SUP
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Everything posted by SUP
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@fredk LOL That's one way of doing it.
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@jrdunn thank you. I am ordering it at once.
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Making essential oils must be time consuming, isn't it? I'm actually looking for a leather or tobacco fragrance. I'm a bit tired of everything smelling of orange! I thought my leather at least should smell a little different. Last week I added a tiny bit of a solid scent that I bought last month. It is a paste so blends right in. Strong scent so only a little was needed - smells of leather and tobacco. If I don't get a good fragrance oil for a leather fragrance, I will probably continue to use it.
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@p51p28 there are any number of discussions about leather creams in this forum. Just search for 'conditioner' and you will find them. Lots of discussions about ingredients as well, so you can choose which best suit your purpose. By the way, Aussie's is mainly petroleum jelly, 60% or more, and microcrystalline wax which is also obtained as part of the petroleum refining process, and petroleum distillates. They say the conditioner is made of beeswax but the percentage of that is only 3-6%. Check their MSDS. Not that there is anything wrong with that product. It works fine.
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@chuck123wapati a bit off topic, but you said you use your tallow to make soaps - lemon, lavender, peppermint. Do you use essential oils for fragrance?
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@fredk A divider across the stitched lines like @MarshalWill says, with a soft flexible leather would work well, I think. @Asavva what a wonderfully versatile pattern you have some up with! A pouch bag made with one piece of leather would not easily allow additions of pockets or compartments but this pattern is not only elegant and beautiful but allows those additions as well. And lovely color combination too. @jrdunn Your question is certainly worth a lot more than 2 cents since it resulted in so many useful ideas. Now I can't wait to make a pouch bag either.
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That is a nice bag! @jrdunnHow would you put inside pockets into a pouch bag? Would it not affect the shape?
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@chuck123wapati And fish oils are supposed to be good for leather too -used in oil-tanning leather isn't it? At least, that I want is said in the literature. If I were in Nevada, I would have an issue with tallow as the temperature goes up to late teens there but here, it is positively balmy in comparison. So I will not need too much wax then. Thank you.
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I wonder if I write so badly that some people don't understand my posts? Some of the responses make no sense. Enough of grumpiness. I have ordered several pounds of tallow and am just waiting to try it. Everyone has such praise for it, I had to get it. Not elk tallow though as @chuck123wapati uses. I do not think we can get it for sale - we get beef, lamb, bison but not elk. Does Tallow get very soft in summer? Here it gets pretty warm, so when I make the conditioner I want to be certain it will not get too messy in summer.
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@chuck123wapati you are perfectly right about adding solvents to oil based products - why would you? You want to soften the products, not degrade them. What is the advantage of that? I wonder what the end products are and how they will affect leather, the end products of degradation of the various oils and waxes I mean. Anyway, why are we even talking about adding solvents to leather conditioners? It makes absolutely no sense! No one does it, except for miniscule amounts, for like I said, fragrance or insecticidal properties - certainly not for its solvent properties!. So maybe, just maybe, we should move on.
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@dikman I have been using D-Limonene in my conditioner for quite a while now, and just about everything else since it is a very safe pesticide and cleaner as well. But in small amounts. My concern is only about using it as a softener for wax. Waxes are hard and need quite a bit of a thinning agent. I was wondering how it would affect leather in larger amounts and over time. It is supposed to be a good degreaser as well, because of its solvent properties, so I am not sure how it will work along with waxes, in larger concentrations. Will it dissolve the waxes? I have no idea. As an insecticide and for fragrance it is used in such small amounts, it does not seem to harm leather or dissolve the waxes either. I will probably look into it sometime and put it up here if I learn something new. I use so much D-Limonene, I like to know what else I can do with it. As far as vegetable oils are concerned, I know that coconut oil, which is notorious for smelling awful when exposed to air, did not smell at all when applied to leather. Four different pieces of leather kept in four different locations and no smell. I was surprised but there it is. Of course, I used the fractionated coconut oil, so that might be one reason for that. So the treatment of the vegetable oils maybe something to look into, for anyone who wants to use vegetable oils.
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@dikman I have been using food grade D-Limonene for a while now and buy it by the gallon. The MSDS does say it should have a mild citrus fragrance with a slight turpentine hint, so what I get is pure. It is a solvent so I am not sure about its use as a softening agent to make paste wax. It might eat away the leather if it is present in too high a concentration, don't you think? I started using it to make my all-purpose household cleaner and then, finding it convenient and because it keeps away insects and the area so clean, decided to add it to my conditioner. Just a little bit, for the fragrance and also the fungicidal and insecticidal effect. Not sure how much is needed for that effect but I'm not sure I want to add much more either. I just follow my nose when I add it. Lanolin and D-Limonene together give a lovely fragrance and the advantage is that with the beeswax and oil, the conditioner is good for my hands as well and safe if my dog licks it off my fingers. I make my conditioner in small quantities so the orange fragrance, which keeps away insects, remains. I'm not sure how long it will remain if used in larger batches.
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@deboardp orange oil is the solvent. Orange oil is the layman's name for it.
