People that love using leather products particularly cherish the weathered look that comes with regular use and the passage of time. It is the hallmark of a high-quality, genuine leather product – a leather patina, a soft sheen that develops on the surface of the leather, imparting a character, a personality to the product. It is like an indelible stamp of ownership, a coat of arms – unique for every user.
Just like the wrinkles in the face of a weathered explorer tell a thousand tales, the weathering of leather also tells a story – of adventures undertaken, treasures found, and secret knowledge!
A naturally developed patina is the ultimate in leather snobbery – but it takes time, as all good things do. The darkening in some places, the honey glaze in others, and even the scratches and scuffs that come with a natural usage – all of them go into creating an aura of weathering that is truly beautiful to behold.
Leather connoisseurs value the patina to an extent that leather producers, makers of leather products, and owners go to great lengths to develop it artificially!
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How Does a Patina Develop on Leather?
A patina is something unique to natural products – leather gets it, so does wood. If ever there was something as aging gracefully – a patina is a shining (you see the pun?) example of it!
Leather is a natural product – and it ages. Also, it absorbs the traces of life around it – the natural body oils that your body produces, water, moisture, conditioner, dirt, dust, sunlight, heat – the leather absorbs it all. Over time, it develops a sheen in some places – while some spots may see a relative darkening.
The more you handle your leather product around, and the way you handle it also affects the nature and degree of patina that develops. If you use the product naturally – in a usual way with the usual standard of leather care, a patina is likely to come up gradually.
And yes, the scratches and scrapes that gather on the surface are also an integral part of the patina.
However, if you are an extremely careful user that wipes your leather stuff clean after using it every time, and maybe use a conditioner once in a while, and store it most carefully – the patina will take much longer to set in.
What Leathers Show the Best Patina?
The thumb rule is – the less the leather is processed, the better and more pronounced the patina will be. Conversely, highly finished or spray-painted leather will hardly if ever, gather a patina.
So, a vegetable-tanned leather product with an unfinished surface is the best candidate to develop a nice patina, pull-up leather is the next in the patina hierarchy, while finished, chrome-dyed leather will hardly ever develop one. Patent leather will almost never develop any patina.
Also, a full-grain leather product will develop a better patina than that on a split-leather product.
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The patina develops on almost all types of leather – cow leather, ostrich leather, alligator leather, etc. A stingray leather product, however, will naturally resist a patina since it is covered in hard enameled pearls that will not wear down easily.
How Can You Develop a Patina on Your Leather Products?
While patina development is a natural process, you can certainly lend it a helping hand! If you want a patina, you can speed up the process, and if you would rather have a new-looking product, you can delay the process.
The first step would be in choosing the type of leather that goes into making the product – a natural finished, vegetable-tanned, or hand-painted leather product will be an ideal candidate for developing a patina.
Then, when you have bought the product, you will need to use it in a natural way – with normal standards of care. Maybe you are sitting on your sofa, munching popcorns and watching a TV show, and you get a call on your phone. You don’t actually need to go and wash your hands before you pick up the phone that is encased in a genuine leather iPhone case.
However, you may be the type that likes to retain the new, store-bought look on your leather accessories for as long as possible. In that case, you may want to select leathers with a more surface finish. A leather variety that is naturally resistant to patina development – stingray leather. This is due to the unique natural constitution of stingray leather – it has a surface armor of hardened enamel pearls that make it almost impervious to natural usage wear. And of course, you will need to wipe and clean your products more often if you want to delay the patina development.
How Long Will It Take to Develop a Nice Patina?
Well, it takes time. But don’t the good things in life come to those who are willing to wait?
The patina development process – if done naturally – takes time. But trust us, the results are well worth the wait!
There are examples of leather bags that have been out there for over decades – and have evolved the most beautiful patina!
Smaller leather products – such as wallets, or leather iPhone cases, may develop a gorgeous patina in shorter time frames – since they tend to be used and handled much more frequently.
Does A Patina Affect the Life of the Product?
Short answer: NO.
A patina on a leather surface is just a manifestation, a symbol, of the natural aging process of a natural product. It is NOT the cause of it.
A patina does not affect the longevity or sturdiness of a product. If anything, it only increases the beauty, value, and feel of the product.
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