h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Any ideas how to get rid of it? I've just bought a nice leather satchel at the flea market as a new laptop case/Uni bag.

Unfortunately, it seems to have belonged to a little girl named Nicole before me - she's scrawled her name all over the inside of the top flap, along with some badly-executed drawings of annoying cartoon characters.

I did what I usually do with new leather - took some saddle soap to it - which got rid of the (fortunately few) marks on the outside, but not inside where the leather is rougher.

Change your name to Nicola?

RF

And develop an appreciation for bad drawings of bad cartoons?

colour the rest of it in with the same colour?

Have you tried toothpaste?

Over here, in England there are some rather nifty leather wipes which get rid of of most of the crepe on my yellow leather sofas. Maybe there is something you can find there?

Failing that, have you tried good old fashioned baby wipes?

It's a pity it was a ballpoint, because they leave a very heavy indentation. If the marks are off the outside, you should scrape the inside.

if its rough unfinished leather you could try some fine sandpaper or emmerycloth

Have tried the toothpaste - mixed with baking soda for the bleaching qualities. That made some of the dye come off I'll see whether it worked when it's dry. At least it smells of berries now. (I use berry toothpaste, even though I'm over the age of 12 )

Hmm, that seems to have done it. The ballpoint pen is gone. There's now a discoloured spot, which can be dealt with using the usual combination of a) saddle soap and b) ignoring it. At least I no longer have a Diddl saying "LOL Nicole" staring me in the face every time I lift the flap. Though I should be grateful to the beastie, this way, I only paid 7€ for the bag.

if it is top grain leather your chances of removing it easily are pretty slim, particularly since you have used saddle soap, which leaves a greasy residue.

using a mild detergent or personal soap, make up a luke warm mix of soapy water. using small amounts gently rub into the affected area. start on a small test section. allow to dry completely in sunlight. repeat. this will remove the greasy residue. it may, if the ink is water based, remove the ink. most likely it will simply bleed the ink into the surrounding leather. if the ink is spirit based and has not moved, use a cotton bud and white spirits, working in small areas. again, the most likely outcome is the ink will bleed.

you have a choice at this stage to either cut your losses and live with the ink or keep going.

if you are successful removing the ink, allow to completely dry. clean up with oxalic acid. this can be got from leather craft stores or coin collecting stores or your chemist. you may need to touch up the colour with dye. buy a small amount from a leathergood or craft shop. apply in dilute concentrations until you build up to a similar colour.

dress the entire article with either renapur balsam (easily the best commercially available leather product). http://www.renapur.com/balsam.htm or british museum leather dressing if you are feeling adventurous. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum_leather_dressing

saddle soap and dubbin are rubbish.

if the leather has a synthetic coating (ie is shiney) you an probably remove the pen with white spirits and forgo all the other steps.

if the leather is the underside of top grain leather (ie is 'furry') use a disposable razor to shave off the ink.

a final note, never rub leather harder than you would rub your own face.

Thanks - I'll keep that in mind if I ever need to attempt restoration of something more valuable, like my armchair. It was indeed the underside of untreated leather, and the pen had pressed in too deeply for simple shaving to work. Seems to be ok now.

And I must disagree with the statement that saddle soap is rubbish - a greasy residue on the (clean, smooth outer leather) is exactly what I wanted, so it'll be waterproof and easier to clean in future. After all, that's why I use it on my boots and my scabbard, not to mention on saddles and other tack...

in my early leatherworking days i once ruined an entire side of oak tanned top grain leather using saddle soap. it was an older piece that was especially hard but which had some exceptional grain. the saddle soap penetrated unevenly and marked it permanently. nothing i did was able to retrieve it. when i sought advice from older leatherworkers the advice was the same: just don't do it. even the wiki entry cautions against it. the two alternatives i mentioned are safe and inexpensive. both provide waterproofing.

the problem with saddle soap is that it attempts to clean and lubricate the leather in one go. the lubricant is usually something nasty like glycerin, tallow or lanolin. beeswax, as in museum dressing, and jojoba, as in renapur, don't stain and match naturally occurring skin oils more closely.

to clean leather prior to further treatment oxalic acid really is the thing to use. there are safety issues involved however so please exercise proper caution. best to use a fairly weak concentration and repeat if needed.

toothpaste works as an abrasive. we used to use it in plastics class at school as a final finish. the risk with bleaches on the underside is that the ink will bleed thru to the other side. still, if it worked for you this time; all is well.

Ballpoint pen on leather lacks the evocativity of Willow on leather.

"There is nothing better in life than writing on the sole of your slipper with a biro"

On a Saturday Night instead of going to the pub.

Ba-dum dum.

Well, you wouldn't do it *at* the pub, that's against public moral decency.

I can think of better things in life to do than scribbling the sole of a slipper...and that are more threatening to public moral decency as well

What about Willow IN leather? There's evocative!

Just ask any pubescent Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan.

Mreow!

Willow in leather torturing angel...

*sigh*

Not as good as early pike though... All bleached hair and bad attitude

Sorry, what was the topic?