Leather Care

Chamberlain's Leather Milk

In order to get the most out of your Hotchkiss Leather products, it's important to take good care of the leather. I recommend cleaning and conditioning your leather every 3-6 months, depending on how much use it gets and the environment it's stored in. I live in the deserts of Arizona, so I condition my leather more often due to the hot, dry climate. The product I use and encourage you to do the same is Chamberlain's Leather Milk Liniment No. 1

    • The first step is to clean the surface of the leather. Now we only want to work with is the smooth, skin side of the leather. If what you're looking at is fuzzy, rough, and you can see fibers; that is the flesh side of the leather. (This will be cleaned with a separate method.) We'll take a clean cotton cloth or old t-shirt, run it under some water and then ring out as much excess water as possible. Now we've got a slightly damp cloth. Now rub the cloth in a circular motion across the skin surface of the leather. What we're doing is a quick surface cleaning. We don't want to persist with rubbing the damp cloth too long and cause the leather to begin soaking up water from the cloth. Now we'll let the item have a few minutes to air dry the small amount of water that may be at the surface of the leather before moving on to the next step.
    • The next step is to apply Chamberlain's Leather Milk Liniment No. 1 to the surface of the leather using the applicator pad. Depending on the size of the product (wallet, folio, boots, etc.) I'll apply about a quarter size dab of Leather Milk to the center of the pad, then fold it like a taco and allow the conditioner to spread out some across the pad. Using a circular motion, I massage the pad coated in Leather Milk across all skin surfaces of the leather. If it's a larger item, I'll reapply more Leather Milk to the pad and continue until I've buffed all surfaces. If the item you're conditioning is super dried out you may repeat this step an additional time. Now leave the item to absorb the conditioner and dry to normal state.
    • Last step is to take a clean, dry, cotton cloth or old t-shirt and buff all surfaces of the leather. And voila! You'll see your leather item with a revitalized and moisturized appearance! 

Check out our Leather Blog to learn more about taking care of your leather Goods!