Refinishing a Leather Chair

Last month I found a leather chair in the garbage near my apartment in New York City. The chair was looking a little tired- the leather was worn and cracked and the finish and glue had failed. But the chair had amazing potential. Here an overview of how I refinished this chair.

To start, I fixed the spreader bar joints on the bottom of the chair. The chair was constructed with dowel joints, which is a type of butt joint (where one piece butts up against another) but with a dowel going into each piece for added glue surface area and added strength. Unfortunately the glue had failed and a piece of the chair was sitting on top of the seat when I found it. Most of the joints I could simply pull apart, clean and insert new glue, but several of them I had to drill out the old dowels, drill new dowel holes and custom cut new dowels pegs. Then I clamped the chair together and let the glue dry.

Next it's time for refinishing. Here's a picture of the finish, juxtaposed with the already sanded cross-bar. Not looking very good...I used a palm sander and lots of hand sanding to remove the old finish. This was difficult and time consuming because the round button details and because I was working so close to leather and brass tacks. I did not want to sand and damage these details.
Removing the stain from the ridge details on the legs also took some doing. Fortunately the stain was so old it came off rather easily.
After working my way up to 220 grit sand paper and wiping the piece down with a tack cloth to remove the dust, I use a wipe on stain. I'm a big fan of the Bartley's furniture stains. They look great and produce consistent results.
The leather also had a nasty crack in the seat back section. To repair the crack, I took a sacrificial piece of leather (unfortunately black was all I had) and used leather glue to bond it to the rear of the leather. This will prevent the crack from separating any further.
Then I rubbed the leather sections with mink oil, a natural oil derived from the fat of minks. This soaks deep into the leather, conditioning and nourishing it.
Quite a handsome chair! Not bad for a few hours of work! I had all the materials on hand, so this cost almost nothing to repair.