it would cause any agro for the mods !!!

they dont mind saying what type / or who with they are going to .

DO THEY ?

geoff