Beeswax for Strap Backs and Other Leather Accessories?

[AKScott]

Which Lexol product, the leather conditioner or the Neatsfoot?

I have not owned any Neatsfoot oil since we had horses on the farm when I as a much younger man. I remember it was great stuff on tack, but it always had a little bit of slime on the surface the way we were applying it. Same in the draught horse barn at the Kentucky Horse Park many decades ago. I think the grooms in the carriage horse barn next door were using Neatsfoot on their tack as well, but they were constantly buffing and rubbing and buffing and rubbing.

If you can get a nice finish with Neatsfoot I would expect to remain stable until the next time a horse sweats horse sweat through the leather. I know some folks see a horse all lathered up are thinking what an exciting ride, I generally try to guess how many pints of Neatsfoot the tack is going to need tonight before I go home.

A working team of two draught horses can easily require a pint of Neatsfoot oil to keep both harnesses (about 80 pounds of leather) in tip top shape after a single working day with just a bit of sweat foam at the edge of the collar.

I can get a much nicer non greasy finish on leather not exposed to sweat with plain old Lexol conditioner.

On new construction vegetable tanned leather I generally saturate the finished piece twice daily until the last droplets on the surface don't soak into the leather overnight. At that point I'll buff it smooth (plain white Tshirt only), let it sit a couple days and then soak it some more.

For nicer leathers, car seats, cowboy boots, Lexol conditioner is about the heaviest conditioner I will use. Feibings has a couple lighter viscosity proucts I have enjoyed; my favorite lighter weight product was a can of leather cream I bought at a Jaguar dealership - that stuff was great.

Vegetable leather, one scrap straight from the store unfinished and the top edge of one of my briefcases. The latter I had made of vegetable leather and has been finished with only time, plain white Tshirt buffing and Lexol conditioner.