Food Safety & Stain Resistance

[budd4766]

My wife and I made some leather place mats for my mother and father-in-law for Christmas. They seem to think the place mats would sell good in a "high end" furniture place or something. But I have a couple questions...thought I'd ask you guys...

1. What would you use to seal leather place mats with? I'm concerned about water rings from drinks, and cleanability, without affecting the finish.

2. Would the finish need to be "food-grade" for a place mat? Any suggestions on what that finish would be?

The mats we made were done with tan gel antique and sealed with neat-lac. (My last can). Here's a couple pics:

[Hilly]

There are several products that can seal the leather, and make it pretty much waterproof. Montana pitch blend comes to mind.

Your decorative braiding looks really nice, but I would worry about food particles/liquids becoming lodged in the braiding.

[bruce johnson]

I make my placemats a little differently, and will attach an example. These are a chap leather body with tooled side borders. I mostly use chap leather for the bodies, but have used some oiled vegtain too. I use Feibing's Leather Sheen. I have used Future floor wax in a pinch and don't see any difference. I put on on a pretty good coat, when it is almost dry, I put on a light coat. When it is just past tacky, I put another light coat on. I usually end up and have about 4-5 light coats when I am satisfied. I have not had a problem with staining, our own set is used a lot, and out maybe 8 years now. They wipe with a damp rag. I have customers who roll them up in drawers for storage, ours are sometimes. No problems with flaking or cracking.