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@Wepster Thank you! I have been looking for a citrus oil which smells only of oranges. I get mine as food-grade since I use it as a household cleaner as well and want it safe for my pets. But in spite of getting it from different sellers, it always has a slight smell of L-Limonene - piney-turpentiney, as described in the MSDS. I will try this seller. Limonene does not contain turpentine either. It is pure orange oil and the part with the orange fragrance is D - Limonene. Many companies sell it separated from L-Limonene but I suspect the separation is not always perfect. @deboardp, I go on Amazon to get food grade D-Limonene. As I mentioned, sometimes it has a slight turpentine smell but the orange fragrance is present. i plan to try the one @Wepster suggested next. It is technical grade, so not for a household cleaner for me, but certainly for my leathers. About oil-tanned leathers, they are easy to line. I use them a lot and am happy with the results. Just made a host of keychains for gifts, many with layered oil-tanned leathers and they do glue well. There is no oil on the surfaces to prevent that.
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@ScottWolf I'm sure your leather conditioner is perfectly fine and works well. But that does not mean other ingredients or other recipes don't. They do.
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@Wepster, @deboardp citrus oil - solvent - I suspect they mean Limonene. D-limonene smells of oranges which is pleasant; L-Limonene has a piney-turpentine smell, which is not. D-Limonene as a solvent is great as an addition to leather conditioners - it is an anti-fungal as well. Not sure of the percentage needed though. If you buy plain Limonene, you get the unseparated mix, which smells of pine and turpentine. So if you want the citrus fragrance, you need to buy the D-Limonene. Often though, it is not sufficiently separated and still has some turpentine smell. @deboardp if vegans don't like what you use, it is their loss, isn't it? How much can you really change your conditioner recipes to suit people's idiosyncrasies? The change might result in a product that is not as effective and that will be another issue. A question: Is there a need for tallow as well as lanolin in a conditioner? Is one of these not sufficient, along with beeswax for a bit of stiffness and an oil of choice for penetration into the leather and texture of the conditioner? Just wondering. @deboardp After the earlier comments on applying conditioners to damp leather, I tried it on some dry leather that I have. I dampened the leather with a spray bottle and then rubbed in the conditioner. It slowly turned white. I left it overnight and the next day, the leather was soft and pliable and shiny - whiteness gone. Delighted with the result but I don't think I will repeat - too much elbow grease needed. But the method works. About hot-stuffing, From what I have read, oil tanned leather is specifically chrome tanned leather that is hot stuffed. That does not mean veg tanned leather is not or cannot be hot stuffed - just not given a specific name. Latigo is hot-stuffed and chrome and veg tanned! There are others too and since the process makes the leather more pliable, I guess if we look at the processes of making the more pliable veg-tanned leather, they might include hot stuffing as well.
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@@dikman I'll take your word for it. I've still to receive the tallow I've ordered. I guess beeswax is included for its water repellent properties then. I'm trying to find inert lipids to apply on my leathers - beeswax is one such, as are carnauba wax and lanolin. "Organic" in layman's terms too!
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Beeswax is used most often because it is a good water repellent. Besides, it does not soften very easily in the heat. Lanolin, tallow, etc. all go soft or liquify when it is hot and could be messy but when mixed in with beeswax, that does not happen. Just conjecture on my part though.
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@chuck123wapati exactly, as well! So many variables in the equation.
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@deboardp, exactly!
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@fredk, true. A good leather conditioner therefore does not really require a host of ingredients. A couple will do the job, since most are multi-functional.
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Checked my leather pieces. No mold or smell on any of them either. -
Firstly no offense meant to anyone here. Carl Friedrik? He sells ready made leather items and leather creams, doesn't he? I take all that such people say with a pinch of salt. Besides, "loss of color"? Quite the contrary, in fact. Mineral oil is known to restore color and it is used 50% with beeswax to do just that and to restore a shine. There is not one item out there which is praised to the skies by someone for its efficacy in conditioning leather and which is also not soundly disparaged by someone else as worthless. Whom do we believe? Ego the need for our experiment. From what I see out there, so many seems to disparage everything except what they themselves sell or themselves use and are convinced is good. Not seen any real proof yet. Maybe 10 or more years from now, those of us who are alive or those who carry on will be able to make definitive statements about the items we are testing. All the oils and waxes only act as occlusives or lubricants. Mineral oil acts as a lubricant too. Nothing gets 'absorbed'. Just lubricates. We need to see the entire picture to know what is finally good together on leather. At what stage do we add waxes, when to use oils or both or neither. As @chuck123wapati said a few comments ago, the extent of hydration of leather will be about that of the surroundings. So when the humidity is about 50%, which is ideal, if our leather is not already dehydrated and dry, if we use lubricants and then occlusives, it would work well, is it not? If the leather is dry or even if it is not, we could dampen the leather and rub in waxes, forming emulsions as you said @deboardp, which when the water dries, leaves the leather soft. A good occlusive like mineral oil can be pre-added or applied later. Resolene or Mop & Glo or any similar finish would then protect the leather.. Earlier, it was just people in localized areas sharing their experiences. Now it is world-wide and we can get so much more information. In this case, at least for me, it has simplified everything, once I separated the chaff from the grain. Hydration? always water, world over. Lubricants? Different, depending on what is available easily. Occlusives? The same. Finishes. Ditto. All finally giving the same result - soft, healthy, beautiful leather!
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Has anyone used Faraday fabric for RFID blocking? I was wondering how it worked.
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@deboardp That is why people wax eloquent about olive oil being discovered from thousands(?) of years ago, not gone rancid. Of course not, they were in air tight bottles! I also wonder at the personal hygiene of the people centuries ago. No running water, toilet paper or equivalents being used, no air conditioners in the heat... where did BO end and smelly leather begin or vice versa? Would the ladies even notice, since they would be in the same boat? Must have been a smelly world -Just saying...