YanaG

Yeah, exactly, pretty much everything marketed here as 'neatsfoot' has different ratios of mineral oil added. There's a difference in target market, I imagine. You guys have a lot of people making tack and saddles, here, not so much. And most of those who do use chrome or combi tanned leather with top finishes. Generally leathercraft here is mostly all kinds accessories, so a lot of european products are marketed specifically for shoes, purses and so on and not something I'd use on tack. CDM compound and oil are fairly similar, Leather Oil is heavier in terms of conditioning and viscosity. A lot of things to try, definitely. 😃

I've tried quite a few thing out of curiosity. For the most part I think I use mink fat. I used to work with cheap leather(our leather market is not like yours, lol) a lot in the beginning, fat does a great job of 'filling' it. There are oils sold as neatsfoot, but you get these in unlabeled jars so it's impossible to say what's the oil really. Some sellers will tell you it's a 'compound', some won't. I bought a few from different sellers, they work, you know, oil is oil. You can get Fiebing's products(pretty expensive if you need a significant amount), there're european brands like Kenda Farben that are widely available. They have different kinds of creams and finishes, tried some of these. I'm using CDM compound and oil right now.

It's a bit a recent situation. Before 2022 a lot more was available, now some things are either very expensive or just not sold anymore. I've only been working with leather for a year, still figuring out leather treatments process for myself.

Thank you) A lot, if not most of leather treatments sold in my country are mineral oil based, I doubt you could even get pure neatsfoot oil at all, so the topic is very helpful!

Just wanted to say thank you for doing this experiment, information on the mineral oil is indeed very valuable!