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

[AEBL]

You could probably have put it into a syringe-like-thing and pushed it from above. You could also centrifuge it and hope the gunk sank to the bottom quickly.

I can't think of any way to do it that isn't an expensive, stinky mess.

[SUP]

Did they? But then, I wonder what the level of hygiene was in those times. When everything is a bit 'aromatic' I guess a little smelly chicken fat is barely noticed. 😅

 

[fredk]

Hygiene was higher than Hollywood movies would have you believe. There were several house-hold books published at the time regarding hygiene and many, many cook books some of which touched on the subject

[SUP]

4 hours ago, fredk said:

Hygiene was higher than Hollywood movies would have you believe. There were several house-hold books published at the time regarding hygiene and many, many cook books some of which touched on the subject

😄Good to know. although, I don't watch movies, Hollywood or otherwise. I wondered more from the point of view of heat, lack of plumbing and running water and the tendency of people to use bath tubs and toilet paper. 

Back to the subject, i plan to render the fat from the skin by warming it on a clean pan. Let's see what happens. it is very warm here not and if it putrefies, I will know within a few hours. 

Edited July 10 by SUP

[AEBL]

@fredk, history fascinates me. I am always stunned at how clever the ancient people were. Heck, who figures out that you can use oak leaves to tan hides? There's loads we haven't figured out that they knew! Or soap for that matter, they knew about that a long time ago.

Edited July 11 by AEBL

[SUP]

8 hours ago, AEBL said:

Or soap for that matter, they knew about that a long time ago.

😅 That puts me in my place.

Sorry @fredk no offense was intended. 

8 hours ago, AEBL said:

There's loads we haven't figured out that they knew

It was different paths of discovery for different cultures and civilizations when people did not travel as much as we do today. We are in such a lucky place in time, having access to all that information now. 

Those cultures were very advanced - airplanes included, believe it or not. So @AEBL that they knew about soap is not surprising. 🙂 Many scientists have been quietly reading about older civilizations and using that knowledge today, I have heard. Not surprising. Not surprising that they have not given credit to those books either - plagiarism anyone?

Coming back to the original thread, people did use plain tallow in lamps, is it not? They were used by the not-so wealthy. The wealthy used beeswax, which was not supposed to be so smelly or smoke as much. I have not tried tallow in lamps but I have read about it. What was used was not the refined tallow we purchase today either. So maybe people had a different attitude to smells from our attitudes today. Needs must, maybe? 

[fredk]

Refined tallow candles were the usual. Even refined whale oil. Beeswax candles were for the clergy only, and from the 1st Century. Candle makers had their own way of refining tallow and the best candle makers were sought out for the purity of their candles. A slight smell of cooking beef.

[SUP]

Oh yes! I remember reading about it. Chandlers used to go around to different villages in their carts, making the yearly supply of beeswax candles for the churches and the wealthy.  I do not remember which century or country though but it would have been in Europe.  The East was completely different in every way.

Is that the time when chicken fat would have been used on leathers?  Has chicken fat even been used anywhere on leather, anyway?  I wonder.

Everywhere I read the same thing - It goes rancid fast!  If people find  rancid coconut oil unpleasant surely they would object to this too? Or, they did not mind the smell, in which case, I come back to my original suggestion that maybe their surrounding smells inured them to the smell of rancid chicken fat.

I prefer to think that even if anyone tried, they would have been turned off by the rancidity and never used it again. 

 

[fredk]

I do believe the ancients never used chicken fat of grease on their leather

They had high quality tallow, goose grease, olive oil, nut oils to choose from

The smell of rancid chicken is too powerful for even their noses

A recent BBC news story (two days ago) that police closed an area of a park whilst forensics checked out a smell. Social Media reported a body had been found. Turned out to be a bag of chicken wings which had been dumped!  

Beeswax candles were very uncommon. In the 7th C (600s) a monk wrote to the pope seeking permission to import bees from north France into Ireland (Hibernia) as there were no bees there so he could not make candles

In the 8th to 11th centuries Viking traders imported bees into Hibernia so they could make meade and sell the wax. They recorded that there were no bee hives in Hibernia

[SUP]

😅 I guess that is a sign that I need not worry about trying chicken fat on leather. 

I'm afraid I do not know much about ancient Ireland except  for the fact that the society was more advanced and structured  and much more respectful of women than society today. I always wondered why they allowed the Anglo Saxon hordes and their sanctimonious attitudes to overcome them. 

Anyway, I seem to be digressing from the main topic.

I am planning to try the various water based conditioners. Sometimes I find that I need one which does not change the color of the leather. I know the Chemical Guys conditioner is good but am looking for others.

I have found that with water based conditioners, I need to condition more frequently. Without an occlusive agent, the leather dries faster, I suspect. That is why, if I can condition a set with different water based conditioners, I can get an idea of how long each conditioner lasts before the specific piece of leather needs to be conditioned again My current set, with oils, waxes and fats are still fine and do not need to be treated again.

 

 

 

[dikman]

Sounds like you're chickening out from trying it? 

[SUP]

8 hours ago, dikman said:

Sounds like you're chickening out from trying it?

Absolutely! 🐔 Cluck cluck cluck!

😄