Oakside Saddlery

Care and Repair

How to best look after your old and new leather items. And repairs to keep them in tiptop condition

Leather Care

How to treat your New or Old leather

You new leather items handmade by me are quite capable of being used straight away. The leather is already well conditioned, soft and supple. But, if you want to you can always add an extra layer of protection by conditioning your leather. Especially plaited and braided leather as I have to soak the leather in water to make it soft for plaiting.

Have you ever wondered how they used to make hard leather armour? Basically they soaked the leather in water and then let it dry. This then made a hard armour.

Conditioning

This is the old fashioned, traditional way of treating leather. It is messy but effective. This method uses oil. Be it one of the proper brands such as neat's foot oil, or just good old vegetable oil. A liberal coating of vegetable oil applied to both the grain and flesh sides will soften the leather and prepare it for use. This oil can be applied by a brush with the items lying on old newspaper. Leave it overnight and then apply more until it is no longer absorbed. Leave it to drain and then remove any excess. Please note that this may leave a mark on your pets coat and /or your clothes if the excess has not been completely removed from the leather.

To keep your hand made items looking their best simply clean regularly either with warm water or one of the proprietary leather cleaning sprays readily available and then condition with saddle soap or the like.

For a lot less mess I like to use Renapur for general cleaning and conditioning.

What do I do with mine? Bugger all! The dog's collars get washed when the dogs do (which isn't very often!) and then conditioned with Renapur. For my belts I may use Renapur but otherwise nothing!

Leather Repairs

Many Leather items can be repaired.

It is obviously more economical to care for and repair leather items than it is to allow them to become totally beyond repair and to buy completely new again. It will always pay to attend to defective and broken parts before they break, especially when your life could depend on the strength of those same straps and buckles.

At Oakside Saddlery I can repair most leather items or make you a new part to replace the damaged one, whilst keeping the same style and manner of stitching. I can also make alterations to your existing items, or make you a single part to suit your original items.

I can repair and replace many leather items including;