Mineral oil bad for leather? Or good? Or neutral?

[fredk]

Excellent

I've done a piece with vaseline. It went into my special car at 07.00 today

Temperatures inside my special car range from 7.6* during the night to a high of 25.8* on a sunny day. On overcast days its about 20.4*

[SUP]

Instead of a vague description of 'very' or 'medium', or  'slight' I am making a scale of 1-5, for all descriptions.

 

 

[fredk]

2 weeks on and there are no nasties happening to my test pieces. Only, they're drying out. I think, this weekend, end of week 3, I'm going to give each another dose of their oils

[SUP]

I'm using the information I gathered from our experiment already. Seeing that coconut oil darkened leather the most and dried and hardened the leather slightly, I applied it on the 'hand' that I am making. The leather that Tandy provided was very pale and quite soft and I wanted the hand a little stiffer. Hopefully, this works. It already looks more human.. the color is much more life-life. The smell of the oil will disappear in a couple of days, leaving behind, I expect, a stiffer, darker leather.

[fredk]

Excellent

[fredk]

10/22 09.30 - up date

All pieces - no fungus

#2 has the faintest smell of oil (Rapeseed cooking oil)

All other pieces smell faintly 'Leather'

Pieces #3 (lard) and #4 (NFO Compound) are much more flexible than all the other pieces which  are all about the same, a little bit stiffer than Control Piece #2 which is in my leatherwork room

Night time temperatures inside the car dropped to about 5.6*, We have had a bad stormy weather the last week which gave very heavy overcast and cold days. Day time temperatures in the car was about a max of 7.6 to 8*

Later today I'm going to give all pieces another dosing of their oils

But so far it looks like all the oils or fats are fine with NFO Compound and Lard (pork fat) winning

[fredk]

I've re-oiled all the pieces and put them back in the car. at approx 11.00 10/22

I noticed that the backs of all the pieces have returned to very nearly the original leather colour but the fronts were  still dark. Except for #7 (Vaseline), both sides were actually a bit lighter than the test control piece

[SUP]

No fungus on any of the pieces in any of the locations. They appear to be slightly drier this weekend and curving a bit.

I plan to check them on Sunday - 2 weeks from the previous check, and determine which need oiling. I think I will oil as per requirements of individual pieces Then I will be able to determine which oils allow longer periods between oilings. 

[SUP]

This post is for 29th oct 2023 when I checked the leather but delayed putting it up here. 

Not much change in any of the pieces anywhere.

The only thing becoming more noticeable is that all the oiled pieces kept outside, constantly exposed to the elements, have darkened, to more or less the same extent now.  The unoiled piece is very pale compared to the oiled pieces. Texture remains the same.

This week is cold and below freezing. Let's see how that makes a difference.

 

 

[fredk]

I checked mine last weekend and yesterday

No change. Nowt happening in way of mould/fungus or bad smells. All pieces are getting a wee bit darker on the grain side but I think thats because they're getting direct sun light on them. All pieces smell faintly 'leather', with just a hint of the stronger oils on those pieces

A proper detailed check this weekend