Leather care

Due to the pandemic, you may be stuck at home, bored and lacking in things to do right now.

If so, it’s a great time to take care of your leather. If you have modern or historical leathers, they all need love to last the longest and look their best. Leather lasts longest when it is regularly oiled with the right sort of oil or conditioner and kept clean of dirt and especially the salt that can build up on shoes in the winter.

For shoes, I often use Kiwi mink oil. You can usually get it at your local drug store or order it online. It’s a bit stinky, but it’s great for conditioning leather. I recommend it for shoes, and other things that won’t be touching your clothes a lot, because it tends to leave a residue. If you’re not squeamish you can just put it on your fingers and rub it into the leather, but you can also rub it on a cloth first and rub it in that way.

I put it on my soft leather shoes periodically throughout the winter. Make sure you clean any salt residue off first with a little vinegar and water on a paper towel. Let it dry and then rub the mink oil in. Then you can leave it to set for a few hours and they are ready to wear. It will darken the colour of your leather a fair bit so if that is a concern, use one of the other suggestions I will mention below. Mink oil helps leather be water-resistant as well as keeping it supple and prolonging its use. This method is also good for leather bags you might use for camping, especially if they are hand made in vegetable-tanned leather, but I wouldn’t use it on a modern purse. For that I would use an appropriately coloured show cream, as I will discuss below, or a neutral conditioner.

For shoes that are leather and have a modern finish, such as dress shoes, or docs, I recommend any drug store leather polish. You can buy a leather cleaner from the store or you can just use the vinegar method I mentioned above. Always clean the leather before applying the polish.

Once the shoes are dry, use a cloth to apply the polish to the shoes. After you have covered the shoe, let sit for 10 minutes and then rub any excess off with a soft, clean cloth. You can do this a couple of times for extra shine. The polish will also condition the leather and help it last longer. You can get black, brown or neutral polish with relative ease. You can also order coloured shoe cream online if you would like to colour match a leather that is green or red etc. Moneysworth and Best is a good brand. Lincoln Stain wax is also not bad, and more affordable, but it sometimes leaves a waxy residue in low areas and is only available to order within the USA. You can also get a neutral coloured leather conditioner by Fiebings. Rub it in, and then rub off any excess.

Do not use mineral oil on leather, as it will dry it out.

For most belts you buy in a store, drugstore leather polish will work well. Make sure the belt is real leather before using polish of any sort on it. If you use black leather polish on a belt, make sure to rub it thoroughly with a clean soft clean cloth afterwards, until you are sure that the residue has been removed, otherwise it might stain your clothes.

For a belt that I have made or a belt that is hand-dyed, you can still use drug store polish if the colour matches, or any of the conditioners I mentioned above except mink oil. Mink oil will make your belt too greasy.

You can also recondition the back of the belt by laying it flat on a surface and rubbing beeswax into the leather in long even strokes. You can go over it as many times as you want. This will help keep the back from getting furry from wear. You can also support the belt in your hand and rub beeswax along the edges in order to smooth them down. Try not to fold the belt horizontally while you do this, support it with your non-dominant hand. You will get a groove in your beeswax block as you go, and you will probably get some beeswax on the face of the belt which is fine. Once you are finished with the edges, just take a clean cotton cloth and gently rub the face of the belt, and that will smooth the beeswax out and help condition the surface as well.

None of these suggestions are recommended for suede leather. I don’t have much experience with it, so I don’t want to give advice in that area.

Hope this is helpful and feel free to email me at info@handmaderevolution.org if you have any questions. A wide selection of my leather belts including medieval and modern are listed on my etsy page.