Leather Balm Batch V 0.1

I really like Smith’s Leather Balm, but I cannot justify sending an 8 dollars starter tin to everyone I make a leather item for. I know you can get them in bulk at a discount, but as I am still trying to justify a startup and if I’m going to sell stuff. I’m a tight wad. I recommend their balm you should try it. However if your like me. Monkey see monkey do making I decided to try my hand at making some balm. I started with the Wikipedia recipe for British Museum Leather dressing variation with the neatsfoot oil as I had that on hand.

Making the British Museum leather dressing based balm

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It is pretty simple to make. Just weight out the ingredients. More liquid oils can make the finish product a bit softer at room temperature. Melt the wax and lanolin in a “double boiler” and add the other liquids. Remove from the heat and add the solvent while stirring constantly. I skipped the hexane of the true British Museum Leather dressing and used some custom corn based degreaser which resembles “moonshine.” It is sourced by a friend and so I don’t ask many questions. It is great for cleaning parts, and is cleaner in my opinion that off the shelf isopropyl alcohol. I used the “cut” version about 80-ish proof. It is also less toxic that hexane or X-4 solvent. I also used less solvent as I did not want it to flash off to much even if it has a higher water content. I ordered some little 1 oz tins from Amazon which is the perfect size.

Leather Balm V 0.1 results.

I tested it this first batch on a very dry 1-2 oz veg tan leather made into a luggage tag. It did not darken the leather too much as you can see on the left treated vs untreated on the right. It did however do a nice job of softening this very dry leather. It is a little flaky in consistency in the tin, and I suspect some other essential oils may be added in the next batch, as the cedar oil has a strong smell. I may even rip off smiths and use some sweet almond oil as I like that smell.

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I will use up this batch and see how the results compare to other treatments I’ve tried. I’m also working on a source for bees wax as I see some woodworker’s paste wax recipes coming soon too.