I read with interest Gary Peterford's report on his experience with
patent leather valve facings, because I had purchased a couple of
PPCo's patent leather discs to see how they behaved in use.  The ones
I received were black patent leather, attractively (?) stippled with
green spatters.

The patent finish of the leather seemed to me to provide too much
"grab" onto the valve seat.  So I decided not to risk using them,
on the theory that a properly seating poppet needs to have some wiggle
room to find its optimum seal.  Also the slightly raised spatters were
of some concern.

Matthew Caulfield
Irondequoit, New York