Vegetable Tanned Leather Finish - What to use?

[HoosierQ]

Everyone.

I am new here and hope to learn.

I do a few leather projects with vegetable tanned leather. Holsters, knife sheaths, and other things. I tool some of them.

What are good finishes to give vegetable tanned tooling leather a good, reasonably water proof finish? Of course that leather soaks up water like a sponge and I want to be able to use things outdoors. I have used vegetable oil (soybean) - results so-so. I like beeswax-based Sno-Seal. That really soaks in, is color fast, and buffs up nice. However, it is very sticky and if a item is a little too tight, it really glues the thing in there...sort of defeats the purpose. I just inherited a can of Neat Lac and I like the way that works but I just used it for the first time recently so I have no experience there.

I have been tempted to try Lexol but that's expensive and I have not tried it yet. I have tried Armour All Leather Care on test pieces and it works nice but it drys kind of waxy...waxier than the Sno-Seal is after a good buffing...but you can't buff the inside of a piece.

So, I am a newbie and I am looking to learn. Finishes are a real mystery to me and the folks down at Tandy are helpful but they seem to like everything and thus I am not sure I am getting a good objective piece of advice.

Thanks for commenting.

[HoosierQ]

Duh, I just found the forum for finishes and there is a wealth of information there.

[electrathon]

RTC from Bee Natural

[Dangerous Dave]

Everyone.

I am new here and hope to learn.

I do a few leather projects with vegetable tanned leather. Holsters, knife sheaths, and other things. I tool some of them.

What are good finishes to give vegetable tanned tooling leather a good, reasonably water proof finish? Of course that leather soaks up water like a sponge and I want to be able to use things outdoors. I have used vegetable oil (soybean) - results so-so. I like beeswax-based Sno-Seal. That really soaks in, is color fast, and buffs up nice. However, it is very sticky and if a item is a little too tight, it really glues the thing in there...sort of defeats the purpose. I just inherited a can of Neat Lac and I like the way that works but I just used it for the first time recently so I have no experience there.

I have been tempted to try Lexol but that's expensive and I have not tried it yet. I have tried Armour All Leather Care on test pieces and it works nice but it drys kind of waxy...waxier than the Sno-Seal is after a good buffing...but you can't buff the inside of a piece.

So, I am a newbie and I am looking to learn. Finishes are a real mystery to me and the folks down at Tandy are helpful but they seem to like everything and thus I am not sure I am getting a good objective piece of advice.

Thanks for commenting.

A terrific finish can be made inexpensively from cod liver oil (available for a few dollars from the pharmacy) and beeswax. Heat the oil and melt in beeswax slivers being careful of the heat to not cook the mixture. You just want to thicken the oil. You may have to experiment to get the right consistancy but it works great to both soften and seal the leather.

Dave