An actual Leather Conditioner recipe

[ScottWolf]

On 5/17/2023 at 12:40 AM, dikman said:

I just re-read the thread and there's some good info in it (thanks for starting it ScottWolf ).

 Regarding leather conditioners probably the most common/widely used ingredient is medicinal/food grade mineral oil as this blends nicely with waxes to make them "spreadable". This is also apparently considered by some manufacturers to be natural. Paraffin wax is also widely used presumably because it is readily available commercially and no doubt is cheaper than using beeswax. As with the mineral oil the wax is basically a highly refined petroleum product. 

 

No Problem, glad you found the information to be helpful.

As to mineral oil or Parafin wax, Liquid Parrafin or any of the other names used for it in other locations, its all the same, a petroleum derived product. Mineral oil itself is not a leather conditioner like Tallow or neatsfoot, etc, it is a barrier, in that it keeps moisture in, which is why its used extensively in women's skin care products, cosmetics, etc. It can be used as a solvent in a product, as it dissolves other ingredients and is also considered a cleaning agent  as it will break down sebum  and cosmetic residue on peoples skin. For leather, its great for sealing moisture in and works best as a finishing product, after the leather has been conditioned,  and it also adds a polish or shine to the leather.

[dikman]

I decided to re-melt a mix I made up and add some olive oil to soften it a bit (it's pretty stiff in the jar). From memory it's beeswax, neatsfoot oil and tallow. What was interesting was once it was melted there were pieces of "skin", for want of a better term, in the mix. The only thing I can think of is it came from the NFO? Most peculiar.

[MelKel]

@Scottwolf  I'm happy to see your leather conditioner recipe and am looking forward to using it. It's similar to a beeswax hand balm I make.  Do you have a recommendation (or recipe?) for a gentle, natural leather cleaner to be used prior to this conditioner for saddle, tack, and riding boot maintenance?  For the most part I can just dust and condition, but sometimes a gentle cleaner is needed. 

[p51p28]

Thanks a lot for this @ScottWolf. Excited to try this out. The petroleum stuff I've always used has got to go.  

[Kakunka]

Just made a small batch tonight. . .

20g Bee's Wax, 20g Shea Butter, 15g 100% Neatsfoot Oil, 15g Lanolin, 5g Carnuba Wax, 2g Vitamin E Oil

Added the extra high Vitamin E oil as an antioxidant, although Shea Butter is said to contain a bunch. . .

I don't see a problem with Neatsfoot Oil as it is a natural product derived from shin, and feet bones of cattle, and

has been used for leather preservation, and conditioning, more or less, forever. . .

All the other things are food grade, and absolutely no problem with contacting your skin  (unless you're allergic)

Consistency is of a soft shoe polish,  rubbed it in with my hands  seems to work very well. . . 

[CdK]

I made a larger batch of the balm as described in the first post by @ScottWolf with carnauba wax and lanolin added. Came out good and is the consistency of shoe polish at room temperature. Apply just a dab and spread and then rub with a cloth or soft brush and it shines nicely with no oiliness or sticky. I filled 24 x 2oz metal cans and still have a bunch of balm in the large pot I used. The pic was taken before they had cooled down.

 

[ScottWolf]

2 minutes ago, CdK said:

I made a larger batch of the balm as described in the first post by @ScottWolf with carnauba wax and lanolin added. Came out good and is the consistency of shoe polish at room temperature. Apply just a dab and spread and then rub with a cloth or soft brush and it shines nicely with no oiliness or sticky. I filled 24 x 2oz metal cans and still have a bunch of balm in the large pot I used. The pic was taken before they had cooled down.

 

 

Those look good to go. Glad to hear the recipe is working out for you.

[Simone75]

Holy cow! @ScottWolf: Thank you so much for this recipe! I have a pull-up leather sofa that desperately needed some love and care. The "special products" available for this purpose are not only outrageously expensive, but in my opinion, they don't deliver the right results either. I roughly followed your recipe from the first post:

50g beeswax
50g cocoa butter
100g almond oil
15g lanolin
5g carnauba wax
About 30 drops of orange oil

The sofa has retained its character developed over the years, but now it feels like pull-up leather should feel (before, it was "cold" like standard smooth leather). Absolutely wonderful and brilliant! I am so incredibly grateful that I came across this post! Thank you!

Best regards from Germany,
Simone

[spectre6000]

@ScottWolf, I've been coloring/darkening some plain veg tan milled hides in the sun for the last few days, and I'm going to need to condition them in the end to make up for the damage. The application will be a leather jacket, and I'm hoping to be able to leave behind a bit of a waxy/glossy sheen. What combination/ratio of ingredients would you suggest to mix up for this? 

[ScottWolf]

1 hour ago, spectre6000 said:

@ScottWolf, I've been coloring/darkening some plain veg tan milled hides in the sun for the last few days, and I'm going to need to condition them in the end to make up for the damage. The application will be a leather jacket, and I'm hoping to be able to leave behind a bit of a waxy/glossy sheen. What combination/ratio of ingredients would you suggest to mix up for this? 

