DIY leather conditioner

[deboardp]

This topic was started here in 2016 click here . There was an interesting discussion, and one fellow, "unicornleather", who is Austin Black of Wales, made saddles, and he makes his own concoction, which he sells or used to sell. But I can't reach him. Basically he said he uses an ancient saddler's grease made with tallow, beeswax, lard. He recommends using lanolin, but doesn't mention it in his basic formula. Also, he doesn't include the actual recipe. He says use 50% beef fat (tallow), 25%beeswax, and 25% lard (pork fat). In an effort to add lanolin to my recipe, I've jotted down these numbers: 40% tallow, 20% beeswax, 20% lard, 20% anhydrous (no water) lanolin. Lanolin is made by sheep sebaceous glands to lubricate and protect its wool. It's a waxy, white substance, the same stuff as the white part of a white head on human skin. I've considered maybe adding something else, for aroma, but Austin "Oz" said that the final treatment of leather, after this conditioner has spent three days moving along the leather fibres, and is apparently "dry", is to rub a small amount of cod liver oil onto both sides of the leather. He said this restores the leather smell of the leather.  I'll have to try it.  My leather already smells like leather, but after rubbing all that grease into both sides of it, who knows WHAT it will smell like! He wrote a similar article in another journal in 2012, but I didn't save the links to either article. However, I saved his article on the computer. I'll attach it, if allowed. He posted and was a member known as unicornleather.

This is his website. I couldn't get his messaging to work for me. https://www.unicornleather.co.uk/  You can read his story if you click on "about me", at the top in the blue banner.

I ordered all my ingredients today, online, except for the cod liver oil. 

Patrick

leather conditioner.odt

Edited December 28, 2023 by deboardp
make it more accurate, add links

[ScottWolf]

I posted an actual leather conditioner recipe in the forum for conditioners. It has since been pinned to the top and it covers just about all the ingredients one can use in a conditioner and suggested ratios for the various ingredients along with pictures of finished products. It should help you in adjusting your ingredients so that you get the desired end product.

Link:

 

Edited December 28, 2023 by ScottWolf

[deboardp]

Just now, ScottWolf said:

I posted an actual leather conditioner recipe in the forum for conditioners. It has since been pinned to the top and it covers just about all the ingredients one can use in a conditioner and suggested ratios for the various ingredients along with pictures of finished products. It should help you in adjusting your ingredients so that you get the desired end product.

I just edited my post at the top, you might want to look at it.  Do you have a link to your recipe?

[ScottWolf]

15 hours ago, deboardp said:

I just edited my post at the top, you might want to look at it.  Do you have a link to your recipe?

The link is in my previous post, at the bottom of the post.You should see a picture, click on it.

[deboardp]

15 hours ago, ScottWolf said:

I posted an actual leather conditioner recipe in the forum for conditioners. It has since been pinned to the top and it covers just about all the ingredients one can use in a conditioner and suggested ratios for the various ingredients along with pictures of finished products. It should help you in adjusting your ingredients so that you get the desired end product.

Link:

 

That's an interesting topic thread. Why are you averse to using tallow and lard? Those two ingredients make up 3/4 of the recipe of the English Saddlers conditioner. Austin, who apparently goes by"Oz", recommends to not use oil at all, until after the leather has been stuffed with fats and waxes, and he points out that the leather doesn't absorb this oil since it is already stuffed. I know almond oil is heady stuff for the olfactory sense, but the Saddlers of old didn't use oil. They used fats and waxes, which are removed in vegetable tanning leather. They're simply replacing that stuff with their conditioner. So I think I'll try the old way first, see how it works. Leather sandals are similar to tack and saddles in that there are straps and body weight on the topsole. I'll try what has worked for centuries. I bought 50 tins to send along with each pair of sandals I make, no charge to customers. 

Edited December 28, 2023 by deboardp

[deboardp]

3 minutes ago, ScottWolf said:

The link is in my previous post, at the bottom of the post.You should see a picture, click on it.

It did finally show up last night. 

[chuck123wapati]

3 minutes ago, deboardp said:

That's an interesting topic thread. Why are you averse to using tallow and lard? Those two ingredients make up 3/4 of the recipe of the English Saddlers conditioner. Austin, who apparently goes by"Oz", recommends to not use oil at all, until after the leather has been stuffed with fats and waxes, and he points out that the leather doesn't absorb this oil since it is already stuffed. I know almond oil is heady stuff for the olfactory sense, but the Saddlers of old didn't use oil. They used fats and waxes, which are removed in vegetable tanning leather. They're simply relaxing that stuff with their conditioner. So I think I'll try the old way first, see how it works. Leather sandals are similar to tack and saddles in that there are straps and body weight on the topsole. I'll try what has worked for centuries. I bought 50 tins to send along with each pair of sandals I make, no charge to customers. 

i have a recipe similar in an old book if you need it. In fact it has a couple recipes i believe. with lanolin and cod oil used. Most younger folks don't think that leather was ever conditioned so they reinvent what was already there. mostly with the new age buzz words added. History has taken some bad knocks in the education field lately. 

[deboardp]

Just now, chuck123wapati said:

i have a recipe similar in an old book if you need it. In fact it has a couple recipes i believe. with lanolin and cod oil used. Most younger folks don't think that leather was ever conditioned so they reinvent what was already there. mostly with the new age buzz words added. History has taken some bad knocks in the education field lately. 

I would like to look at it. 

I was thinking earlier this morning that if I didn't like the conditioner I'm about to make, I'll have all this organic pork lard in a jar, and I could eat it out of the jar with a spoon, like a bacon smoothie. Well, maybe not...

[deboardp]

1 hour ago, chuck123wapati said:

i have a recipe similar in an old book if you need it. In fact it has a couple recipes i believe. with lanolin and cod oil used. Most younger folks don't think that leather was ever conditioned so they reinvent what was already there. mostly with the new age buzz words added. History has taken some bad knocks in the education field lately. 

I might like to buy the book online if it's in print and if it's relevant to making sandals (and later, belts and bags).

[chuck123wapati]

1 hour ago, deboardp said:

I would like to look at it. 

I was thinking earlier this morning that if I didn't like the conditioner I'm about to make, I'll have all this organic pork lard in a jar, and I could eat it out of the jar with a spoon, like a bacon smoothie. Well, maybe not...

i just made soap out of 6lbs of Elk tallow its something to do with unneeded fats and oils