How much neetsfoot oil do I use to seal saddle bags?

[pnj]

I'm doing the tooling / painting / dying on a pair of saddle bags for a horse. I am doing the upper section that hangs over the horse, not the actual bag itself. 

The customer wants to use neetsfoot oil on the bags. 

I want to use Fiebings dye to color the flowers that I will be tooling. I have done some samples and find that the color gets drowned out after I apply the neetsfoot oil. 

How much oil should be used to make the leather waterproof? I may be using too much.

Or, I may have to go with acrylic paint instead of dye. Would that be an issue with neetsfoot oil?

 

 

[Hydrangeaceae]

Neatsfoot won't give you any waterproofing or surface protection what so ever. It's purely a conditioner. For waterproofing you'll want an acrylic finish like resolene, or a beeswax based wax like sno seal. You can also DIY the wax if you're up for it. 

For conditioning with neatsfoot I just place a rag on top of the bottle, give it a quick turn on it's head, and then spread that around as much as it will cover. A little goes a long way, but you can use more if you want to darken the leather considerably or soften it up. Lots of light coats over drowning it. 

[cowboycolonel]

I use Leather Balm with Atom Wax for leather against the horse and for the tooled elements, I usually use Fiebings dyes or Antique finishes followed up by a light coat of neatsfoot oil then a liberal application of Skidmore's Leather Cream. Thereafter, apply Skidmore's every time you clean the bags - or better yet, every time you SHOULD clean the bags. I keep my stuff clean and conditioned all the time, and it's all relatively waterproof.  I NEVER use hard finishes on horse gear, as it will crack and loose its luster anyway.