Leather Treatment For Sheaths?

Is there a sheath section in the FAQ?

Making dead animals rot slower is even more challenging than rust prevention under normal conditions.

Will
 
Thanks for the info guys! Mineral oil I might try . I remember a post a while back that someone said Packard's Leather Conditioner is the best for scabbards. Don't know if I spelled it correct. As for babys tushs, I used to change all my son's diapers. Now at 20 yrs old, he can kick my butt all over the place, Ha Ha . Time sure does fly.
 
Well, I am an amateur leatherworker; I feel competent to comment (as you may have noticed, I feel competent to issue pronouncements on every subject that comes up on this forum ... except khukuries. What can I say? I know everything ... I can't help it ... except about khukuries; I know nothing about khukuries....)

Just about every leatherworker and every book about it says there's only one leather dressing that's any good and using anything else will destroy your leather. The only trouble is every one of them recommends a different leather dressing, and all the others say it'll destroy your leather....

I'm reminded of a theology professor a friend of mine had in seminary who would say, so-and-so says this, so-and-so says that, explain what all the authorities had said on the question -- and then at the end of the lecture he would peer at the class over his glasses and say in his thick German accent, "And now, gentlemen, the truuuuuuth," and then tell them what he thought about it. So ...

And now, gentlemen, the truuuuuth: if you never put anything on your leather it'll eventually dry out and crack, but you can prevent that by putting anything oily or greasy or waxy on it. Oils and greases will soften it, to varying degrees and according to how much you use. The best waterproofing is waxy stuff, and Sno-Seal is probably the best commercial boot wax. It doesn't soften leather. It doesn't look particularly great, but it's great waterproofing.

Nothing oily or greasy or waxy will somehow destroy your leather. If you want to destroy leather goods for some reason, try battery acid ... nothing else will do the job like battery acid ... bleach is good, too, soak it in bleach for a long time and it'll dissolve into a gooey mess.
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Linseed oil will harden; it's the basis of oil paint. If you have a wooden scabbard or something that's covered with leather you can put linseed oil on it and it'll darken it a lot and when it dries (takes forever) the leather will be hard. Don't use linseed oil on leather that isn't covering something solid and inflexible, though, it'll get hard and break instead of bending.

Don't overdo it whatever you use; you don't want your leather soaking wet with oil or grease ... it's often surprising how much it can soak up, but don't use more than it can soak up.

Neat's foot oil is fine if you want to soften leather. The Kiwi products are fine -- I use the Kiwi shoe cream instead of dying leather sometimes. Kiwi wax, the can of paste wax, is a good choice if you don't want to soften the leather. Looks better than Sno-Seal but isn't as good waterproofing.

Getting wet once in a while doesn't destroy leather either (though rawhide dissolves in water ... most of the stuff sold as rawhide, though, isn't; it's latigo, vegetable-tanned cowhide that's been treated with neat's foot oil). If it dries too fast it'll shrink and harden, and getting wet washes the oil out of it, but that's all; water does not destroy leather. Use battery acid for that.

Neat's foot oil is made from the foot of a neat ... of course ... what'd you think it was made out of??? Actually it's made from the hooves and shin bones of cattle.

-Cougar Allen :{)
 
Cougar,

Thanks for the excellent information.

The word neat use to refer to cattle of low grade.

A few questions:

Does tanning methods dictate what protectant or conditioners should be used?

Does pH have a signifigant effect on the life of leather. There are many claims that only netrual pH (7) should be used.

What should Bill use on his shoes? I'll too lazy for shoe polish.

Will
 
There's a theory that silicones should be used on chrome-tanned leather and natural products on vegetable-tanned leather. I only use vegetable-tanned leather and natural products....

I doubt if anything sold as a leather dressing is significantly acid or alkaline, but I haven't done any ph testing. I haven't seen any leather dissolve, except once when I spilled some battery acid on a boot.

By the way, I'm not the only leatherworker who believes everything is good and nothing is evil ... sometimes it seems like we're seriously outnumbered, though.

I don't believe everything is the same. Some things soften leather more than others, and some make it shiny and others give it a deep rich polish. There's a commercial dressing that's great for resuscitating leather that's been neglected a long time and looks terrible, but I can't think of the name of it ... I've got at least one bottle around here somewhere; when I come across it I'll post the name. It comes in a plastic bottle shaped like a miniature antifreeze jug, with the handle molded into it, which in the miniature version is about the right size for a leprecaun's hand. I'm not sure if it's the only brand that comes in a bottle like that. It's not cheap but I've often used it on things the owners were about to throw out they looked so terrible, and it saved them.

Most of the time, though, I use just plain neat's foot oil. I started using mineral oil on leather sheaths, though, when I started using it on the blades. Maybe when my neat's foot oil runs out I'll start using mineral oil for everything except when I don't want to soften leather -- it's cheap and it works and it makes the leather look good to my eye -- I like rich rather than shiny.

-Cougar Allen :{)


[This message has been edited by Cougar Allen (edited 26 November 1999).]
 
Yes, and that same drugstore mineral oil is what those of us who are paranoid about possible toxicity are using for rust prevention on any knife we might ever use on food.

I've been using it long enough now to say it's pretty good rust prevention -- doesn't last as long as the high-tech products like Marine Tuff-Cloth, but it lasts much longer than WD-40.

I don't suppose many people are slicing bagels and spreading spreading cashew butter on them with khukuries, but what about the karda? Food for thought....

-Cougar Allen :{)
 
Dear forumites.

I use Kiwi to shine scabbards.

One not so intelligent Q from me is: Is Oil of Ulan (which my wife use daily for her facial skin care) can also be use to treat leather of Khukuri scabbard?

NEPAL HO!

 
Cougar,

Does lexol ring a bell? It is neat's foot oil and another major component that I can't remember.

The pH on saddle soap might be of some concern.

I still will choose wax based leather treatments but Randall knives also recommends shoe polish on their scabbards.

Again, thanks for all the info Cougar.

Will



[This message has been edited by Will Kwan (edited 28 November 1999).]
 
Thank you, Will! The stuff is called Lexol. If you're ever tempted to throw something out, it looks so bad, try some Lexol on it first.

I didn't go into saddle soap. Some people like to leave it in the leather, not rinse it off. I don't like it ... it's yellow and makes the leather feel soapy (Doh!) I just don't like the way it makes leather look and feel. Maybe the alkalinity could have a bad effect too, I don't know. I use saddle soap on dirty leather but I always rinse it out and oil the leather when it's dry. I've had good results cleaning dirty leather with Ivory soap, too; it seems to work better on seriously dirty leather than saddle soap does. Latigo is often so oily it doesn't take dye well; a good wash with Ivory soap before dying can fix that.

-Cougar Allen :{)
 
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