Leather treatment opinions

[954Ink]

I am looking for suggestions on leather treatment. I live where it rains daily. I carry a fixed blade and since times are so tense right now I wanted to get a leather sheath for the more classic look. That said I'm a kydex guy. I put mink oil on my work boots that spend most winters in Colorado and Wyoming. I was reading about snow seal and Obenauf. What do you experienced leather people reccomend? As always thanks to anyone who takes the time to offer their advice.

 

[tommytman]

Does mineral oil work?

 

[954Ink]

Does mineral oil work?

Yes but the boots come with a protective coating already so I'm not sure how much protection is being offered by the mink oil. I have a pair that the leather got to soft on with destroyed its durability. So I'm up in the air atm.

 

[Tjstampa]

Nick wax

 

[Alberta Ed]

I prefer wax treatments to any of the oils, as they don't soften the leather and do provide better water proofing. I treat all my leather sheaths with SnowSeal inside and out.

 

[954Ink]

I prefer wax treatments to any of the oils, as they don't soften the leather and do provide better water proofing. I treat all my leather sheaths with SnowSeal inside and out.

Do you heat the sheath up or do you heat the Snowseal?

 

[eveled]

I use bag balm on my leather goods.

 

[Alberta Ed]

I use an old hair dryer to melt in the SnowSeal, two or three coats until the leather is completely sealed. I usually take the sheathes apart if I'm treating a commercial one, but more often I use the original as a pattern to make a better one out of latigo saddle leather from Tandy.

 

[Old Biker]

I like Obenauf's. It has that shoe repair shop smell, that I remember from when I was a kid. That being said. Backpacker magazine did a test of leather waterproofing treatments, years ago. They would take a piece of leather, treat it per the instruction on the treatment, then put it in a machine that flexed it. They would measure how many times they could flex it before it started leaking. They said the military standard for waterproof was 15,000 flexes. Nikwax Aqueous wax, and a silicone spray were the only treatments that lasted the 15,000 flexes. I don't remember the brand of the spray. Most of the popular leather treatments did rather poorly, including snow seal and mink oil. I don't remember Obenauf's being in the test.

O.B.