CarloBartolini

How about Castor oil? Jojoba oil? Aloe? I'm confused now.

Yes Wild Bill46, it is redder, or more crimson, but still needs one more coat and the the Oak Gall tincture to get the crimson color I am shooting for. It is much more complex color, cochineal makes the most beautiful lightfast reds out there. I am thinking I should skip the lard and olive oil, since both do go rancid in normal state. Or is this exaggeration and both are fine? on Oils: Mineral oil does not go rancid but does not seem to be good either: http://oldleathershoe.com/wordpress/?p=608 A vegetable oil which takes a long time to go rancid is oil of Ben - Moringa, used in illumination, anyone has any opinion on it? on Conditioner: My grandmother (101 now) has been a bookbinder, restorer, rare book dealer for a long, long time, and she has used many different recipes, the best she found was in a very old book, by Monsignor Nabuco: Anhydrous Lanolin - 7 ounces Bees Wax - ½ ounce Cedar Oil (cedarwood oil) - 1 ounce Hexane (Refined Petroleum Ether) - 11 ounces It appears that it is what the British Museum uses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum_leather_dressing Please help, I have no experience in the subject.. Thanks

Jacket after 4 coats of tincture. (cloudy day)

Sorry could not add more pictures in the same post.

Some pictures: Before (in a sunny day) Making the tincture:

Hello, I am new here, my first post, so I thank everyone in advance. No experience with leather work here, (except what I have learned from my grandma regarding book binding) This jacket is about 20 something years old, I wore it everyday for years and years, now it belongs to my wife (lucky she is tall) The leather is not soft, not motorcycle hard either. We love making tinctures and varnish so decided to restore it before it went bad. Washed it twice in a washing machine, than cleaned with alcohol (some stuff removed) than with Kremer's Larch oil of turpentine (even more removed), tests showed that leather was very very porous. Cooked a cochineal tincture for leather, turkish recipe, translated to italian, from the wonderful book Dell' Arte di Tingere in Filo in Seta in Cotone, in Lana, ed in Pelle, Angelo Natal Talier, Venice, 1793. To simplify the recipe goes like this: (old Italian measures) Basically it is to cook in a copper pot (did not have one so used copper coated coins - pot-as-mordant) 2 liters of water and 7 ounces of Shenan - Kali geniculatum - Salicornia = 175.7 g — inside a linen bag, boil for 15 minutes, remove. than added: 2 drachms of alum = 6.5 g (Kremer’s Potash Alum) 2 drachms of pomegranade peel = 6.5 g ¾ ounces of curcuma = 18.82 g 3 ounces ground cochineal = 75.3 g 2 ounces sugar from a loaf (used german refined sugar) = 50.02 g Add it all and cook for 6 minutes. Brushed it 4 coats, always lukewarm, perhaps will do another, waited for drying in between coats. Next step is Oak gall, quickly and delicately cooked, now infusing until tomorrow, will apply next, according to recipe. (tests show that improves color also). Now here is where I am in doubt. It says next step to oil, with olive oil, another italian book of the time, mentioning another cochinea lturkish recipe, quite similar, actually, says that for oiling to be good it needs heat. Now lots of people say that oiling is not good. I also have some quite flexible varnish (I already tested it on leather and seems good) it is made of : Boiled Linseed, Mastic, Canada Balsam, Limed Rosin. Could cook some lard &/or some beeswax into it. Something tells me that after Gall I should apply a very dilute coat of the varnish, to encapsulate the stuff I applied. And than a semi diluted coat. Than after varnish I should apply the conditioner I made, first very dilute than the thick stuff, rubbed in with a cloth. Lanolin, Lard, Beeswax, Turpentine (all from Kremer) to go first. And another without the turpentine to go afterwards. Than a very light coat of olive oil. And finish it with Collonil Nanopro, that I have. Now some say lard goes rancid, some say it does not as it is purified at high temperatures, some say olive oil will go rancid, others say it will not if applied thin... I am almost confused, please help!!!