An actual Leather Conditioner recipe

[Adouthit]

Thank you! I'll have to go back and read your initial post again. I tried the tallow and liked it. I've been trying to rehab old saddles and tack so making my own is nice. Getting some like back into some pieces is a real challenge.

[Sorin03]

Thank you @ScottWolf for wonderful explanations. I have a bike saddle , Ideale90 which was neglected and now try to restore it. I have buy some ingreadients - beeswax, cocoa & shea butter, almond, coconut &avocado oils, lanolin & now need to run to find some beef suet to make some tallow . Will keep all updated! I am thinking to make 2 batches of balm, 1 with tallow and 1 without cause i am affraid not to soften too much that pcs of leather. What do you think? For cleaning, recomandation was to clean it with some mild glycerine soap. That saddle  is like 60 years old and i hope it will give some good rides and not only keeping as a museeum piece. Cheers! 

[ScottWolf]

20 hours ago, Sorin03 said:

Thank you @ScottWolf for wonderful explanations. 

I am thinking to make 2 batches of balm, 1 with tallow and 1 without cause i am affraid not to soften too much that pcs of leather. What do you think?

For cleaning, recomandation was to clean it with some mild glycerine soap. T

Glad you found the information useful to you. By all means, make as many variations as you want and see how they perform on your leather. I don't think the tallow version will soften the seat too much. It would take an excessive amount to do that IMO.  As for cleaning, a pH balanced soap is preferred, as leather is acidic and most soaps are alkaline. Something like Dawn , which is low on the pH scale, can be used safely. I am not a fan of glycerine soap, but I know some people use it religiously on veg tan/horse tack.

[Sorin03]

7 hours ago, ScottWolf said:

I don't think the tallow version will soften the seat too much. It would take an excessive amount to do that IMO.  

Thank you for your imput! 

But this is the point, right ? Not to soften too much.  The leather piece on the saddle is at least 60 years old .

I have 100 gr/ml of each ingredient , except lanolin. 

Can't wait to see how it goes! 

Edited November 1, 2022 by Sorin03

[ArkieNewbie]

@ScottWolf I just ordered all of the ingredients to make this. I am really excited to give it a try. If you don't mind, my girls have a craft fair coming up with their 4H group and would like to make this to sell there. 

Let me know what you if you're opposed to that. I don't want to step on any toes. 

[ScottWolf]

5 hours ago, ArkieNewbie said:

@ScottWolf I just ordered all of the ingredients to make this. I am really excited to give it a try. If you don't mind, my girls have a craft fair coming up with their 4H group and would like to make this to sell there. 

Let me know what you if you're opposed to that. I don't want to step on any toes. 

By all means, go ahead and make some and sell it. Let us know how it goes over at the fair.

[Mulesaw]

I found an old recipe in the Harness makers illustrated manual. 

3 lbs of tallow (beef), 1 lb of neatsfoot oil. 

The recipe suggests adding a bit of lamp black to the mixture.

I have made a large batch of it and I find it very easy to apply and it softens the leather as it is supposed to do. I mainly use it on saddles and horse gear. 
I got 40 lbs of food grade tallow. 
I also tested with adding a bit of brown (burnt umbra) to the mixture to make a brown leather grease. 
the idea being to use the black and the brown to boots and neautral coloured on the saddle and headstalls. (to avoid getting the white riding pants blackened by mistake).

I don't want to put in beeswax in order to not increase the friction of the leather surface. If you ride a nervous horse, the squeeking sound of the boots rubbing against the saddle flaps can sometimes be enough to stress the horse.  So far I haven't got enough experience with the product to see if it cancels all noise, but I am pretty optimistic though. 

Also I am thinking that since leather is mostly made from cows, beef tallow and NFO must be the most natural ingredients used to reapply grease to the leather. 

 

 

[chuck123wapati]

13 minutes ago, Mulesaw said:

I found an old recipe in the Harness makers illustrated manual. 

3 lbs of tallow (beef), 1 lb of neatsfoot oil. 

The recipe suggests adding a bit of lamp black to the mixture.

I have made a large batch of it and I find it very easy to apply and it softens the leather as it is supposed to do. I mainly use it on saddles and horse gear. 
I got 40 lbs of food grade tallow. 
I also tested with adding a bit of brown (burnt umbra) to the mixture to make a brown leather grease. 
the idea being to use the black and the brown to boots and neautral coloured on the saddle and headstalls. (to avoid getting the white riding pants blackened by mistake).

I don't want to put in beeswax in order to not increase the friction of the leather surface. If you ride a nervous horse, the squeeking sound of the boots rubbing against the saddle flaps can sometimes be enough to stress the horse.  So far I haven't got enough experience with the product to see if it cancels all noise, but I am pretty optimistic though. 

Also I am thinking that since leather is mostly made from cows, beef tallow and NFO must be the most natural ingredients used to reapply grease to the leather. 

 

 

Thank you for that information and i agree with your thinking.

[ScottWolf]

11 hours ago, Mulesaw said:

I found an old recipe in the Harness makers illustrated manual. 

3 lbs of tallow (beef), 1 lb of neatsfoot oil. 

The recipe suggests adding a bit of lamp black to the mixture.
I also tested with adding a bit of brown (burnt umbra) to the mixture to make a brown leather grease. 
 

I don't want to put in beeswax 

 

 

I am assuming that this is a paste or similar to a grease/creamy paste and not a solid given that it only has tallow and NFO in it?  If so, how are you keeping the two substances from separating? 

Beeswax is a good ingredient to use with NFO , as it retards the NFO from oxidizing ( some people erroneously use the word rancid to describe oxidization). It has been my experience that leather will squeak when it is unable to slide smoothly. If your product is too tacky, it is because the ratios are off and you could have too much beeswax in it. When the ratios are done correctly, the beeswax doesnt create a sticky/tacky feel when it is applied and it won't cause squeaking.

 

I would suggest trying some beeswax as it will give you a semi solid product that is less messy than a grease/creme and it'll keep your ingredients mixed and slow oxidization.

[Mulesaw]

4 hours ago, ScottWolf said:

I am assuming that this is a paste or similar to a grease/creamy paste and not a solid given that it only has tallow and NFO in it?  If so, how are you keeping the two substances from separating? 

Beeswax is a good ingredient to use with NFO , as it retards the NFO from oxidizing ( some people erroneously use the word rancid to describe oxidization). It has been my experience that leather will squeak when it is unable to slide smoothly. If your product is too tacky, it is because the ratios are off and you could have too much beeswax in it. When the ratios are done correctly, the beeswax doesnt create a sticky/tacky feel when it is applied and it won't cause squeaking.

 

I would suggest trying some beeswax as it will give you a semi solid product that is less messy than a grease/creme and it'll keep your ingredients mixed and slow oxidization.

Hi Scott

It is a creamy paste, and that makes it easy to apply on saddles and headstalls as I see it. The two items are heated up and stirred, and if done correctly they don't separate (or at least that's what the recipe says). I haven't had any separation problems, but my experiment is only about a month or so old.

In the Harness makers illustrated manual, the product is described as harness oil, but they say that it will be a smooth and soft grease which is also my experience. 
The author writes that you should heat up the tallow slowly and then stir the NFO thoroughly into the mixture until it is cooled. 

I ad both ingredients at the same time, and slowly heat it up to all the tallow has melted, stirring along the way. That has worked fine for me.