Adding more carnauba wax would give it a sheen if buffed out but it will be very temporary as the conditioner is absorbed into the leather. If you want a more permanent glossy sheen, you might want to consider using something like Angelus 4 coat satin or 4 coat high gloss urethane clear coat as a finishing product. https://angelusdirect.com/collections/4-coat

[spectre6000]

I'm trying to avoid plasticky finishes. Re-waxing from time to time is acceptable for the project (reproduction of an 85 year old horsehide jacket). You seem to have a good understanding of how the various oils and waxes interact with each other. My assessment is beeswax, cocoa (pretty hard), some liquid oil (thinking jojoba because of the longer saturated carbon chains, and I have a bottle somewhere), and carnauba as the modifier. Percentages are where some experience I don't have would be helpful. Being able to get it applied is obviously important. Not being greasy and leaching oil is also very important. Getting a waxy sheen is a goal.

[OverTimeLeathercraft]

On 9/1/2020 at 1:16 AM, ScottWolf said:

2nd version of the recipe with Lanolin and carnauba wax in tins.

Hi @ScottWolffollowing your recipe from the first post with Lanolin and Carnauba wax option. Does it mean every 25g cocoa butter ratio, we add 2 teaspoons of Lanolin and 1 teaspoon of carnauba wax. If I am using 100g of cocoa butter ratio, which mean I need to add 4 teaspoons of lanolin and 2 teaspoons of carbauba wax? 

[OverTimeLeathercraft]

3 hours ago, OverTimeLeathercraft said:

Hi @ScottWolffollowing your recipe from the first post with Lanolin and Carnauba wax option. Does it mean every 25g cocoa butter ratio, we add 2 teaspoons of Lanolin and 1 teaspoon of carnauba wax? If I am using 100g of cocoa butter ratio, which mean I need to add 8 teaspoons of lanolin and 4 teaspoons of carbauba wax? 

Some typo. Updated my comment. 

[ScottWolf]

6 hours ago, OverTimeLeathercraft said:

Some typo. Updated my comment. 

Yes, scale it proportionately so that you maintain the ratios 1:1:2:.5:.25

[OverTimeLeathercraft]

11 hours ago, ScottWolf said:

Yes, scale it proportionately so that you maintain the ratios 1:1:2:.5:.25

Thanks for reply! Already ordered the ingredients can’t wait to try it out. I am using Shea butter and grape seeds oil instead of cocoa butter and sweet almond oil! Hopefully the outcome is good! 

[Yukonrookie]

On 9/15/2022 at 4:23 AM, ScottWolf said:

I only see water being used in liquid and or lotion types of conditioner, such as Lexol as an example. 80% is water, 5-10% is neatsfoot oil and the rest is emulsifiers,preservatives and or stabilizers. If you want a semi solid balm, there is no need to add water, as then you'd need to add an emulsifier to keep the water and your oils from separating.

Apologies for replying to an older thread. I’m trying out options for a casing solution that I can add to water. I read that a lot of people add some Lexol conditioner to their casing solution, but from what I read Lexol changed their recipe some. Would your recipe dissolve and mix with water? If I added an emulsifier like polysorbate 20, for example?
 

At first my main goal was to make a diy version of bee natural pro carve  since it supposedly contains anti fungal ingredients. I’m in a fairly humid region at the moment. While browsing online about this I read that some folks add a bit of a leather conditioner to their casing solution. Since oil alone won’t mix with water I figured it would have to contain some type of emulsifier. So an option would be to make my own lexol with water, NFO, emulsifier and then add something like Listerin, tea tree oil or lemon juice, to have some anti fungal properties. That said, if I added an emulsifier, would you happen to know if one of your recipes could an option, as well? 
 

I apologize if my question is a bit of a “no brainer”. I’m still just figuring this stuff out lol. Thank ya kindly!

[ScottWolf]

3 hours ago, Yukonrookie said:

Apologies for replying to an older thread. I’m trying out options for a casing solution that I can add to water. I read that a lot of people add some Lexol conditioner to their casing solution, but from what I read Lexol changed their recipe some. Would your recipe dissolve and mix with water? If I added an emulsifier like polysorbate 20, for example?
 

At first my main goal was to make a diy version of bee natural pro carve  since it supposedly contains anti fungal ingredients. I’m in a fairly humid region at the moment. While browsing online about this I read that some folks add a bit of a leather conditioner to their casing solution. Since oil alone won’t mix with water I figured it would have to contain some type of emulsifier. So an option would be to make my own lexol with water, NFO, emulsifier and then add something like Listerin, tea tree oil or lemon juice, to have some anti fungal properties. That said, if I added an emulsifier, would you happen to know if one of your recipes could an option, as well? 
 

I apologize if my question is a bit of a “no brainer”. I’m still just figuring this stuff out lol. Thank ya kindly!

It could work as long as your ratios stay in balance. If you have more oils than the emulsifier can handle, it may not be able to suspend the oils and you could experience separation of your product. You would have to tinker with what those ratios are to find the balance point.

