Harness oil / leather grease, old recipe

[Mulesaw]

I found this recipe for harness oil in "The Harness makers illustrated manual". @Alexis1234 kindly referred to the book in a post about a fabulous goat driving harness that she made.

The book can be found online, and in the end of the book there are a bunch of recipes. The easiest one was for harness oil that is actually more of a leather grease.

I have made a production run of it, and so far I am very pleased. The grease is soft and absorbs easy into the leather. It doesn't leave a residue on the surface of the leather.  My first test was made from absolute scratch, later on I have bought food grade tallow since it was a lot cheaper and easier compared to extract it myself. But then again, I am making a large production so I can sell some of the grease to other horse people.

I like the idea of using animal based ingredients since I believe that it ought to be the most natural kind of grease for another animal product.

The recipe calls for 3 lbs of beef tallow, and 1 lb of neatsfoot oil. the tallow is melted and the NFO is slowly poured into the melted tallow. all is stirred well until it is cold. The recipe also suggests adding a bit of lampblack to the mixture.

I have only tried using beef tallow, but I guess that elk, moose, or deer tallow would be similar, so if you are a hunter or knows one then it could be an interesting experiment to try to use a wild source of tallow. 

 

The pictures show my process from the first experiment. No black was added to the mixture.

1 + 2) I bought some tallow scraps from the local butcher and these were boiled for a couple of hours in water. 

3 + 4) The liquid tallow and water was transferred to a clean bowl and left to solidify in the cellar until next morning. The solid pieces of meat were given to the dogs (who seemed to like this experiment).

5)  The solidified tallow was lifted onto a plate and the underside was rinsed under some water to remove any soup. The actual soup was also distributed to the dogs.

6) I used an old can to melt the tallow and NFO in. I weighed 240 gram of tallow and 80 gram of NFO.

7) I melted the tallow and NFO in a water bath, so I didn't have to clean up a pot when I was done.

8) All melted and stirred thoroughly.

9) Poured into an old tin.

10) After cooling and solidifying. the grease is ready to use.

 

[TomE]

Great experiment and lucky dogs!  I bought a couple of 1 oz tins of mutton tallow (McQueen's from the Anita Baker Co) for more than I should have paid.  Planning to make a leather strop with tallow and carborundum powder but haven't gotten around to trying it.  Think I'll find a friend with sheep and try your recipe. Would be interesting to compare this dressing to Effax Leder Balsam and other pricey conditioners.

[Mulesaw]

@TomE
Thanks, the dogs definitely found it to be a rewarding experiment. The tallow was quite pricey like this. I think I paid DKK 50,- (around 7$) for 4 lbs of tallow scraps. After boiling etc. I think I ended up with just over one lb. (I have already forgot the exact number). And it took a while for boiling, but I think it is fun to try all the way from scratch. 

Since I moved up to production scale I have fund that the NFO is the most expensive in the recipe. I haven't found a wholesale supplier for that so far, but I think its OK despite of that. My production costs are roughly 2$ per jar, and a jar contains 250 mL. (slightly more than a US cup). That price includes the jar and the lid and I also ad a bit of pine needle oil just for a nice smell. But technically it isn't needed.

Sheep tallow should be good I reckon, and I haven't heard of anyone using that for anything except old time lubricating of wooden planes soles.

I have tried to make black grease by adding some lamp black, and that works like a charm, so I also tried to make some brown using burnt umbra .(I haven't tested that one yet coming to think of it) Both these are intended to be for boots since few people I know want to use anything with colouring on their saddles. Most competitions still require white riding pants, so no need to risk getting those more dirty.

Here's a picture of one of my friends equipment after  applying the grease. She bought a jar of the neutral coloured and a jar of black leather grease. 
She is not into regular competition riding, so it would be fair to say that her equipment isn't always super shiny. But the boots look like a million $ now, and she was very pleased with the product. 

[chuck123wapati]

thanks again for the great recipe and the how to pics. I have a gallon of elk tallow that i have rendered off for soap and other projects i think i'll make a tin for my self too.

[Mulesaw]

2 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

thanks again for the great recipe and the how to pics. I have a gallon of elk tallow that i have rendered off for soap and other projects i think i'll make a tin for my self too.

Darn. elk tallow is just SO exotic for someone like me :-) 

I guess that if you lived in a really warm climate, you could change the ratio of tallow to NFO, but I like that I can easily apply the grease even if it is stored in the unheated workshop in the barn. I haven't tried it in super cold temperatures like freezing though, but I reckon it will still be soft enough to apply.

