Of late I have taken a page from my good buddies Ray Dobbins and Bob Hovey's
books and have set about learning to buff out and salvage beat up old
parts. I seem to amass a goodly amount of such things every few years.
Today I received a nice old Brooks saddle I wanted to use on a Paramount I
am about to build up. The saddle was just what I wanted but it had a couple
of fairly deep scuffs on the rear of it. I have colored over such things
for years, but with mixed success...the bottom of the scuff is invariably of
a much rougher texture than the surface of the saddle...kind of suede like,
and this texture throws the color off.
As I pondered this it occurred to me that surely a shoe repair man must have
a way to salvage otherwise good boots and shoes that are brought to him but
that are scuffed in such an unsightly manner. Then it seemed that surely
the repair process involved buffing of some sort. I asked some folks if
they had ever taken a buffing wheel to a Brooks saddle and got a rather
taken aback reaction like I had lost my marbles (amazing that I didn't get
that reaction much sooner from these folks!)
I ended up using a new cotton buffing wheel with nothing at all on it on
the scuffs and discovered that I hardly had to touch them at all and the
finish in the scuffs was very close to the surface leather, although
considerably lightened. Now I was able to color the rough places in with
Kiwi polish and they were nearly invisible! Perhaps I'm the last one on the
list to discover this, but I don't think I have heard it mentioned before.
If you have a beat up Brooks saddle get thee to a friend with a buffer and
relief may well be at hand.
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Mi USA