If you don’t care for details, skip to “Leather Treatment Recommendation” at the bottom.

Background:

I had promised our tens of loyal readers to test out some different leather treatments after initially testing Brooks Proofide, which worked just fine. The only problems with Proofide in my mind are these:

1. It’s harder to find than I had thought it would be. Most bike shops do not stock it.
2. It is pricey. $18 for 1 ½ ounces, or $12/oz.

I treated all my test bags before initial use with Proofide, and it has held up well. I re-treated some bags that I use more often like my Shoulder Bag. That is the one that has developed a nice darker patina that I showed in a previous post. Because I cannot leave well enough alone, I wanted to try alternatives.

I have a decent working knowledge of leather from a previous job developing tool belts, including attending seminar at the Leather Research Lab. Yes, there is such a thing , and it is in my hometown of Cincinnati no less. Here is the short version:

Leather is a hide that has been chemically stabilized via a “tanning” process so that it does not rot. In our case, the leather is tanned the traditional way with plant tannins instead of the more modern way with chromium compounds. Regardless of how it is tanned, leather is still susceptible to rotting if it is often wet and can also dry out and become brittle over time unless treated with a conditioner.

My goal was to find treatments to provide water-repellency and conditioning to keep the leather supple. I could have visited a shoe store a shoe repair shop, but we have a 100 year old saddle shop nearby – Schatzlein Saddle Shop. Two very helpful employees there armed me with a wealth of information and 5 different treatments to test. The most expensive of these was only 1/8 the cost of Proofide! If they worked just as well, the savings could be plowed into T-Bills or beer.

Here is the summary including the cost per ounce:

• Brooks Proofide: $12/oz. Made from tallow, other fats, beeswax, etc. Nice citronella scent if such things matter to you.
• Sno-Seal: $1.43/oz. I remember using this as a kid on my snow boots. A beeswax treatment with a paste-like consistency.
• Smiling Mink leather waterproofer: $.56/oz. A mixture of mink oil, tallow, and zinc stearate (which is water-repelling). Paste consistency. Cheapest of the lot.
• Scout mink oil: $1.42/oz. Misleadingly not a liquid – color and consistency are almost identical to the paste-like Proofide. Hmmm.
• Bickmore #4 conditioner: $1.50/oz. This was a thick liquid of unknown composition.
• Lexol leather conditioner: $.81/oz. This was also a thick liquid and is lanolin-based.

Application:

I first tested all of them on a single leather strap to see what, if any, color change resulted. Initially, they all darkened the leather a little, the liquids more than the pastes. However, after a day they were nearly back to the original color. The pastes were MUCH easier to apply. I can see where liquid might be easy on a large surface like a saddle, but keeping it only on leather straps, etc was difficult. The pastes all recommend buffing off excess after application – I waited and hour. All the treatments imparted a better feel and look to the leather, but especially the pastes.

Water Repellency:

I used a single swatch of leather to try various treatments and it had a suede-like nubuck finish. The nature of suede or nubuck finishes is that the treatments all had a more pronounced darkening of the color than on smooth-finish leather. I applied each, waited an hour, and then sprayed the leather with water to within an inch of its life. The photo shows how the leather without any treatment begins to soak up the water quite readily. The treated areas beaded up the water to reduce absorption. The Sno-Seal did the best, but the Smiling Mink and Scout were also really effective. Lexol didn’t work well, but it’s not advertised as water repellent treatment. Bickmore – same deal as Lexol. They have a different product for water repellency that was not tested.

Yet More Testing:

[caption id="attachment_343" align="left" width="300" caption="Treatment Comparison #2"][/caption]The success of the Sno-Seal reminded me that I didn’t even apply it like I did on my snow boots (and according to instructions). They recommend heating the leather above the melt point of the Sno-Seal (Africa-hot but not scalding-hot).  If warm application worked better for Sno-Seal, then the same might be true for all the waxy treatments. Back in the “lab” I used the warm-application method on leather with all the paste treatments: Sno-Seal, Smiling Mink, Scout, and Proofide. All did a much better job of absorbing into the fibers, especially around rivets, buckles, and edges of leather. They also imparted a darker shade to the leather than with cold application – especially if the leather was treated twice.

Leather Treatment Recommendation:

1. Buy a paste-consistency water repellent made from natural fats/waxes –Brooks Proofide, Sno-Seal, Smiling Mink, and Scout mink oil work interchangeably well. Do not use any liquids (including liquid versions of mink oil or neatsfoot oil) or petroleum compounds.
2. Disassemble the bag by taking off loose straps, etc.  (See photo below)
3. Warm the components: Either in a warmed (then EXTINGUISHED) oven with a hair-dryer. The material should be warm but not hot. The hair dryer is much easier to work with and a low heat setting is plenty warm.
4. Apply the treatment to the warm leather – both sides of exposed straps, edges, around buckles, etc. Applying the treatment to warm leather will permanently darken it. If you want to maintain the lighter color, apply to room temperature leather.
5. Let cool, then buff off the excess – you will have much less to buff off if you used the warm application.
6. If you ride in the wet a lot, or want to further darken the leather, repeat steps 3-5. Most people will only need a single treatment initially. Over time you’ll need to repeat the application as it wears out.
7. Re-assemble and relish your newfound knowledge of leather treatments.