[chuck123wapati]

49 minutes ago, Mulesaw said:

Darn. elk tallow is just SO exotic for someone like me :-) 

I guess that if you lived in a really warm climate, you could change the ratio of tallow to NFO, but I like that I can easily apply the grease even if it is stored in the unheated workshop in the barn. I haven't tried it in super cold temperatures like freezing though, but I reckon it will still be soft enough to apply.

lol you have Deer in Denmark too just have to find a hunter that will give you the tallow fat off the rump. Here its hot half the time and cold  the other half so mixing for the temperature isn't a consideration i worry about lol. I usually heat up whatever and let my conditioner soak in well. 

[TomE]

7 hours ago, Mulesaw said:

The tallow was quite pricey like this. I think I paid DKK 50,- (around 7$) for 4 lbs of tallow scraps.

Here's a picture of one of my friends equipment after  applying the grease. She bought a jar of the neutral coloured and a jar of black leather grease. 
She is not into regular competition riding, so it would be fair to say that her equipment isn't always super shiny. But the boots look like a million $ now, and she was very pleased with the product. 

 

I'm  sure I paid more than $7 for an ounce of mutton tallow, which is ~60 ml?  The boots and saddle look great.  Will have to try it out.  Interesting variations with color added, and the scent is a good idea.  I'm sure that's why Effax Leder Balsam costs so much.  

[Mulesaw]

16 hours ago, TomE said:

I'm  sure I paid more than $7 for an ounce of mutton tallow, which is ~60 ml?  The boots and saddle look great.  Will have to try it out.  Interesting variations with color added, and the scent is a good idea.  I'm sure that's why Effax Leder Balsam costs so much.  

After my initial test I bought 40 lbs of beef tallow food grade. that was just something like 35-40 $ According to a friend of mine who runs a restaurant, it is sometimes used in steak houses for frying a steak, as it gives bit of taste compared to e.g. cooking oil or butter. 
But getting some scraps from a butcher will still give plenty tallow for a nice sized portion (and happy dogs as a bonus).

I have tried to look at a lot of those leather greases that are available over here, and quite a lot of them have got petroleum jelly in them. I can't say that it is bad, I just think that natural grease from the same animal ought to be better for the leather. Plus it is kind of neat to make your own stuff :-)

[Mulesaw]

19 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

lol you have Deer in Denmark too just have to find a hunter that will give you the tallow fat off the rump. Here its hot half the time and cold  the other half so mixing for the temperature isn't a consideration i worry about lol. I usually heat up whatever and let my conditioner soak in well. 

Some of the hunters I know are getting sausage made from the deer they shoot, so I think they use all the tallow themselves, but it couldn't hurt to ask them.  But also the deer over here are SO small, so there isn't much "meat" on them anyway. The standard weight of a 3 year old animal is between 32 - 45 lbs. Unless you manage to find a sika deer or a red deer. But those aren't as common where I live.

[chuck123wapati]

13 minutes ago, Mulesaw said:

Some of the hunters I know are getting sausage made from the deer they shoot, so I think they use all the tallow themselves, but it couldn't hurt to ask them.  But also the deer over here are SO small, so there isn't much "meat" on them anyway. The standard weight of a 3 year old animal is between 32 - 45 lbs. Unless you manage to find a sika deer or a red deer. But those aren't as common where I live.

the deer here have a strong taste in their fat so we don't use it, we replace it with beef or pork fat. Maybe that's the case there too. as you say it doesn't hurt to ask. Those are small critters indeed, an adult Elk weighs about 800 lbs average.

[billybopp]

1 hour ago, Mulesaw said:

After my initial test I bought 40 lbs of beef tallow food grade. that was just something like 35-40 $ According to a friend of mine who runs a restaurant, it is sometimes used in steak houses for frying a steak, as it gives bit of taste compared to e.g. cooking oil or butter. 
But getting some scraps from a butcher will still give plenty tallow for a nice sized portion (and happy dogs as a bonus).

I have tried to look at a lot of those leather greases that are available over here, and quite a lot of them have got petroleum jelly in them. I can't say that it is bad, I just think that natural grease from the same animal ought to be better for the leather. Plus it is kind of neat to make your own stuff :-)

Back in the day, until about 30 years ago, McDonalds used to use beef tallow for a portion of their fryer oil for french fries.   They tasted wonderful!  I use about 20% tallow in my fryer at home for just that reason.

- Bill

[Mulesaw]

1 hour ago, billybopp said:

Back in the day, until about 30 years ago, McDonalds used to use beef tallow for a portion of their fryer oil for french fries.   They tasted wonderful!  I use about 20% tallow in my fryer at home for just that reason.

- Bill

I have heard that it should also taste really fine if you use tallow when you roast your steak. I think I'm going to try that next time I get the chance (when I get off the ship)

It is funny how such a seemingly small thing can make such a big difference in taste.