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I'm posting this to make it easier for those searching on the following terms as well as share my own recipe and experience using it on tooled veg tan leather: oxalic acid alternatives cleaning substitutes Barkeeper's mixing recipe Barkeeper mixing recipe Bar Keeper mixing recipe Mix: ==== 1 Tablespoon of Barkeeper's Friend to 1 pint of water. Result ===== I used this mix on a heavily soiled veg tan piece (hand oils, sweat, grime) that I had just tooled. I dipped a clean rag in the solution and briskly rubbed the piece with plenty of saturation. It couldn't tell if it was working when it was wet so I just gave it a good scrub. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much, but once dry it was clean as a whistle. In fact, it came out cleaner than it was on the roll when I first cut it. There's a comment on another thread stating that Barkeeper's Friend is an inferior substitute because it only contains 5% per volume of oxalic acid (MSDS sheet says 5-10%) and you would have to use an entire can in a paste form for it do anything. That's about as absurd a statement as I've read in these forums, and there are some doozies. All I can say is it worked great for me. Barkeepers is cheap and easy to find in the cleaning section of your grocery store. I use it mainly to clean copper and brass on my metal projects. Works great on that too.