The Upholstery Forum

There seems to be 2 schools of thought on the best way to manipulate leather,
steaming verses heat gun. I had much better results with the heat gun. Steam seemed to bunch it up and shrink it rather than allow it to stretch. Do you have a view on it?

Leather reacts differently to steam for sure. Ive used steam on some leather and it helped stretch it nicely and then on a different hide it caused it to shrink a lot. I think it depends on how old the hide is. I always recommend testing on a scrap peace first. If a heat gun is working best for you then stick with that. Leather can take a lot of heat just be very careful not to go too far and case and damage.

Before I got interested in doing car seats and such I have always been into leather work ( gun holsters, purses, cowboy cuffs, etc). I have never used either one of those, I have always used saddle soap or Fiebing's Mink Oil. But this is stuff for thick leather like boots and such. Not sure if it would work better than steam of heat gun.

HI @Kra z Bill! Welcome to the forum!!!

I don't know. I have never used those products before. I would guess that they might have a negative effect on the UV treatment on automotive leather though.

@ John
I'm not sure about that, I haven't worked with Automotive leather yet. But sounds like a good experiment, may put some on a small piece and set it in the sun for awhile. The sun is strong here in Texas.