Personalized Leather Key Fob With ID Plate by The Engraver
Carry your keys on a beautiful, rich, dark brown leather key fob that includes a personalized plate in heavyweight glossy brass, lacquered for protection, and a brass split ring.
Features:
- Rich, dark brown leather key fob
- Glossy brass plate
- Personalization includes one line of text
- Made in the U.S.A.
Item Specifications:
Dimensions:
Overall size of leather: ¾"W x 3¾"L
Personalized plate size: ½"W x 2½"L
Split ring diameter: approx. 1¼"
Care & Feeding of Your Personalized Leather Key Fob With ID Plate
Courtesy of The Engraver
Like all lacquered metals, brass (and nickel) must be maintained to continue looking like new. Just like your car, the lacquer will discolor and corrode if you don’t wash and wax it. Since brass is such a soft metal, it can start to deteriorate very quickly depending upon where you are, sometimes within forty-eight hours. Maintaining your nameplates, however, is relatively simple.
First and foremost, keep all corrosives off your nameplates. Corrosives include, but are not limited to: sweat, saliva, salt, insecticides, soap, dirt, and all the interesting chemicals people insist on putting on leather equipment. And never, ever use an abrasive cleaner or polish on a lacquered brass surface. These include household cleaners like Comet and metal polishes like Brasso.
Here’s something that some people don’t want you to hear – there are only three things you need to maintain any type of leather: glycerine saddle soap, oil, and wax. That’s all you need, and all that should be used. Wood cleaners, multi-purpose cleaners and solvents should never be used on leather.
“Proper” care of leather would be to clean it with saddle soap after every use, oil it once a week, and polish it several times a year. We all do that, don’t we? At the very least, you should clean your leather when it gets dirty and oil it a few times each year. Polishing leather seems to be reserved only for riding boots and fine harnesses these days. No matter what you do, however, you can’t leave any of these materials on your nameplates – they will corrode and discolor the lacquer. We can tell you what type of cleaner you’ve been using just by what color the lacquer has turned.
So, after you have cleaned and conditioned your leather, and wiped residue off your plates, what do you do? You wipe off your brass plates with either dish soap and car wash, then you wax it. Use non-abrasive automotive wax, the same type you use on your car. It doesn’t matter what type you use, but the better wax you get, the better it works. You can also use a neutral leather shoe polish. Apply it every time you clean your leather, or at least four times a year.
Most of all, keep your plates dry. Nothing will destroy a lacquered brass finish like any type of liquid left standing on the surface, including water.
When you receive your nameplates, they are not waxed. That should be one of the first things you do. Just as with your car, if you live in an area where there is high salt or pollution content in the air, you will have to clean and wax your plates more often. A little time and effort will keep your nameplates looking new for a long time.