[Yukonrookie]

Perfect. Thank you kindly  @ScottWolf. Polysorbate 20 should work well enough as an emulsifier, I’d think.

[TALLNDN]

Thanks a heap.

I notice in the recipe you include "(or similar non greasy scented oil)"  Going to have to try the almond oil along in an experiment (fooling around) I've got going. Couple of days ago I ran out of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVO). Just for the heck of it, I smeared some cooking-grade peanut oil onto a scrap of 6oz veg tanned leather. In making stir fry, I've often observed the very low viscosity of peanut oil, so the speed with which it INSTANTLY penetrated clear through the scrap shouldn't have surprised me. But it did. It was as though the 6oz veg tan wasn't much more than a filter.  So - tried Canola Oil to virtually no effect.  Got more EVO. Relaxed the veg tan some  not great but some. But the peanut oil caused the 6oz veg tan to become relaxed that same sample to just plain FLOPPY.

I also use Walnut oil for shellac finishing fine wood pieces - going to try that also and document results in a week or so.

What I really want to know is: has anyone else on this site tried alternate seed oils, and if so - to what effect in finishing, especially with Tan Kote.

anyone?

[ScottWolf]

23 hours ago, TALLNDN said:

Thanks a heap.

I notice in the recipe you include "(or similar non greasy scented oil)"  Going to have to try the almond oil along in an experiment (fooling around) I've got going. Couple of days ago I ran out of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVO). Just for the heck of it, I smeared some cooking-grade peanut oil onto a scrap of 6oz veg tanned leather. In making stir fry, I've often observed the very low viscosity of peanut oil, so the speed with which it INSTANTLY penetrated clear through the scrap shouldn't have surprised me. But it did. It was as though the 6oz veg tan wasn't much more than a filter.  So - tried Canola Oil to virtually no effect.  Got more EVO. Relaxed the veg tan some  not great but some. But the peanut oil caused the 6oz veg tan to become relaxed that same sample to just plain FLOPPY.

I also use Walnut oil for shellac finishing fine wood pieces - going to try that also and document results in a week or so.

What I really want to know is: has anyone else on this site tried alternate seed oils, and if so - to what effect in finishing, especially with Tan Kote.

anyone?

I've tried the other oils you mentioned in the leather conditioner. I didn't find that peanut nor walnut oil produced a notable difference in the end product nor in how it performed on the leather. Both performed well but noting to write home about. Canola oil on the other hand seemed to have no real benefit other than making the finished product lighter in color and softer.Performance wise, it goes on somewhat shiny but quickly fades and the leather doesnt look as healthy/conditioned as it does with other conditioning products.

[TALLNDN]

Thanx.  Being a Western Oklahoma Geek, I'll always try to reduce things to the simplest level (science?) . There's a LOT of viscosity data available online, all of which show seed oils roughly the same at room temperature. Canola is thickest, EVO is "mid range". Then there's a gap after which Almond, Peanut and Walnut are very close to Pecan Oil - the least.  Roughly the same relationships hold regarding "substance internal molecular friction" (again - roughly - lubricity). As it heads toward becoming cold, Canola again leads the pack, becoming "sticky" rather rapidly.

My thought is: All of this backs your formula as elegant. Leather is a relatively dense collection of fibers rubbing together  when moved.  I think that as whatever seed oil is used reduces viscosity and internal friction of lubricants (cocoa butter, lanolin) as they "penetrate" (get into and between fibers) resulting in it beng more supple, and therefore - "conditioned".

Then as the seed oils degrade or evaporate, additional "conditioning" is needed.

Furthermore, almost all of the MSDS sheets I can find of the common "conditioners" show significant (almost shocking) amounts of petroleum products in their formulae. Petroleum products (mineral oil, paraffin,  petroleum distillate etc.) will chase moisture and natural oils from whatever they encounter. That will wick lubricants OUT of the leather, making it eventually crack, rot or degrade in some fashion. 

[TALLNDN]

For general consumption https://www.nkunaturals.com/blogs/nkus-skincare-blog compares Shea butter and Cocoa butter.  Although the discussion there has no focus on leather, Cocoa butter attributes seem best for working leather (cowpoke stuff and backpacks) while Shea butter might tip the scale for more delicate items.  It's a "U=PIKem", but informative and interesting.

[ShaynaMaedela]

Hi this is a great thread, I've made this recipe swapping the almond oil for EVOO and it works great - i mainly made the switch because a partner is allergic to nuts so I wanted to be able to have a body lotion version that was safe for him. I'm getting to the point where I'm caring for more types of leather and am interested in avoiding the olive oil for to work with lighter leathers or dyed leathers with a minimal impact of the color of the leather. Any recommendations for a nut free recipe for that doesn't darken?

 

Im thinking I could maybe just do the original recipe with the tallow?

[dikman]

Tallow is a proven safe product to use on leather but it might make the original recipe a bit stiffer/thicker. Other than that I don't see why it wouldn't work?

[Deeeeeee]

Hello

this is amazing. I actually use this on my face & couch.