Skidmore's leather cream

[dikman]

I often see Skidmore's Leather Cream mentioned as THE stuff to use on leather so got curious about it. They advertise it as all-natural ingredients, but when I went looking for the MSDS it came up with this - beeswax and Heavy paraffinic distillate 64742-54-7, which is obviously the solvent. This is made from oil and is used in many motor oils so calling it natural is, to my way of thinking, stretching things just a bit.

Many leatherworkers are fussy about not using petroleum-based products on their leather but I wonder how many realise what is in Skidmore's.

Food for thought.

[dikman]

A bit more searching shows that CAS 64742-54-7 is the primary ingredient (often listed as greater than 90%) in many brands of hydraulic fluid.

[jrdunn]

Sadly a lot of leather conditioners have mineral oil, petrolatum or other petroleum distillates.  My favorite conditioner is Bick 4.  I tried a search to discover the ingredients but had no luck.  I guess my clearance rating isn't high enough.  I thought they were required to put that on SDS sheets.  Anyway, they claim that it doesn't darken leather since it has no wax in it.  It hasn't darkened anything that I have put it on so far.   I have used it as a conditioner/polish as shown is this Springfield Leather video. As usual, JM2C.  Jim

 

[chuck123wapati]

30 minutes ago, jrdunn said:

Sadly a lot of leather conditioners have mineral oil, petrolatum or other petroleum distillates.  My favorite conditioner is Bick 4.  I tried a search to discover the ingredients but had no luck.  I guess my clearance rating isn't high enough.  I thought they were required to put that on SDS sheets.  Anyway, they claim that it doesn't darken leather since it has no wax in it.  It hasn't darkened anything that I have put it on so far.   I have used it as a conditioner/polish as shown is this Springfield Leather video. As usual, JM2C.  Jim

 

https://www.shell.us/business-customers/lubricants-for-business/lubricants-product-stewardship/_jcr_content/par/textimage.stream/1519790500185/1eb1b465dfd7173ef044ad540c12b02d6d5ae599/product-stewardship-lubes-distillates-petroleum-hydrotreated-heavy-paraffinic.pdf

What's sad about using products that work?

You are believing a company that says only wax darkens leather when we all know different? The reality is that wax can be seen longer(darkens leather)   because it doesn't soak in and fade out as quickly as plain oils would. And why it works better as a water repellant than plain oils or surface type protectants.

I tend never believe a manufacturers claims about their competitions products nor about their own. Leather needs oils to maintain them, and they darken leather in doing so, it cant be helped. I would instead worry about those products that don't darken leather as they really aren't doing much IMO.

Some more food for thought   not all leather needs the same conditioner or oils, each leather product has its specific use  which really determines the type of conditioners needed to protect it to the fullest.

6 hours ago, dikman said:

I often see Skidmore's Leather Cream mentioned as THE stuff to use on leather so got curious about it. They advertise it as all-natural ingredients, but when I went looking for the MSDS it came up with this - beeswax and Heavy paraffinic distillate 64742-54-7, which is obviously the solvent. This is made from oil and is used in many motor oils so calling it natural is, to my way of thinking, stretching things just a bit.

Many leatherworkers are fussy about not using petroleum-based products on their leather but I wonder how many realise what is in Skidmore's.

Food for thought.

oil is a natural product just not renewable in our short lifetimes. We will be in the next batch!!. Many leather workers have been scared by the big bad eco bullies because they are either to lazy to find the truth or just want to remain willfully ignorant and virtue signal at every intersection. Petroleum products work and work well that's why we invented the processes  that refine them.  BTW The whales were very thankful for the creation of kerosene!!!

[jrdunn]

Sorry, I wasn't bashing conditioners with petroleum distillates.  I have some and use them.  I try to use the one that works best but don't always succeed.

[chuck123wapati]

32 minutes ago, jrdunn said:

Sorry, I wasn't bashing conditioners with petroleum distillates.  I have some and use them.  I try to use the one that works best but don't always succeed.

and i also apologize I reread and admit i sounded really rude, crude, i really was just trying to add to the conversation.

[doubleh]

I went to Fiebing's boot creme after the brand the town's long deceased  bootmaker recommended disappeared. I can not remember the brand but it was excellent and Fiebing's seem to be very good too. There is a ton of options out there as Amazon will show.

[TomE]

13 hours ago, dikman said:

Heavy paraffinic distillate 64742-54-7, which is obviously the solvent.

I view “natural ingredients” as a marketing ploy. Nature is full of toxins, and most tanned leather has been exposed to unnatural chemical extremes to break down collagen and strip out other stuff. So I’m looking for quality ingredients, whether synthetic or natural.  Fiebings Aussie conditioner seems waxy to me but doesn’t darken leather, similar to Bick 4, whereas Blackrock Leather N’ Rich is waxy and consistently darkens leather. I assumed it was an oil that darkened the leather. 
 

I wonder if the petroleum distillate you mentioned is the same one in neatsfoot compound. In the Encyclopedia of Saddle Making the Stohlmans note they used a lot of neatsfoot compound to good effect but recognize that pure neatsfoot oil is a superior product. 

[dikman]

I agree about the marketing ploy. It could be argued that crude oil, as it comes out of the ground, is a natural product but how many would want to treat their leather with that? The simple fact is that it's heavily processed to obtain the various products we get from it, at which point I wouldn't consider it "natural". Many of those hydraulic oils I looked up appear to be close to 99% CAS 64742-54-7, and those that didn't contain it were a cocktail of chemicals!

I looked up the MSDS for a few neatsfoot compound products, Tom E, because you aroused my curiosity, and yes, some have the same CAS added, or close relatives of it. Feibings, for example, use two different CAS products, a heavy and a light paraffinic distillate. So if anyone says not to use neatsfoot compound because of the added petroleum product(s) I hope they're not using Skidmore's either.

I've spent some time in the past trying to make beeswax into a soft paste, like the bought ones, using only real natural ingredients. The problem is that to do that you don't have much actual beeswax in the mix or it becomes too thick. The best results were using pure olive oil (similar to a product called Bore Butter, put out as a bore/patch lube for muzzleloading rifles), I also tried using pure gum turpentine but this left a black tar-like deposit in the tin after a while, so I'm not using that on leather. Lanolin also worked but again if you add too much beeswax it becomes too thick., likewise pure NFO.

I have some ISO 68 Hydraulic oil (one that the MSDS indicates is about 99% CAS 64742-54-7, I'm tempted to try mixing a small amount with some beeswax just to see what I get.

As Chuck said if you're using something that works and you're happy with it that's all that matters (I guess).

Edited April 22, 2023 by dikman

[jrdunn]

8 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

and i also apologize I reread and admit i sounded really rude, crude, i really was just trying to add to the conversation.

No problem here.  I really wasn't clear.

[dikman]

Slight correction, my hydraulic oil is approx. 95% 64742-54-7 and the remainder is "other stuff", mostly distillate.

So, I mixed some up, approx. 50:50 by volume beeswax and oil. It has the same creamy colour as commercial products that I've seen and is "spreadable" - it could possibly do with just a smidge more oil but is useable as is. I've put some on a piece of scrap to see what happens, it only darkened it a slight amount when applied.

I doubt if I'll use it on anything important, however, as the long term effects on leather are a complete unknown. (Thinks- "might be good for wiping on tools etc" - ends thinks).