DYI Leather Finishing product ?

[blazeafar]

Just a question for those that may have heard of this.
I had a conversion the other day with a fellow leather worker about what he used over a dyed piece as a final coating.
His answer was a little surprising.
Hair Shampoo and cooking oil mixture! He said to mix it 33 percent oil to 66 percent shampoo.
Any one heard of this?

I experimented with a small mix but saw nothing that great about it.

[NVLeatherWorx]

I would never use any form of cooking oil as it will attract rodents (after all, it is food oil) and it also tends to become rancid down the road and can really stink up the place.  As far as shampoo, I would never use a soap of any kind on leather as it is just a soap and doesn't offer any valuable conditioning elements nor does lend itself to protecting the leather from the elements.  I would say that this "fellow leather worker" has not even read the simplest of instruction on the craft and has been trolling some of the most questionable forums for their source of information.  This concoction possesses no valuable benefit for leather or anything else; I wouldn't even recommend it for dry scalp.

[blazeafar]

13 hours ago, NVLeatherWorx said:

I would never use any form of cooking oil as it will attract rodents (after all, it is food oil) and it also tends to become rancid down the road and can really stink up the place.  As far as shampoo, I would never use a soap of any kind on leather as it is just a soap and doesn't offer any valuable conditioning elements nor does lend itself to protecting the leather from the elements.  I would say that this "fellow leather worker" has not even read the simplest of instruction on the craft and has been trolling some of the most questionable forums for their source of information.  This concoction possesses no valuable benefit for leather or anything else; I wouldn't even recommend it for dry scalp.

I can not say anything as to where he leaned of this, sounded a little odd to me as well. As you say, I would not us a cooking oil on leather either and as for shampoo, maybe to try to clean something as a last resort.

[blazeafar]

As for the use of cooking oils attracting rodents, for me the debate is still out on that. Some years ago my workshop would have a field mouse or two find there way in during the colder months. I would store my smaller bit and pieces of leather in an upper cabinet above my work bench, the only thing I ever found chewed on was some blacksmith side pieces, never and raw leather or treated pieces. Mind you I never had any leather treated with cooking oil there but there were pieces treated with neatsfoot oil, lexol and some other products for leather.

 

[gmace99]

I buy my English saddle leather from a company in Walsall England. They use normal cheap cooking oil mixed with tallow fat in the making of their leather. I would say their leather is almost as good as Sedgwicks. We made and sold this in our shop for 20 years and never had any problems. In the saddlery trade many saddlers add a little soap to the water when blocking their seats.  It helps get water into the leather to make it softer for stretching over the seat