Finishing leather

[temp256]

I've been building things out of wood and leather lately, and I need to know how to finish leather. Right now I have lots of thin strips of fairly rough cut leather, filled with tiny bits of leather fuzz. Can I simply wash these strands? I'm not sure if it would damage them.

After they're washed and dried, I was thinking of coating them in mineral oil. It makes a nice dark colour, but I've seen conflicting arguments of whether or not it will damage the leather in the long term. I know there are plenty of leather polishes out there, but you never know what's in them. I much prefer working with pure chemicals.

Here's one of my projects.

 

[BiBunny]

I don't know about finishing leather, but don't use mineral oil on it. Use PURE neatsfoot oil (not a neatsfoot compound). I imagine you could probably Google "how to finish leather" and get some info, though. If I remember right, leather finishes are some type of wax compound, though I could be wrong about that.

As far as washing leather goes, it depends on what kind of leather we're talking about. Never, never, never wash or otherwise let suede get wet. Washing isn't going to change the texture of the roughout or make it smooth, though. You'll just have wet leather.

Water dries leather out. It CAN be washed, if it's really dirty, but it's best to avoid it if at all possible. You'll probably have to oil it if you saturate it with water because it'll get so dry and stiff.

The best way to oil leather is to run a wet cloth over it first to open up the pores of the leather, then apply the oil in a thin coat and hang the item up to dry completely. If it's still not supple enough, repeat as necessary. You should only dunk an item in a bucket of oil and let it soak if it's severely damaged.

Be careful not to over-oil because it makes the leather greasy and will come off all over your hands and clothes and God knows what else. If you do accidentally over-oil, you can scrub the leather with alcohol to strip it, though chances are, you'll have to oil it again to keep it from hardening. So it's easier just to avoid over-oiling in the first place.

I hope that helped some.

/horse geek