Removing blood from leather?

July 13, 2005 10:18 AM

Anyone know how to remove blood stains from leather?

I cut my foot pretty badly the other day and there's a nasty-looking blood stain on one sandal I can't get rid of. Ideally I'd like to avoid throwing the shoes out, I love them and bought them abroad. Hydrogen peroxide didn't work.

posted by jamesonandwater to home & garden (9 comments total)

Have you considered restaining the leather?
posted by Rothko at 10:42 AM on July 13, 2005

here's the closest thing i could find for your range of leather needs without knowing what kind of leather. if it's extremely suedey or absorbent you may try varieties of "soaking" it out with enzymatic agents but I'm not sure how this may effect the texture and look of the shoe.
posted by philida at 10:47 AM on July 13, 2005

Try "How to Treat Stains on Leather" from eHow. They talk about blood.
posted by JPowers at 10:49 AM on July 13, 2005

I can't get to the links provided here right now, but if it hasn't been mentioned, you could try saddle soap and a good stiff brush. Follow the directions on the container.
posted by jennaratrix at 11:10 AM on July 13, 2005

I have no idea, but it sounds like it was a hell of a night!


(Actually, upon speaking to a friend of mine... he says that the best solutioin in general is prevention. Waterproof your leather, and bloodstains won't be an issue. For the future, anyway.)
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 11:44 AM on July 13, 2005

Depends on the leather, but try milk instead of soap.
It cleans my leather extremly well, something to do with the fat in milk, I think. (Obviously, don't use 0% fat milk)
posted by ruelle at 1:21 PM on July 13, 2005

Thank you gang.

So, it's either blot and allow to dry (!), vaseline, salty water, saddle soap or milk. None of these sound too damaging so I'll try them all in that order. When I know what works I'll come back and mark the best answer for future reference.

dirtynumbangelboy: Yeah, not as much fun as it sounded although I did make an entertaining public show of myself by dragging a glass door over my feet, leaving a couple of toenails and a whole lot of blood on an art gallery floor.
posted by jamesonandwater at 2:02 PM on July 13, 2005

I have no idea what this stuff will do to leather but Haemo-Sol is a rather interesting product. It's used in the medical field to "completely dissolve blood, serum, mucus, sputum, urine, pus, agar, gelatin, or other proteinaceous soil from any apparatus without scrubbing." Incidentally, it's also sometimes used by criminalists to remove blood from the clothing of a gunshot victim prior to performing gunshot residue tests.
posted by whatisish at 6:21 PM on July 13, 2005

My mother-in-law works for a custom drapery shop where they use very expensive material. If someone pricks their finger with a pin and gets blood on the fabric, they remove it with saliva. The employees seem to believe that the spit of the person whose blood it is will be best at removal. So if a blood drop is found on a finished drape, they all take turns spitting on it.
posted by 445supermag at 6:23 PM on July 13, 2005