Best way to restore stiff full seat breeches?

[meg51]

I’ve read the threads on how to keep your real-leather FS breeches from getting stiff. But given that I’ve just purchased a pair of Pikeur Luganas from eBay that turned out to be vintage (the “Made in West Germany” tag should have clued me in) and unlike the brilliant McCrown synthetic on today’s models, these have a real leather seat so stiff I can barely get them past my knees: what would you recommend I try first, second, and third to rehab them? I’m torn between:

1. Applying an oil or leather dressing directly to the leather. If you’d start here, which product? Hydrophane? Neatsfoot? Lexol?

2. Washing with Murphy’s oil soap and fluffing in dryer. Note they’re not dirty and don’t need washing, so I only want to do this if it will actually help soften them.

3. Just continuing to wear them and letting them get more pliable with time, as they’re already much better after 1 ride.

Thanks!

[Bogey2]

I’ve done all of the above…and finally stopped wearing leather seats. LOL I used the leather dressing specifically for breeches by Leather Therapy. I used to wash in Murphy’s oil soap in the beginning to no avail.

[Hej]

Try rubbing the seat inside and out with mink oil paste (made for waterproofing leather work boots), let sit overnight, wash, hang dry.

That’s what we used to do before synthetic seats… when dinosaurs roamed the earth. …

[keysfins]

Try washing in cold water with Pepede, which is made for cleaning leather while keeping it supple. I don’t think I would apply any conditioner until I tried washing with a leather wash product. YMMV.

[Zonderpaard]

Try washing them and using some hair conditioner in the final rinse (like fabric softener). I think basically Pepede is shampoo + conditioner.

For a leather conditioner when they are dry or nearly dry, maybe Horseman’s One Step. It’s white and very much like hand lotion.

They sound like a great find!

[Manni01]

curd soap… Thats how we did it in the old times. We rubbed the whole leather part with a piece of curd soap while it was still wet. That way the leather stayed very soft. So I would wet it down a little and rub it with the piece of curd soap. You can buy it on Amazon…https://www.amazon.com/Klars-Classic-Curd-Soap-Hand/dp/B01JF0ACJ4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01JF0ACJ4&pd_rd_r=YYRPDZ7FTCK4FAHXB9JY&pd_rd_w=ZjTvz&pd_rd_wg=8VFNU&psc=1

[atlatl]

I have one pair that gets stiff so I wash them with Leather Therapy Laundry solution, then while they are still wet and hanging to dry, I go over the leather with Leather Therapy conditioner. Another trick, if you can stand the noise, is to put them in the dryer (on air, not heat) with a couple of tennis balls and beat them back into softness.

[Jarpur]

I have some pairs of real leather full seats, and use the Leather Therapy laundry products. I have a bottle of PePeDe, as well, but not liking how stiff it leaves my gloves (although it sure cleans them well), I haven’t tried it on any breeches yet. I’m happy with the Leather Therapy, which I’ve been using since it hit the market.

[merrygoround]

Baby oil, apply on the inside. It will help your seat also.

[meg51]

Thanks, everyone!

@merrygoround

Baby oil, apply on the inside. It will help your seat also.

I imagine you meant it will improve my seat in the saddle, but I imagine the baby oil against my skin will also likely make my literal “seat” soft and smooth.

[Foxtrot_s]

Before they are completely dry, massage the leather a few times.

[Scribbler]

I’ve got a couple of pairs of full leather seat, actually full suede leather seat, old-style Aristas. I’ve washed them in leather therapy and they have stayed fine. If you have suede seats, I don’t think you’d want to put an oil or conditioner directly on them.

[fanfayre]

Using a water-filled spray bottle, lightly spray the seat until damp, then hand-pull until stretched out, then apply by hand a leather conditioner like Leather Therapy conditioner, hang to dry. Repeat as needed. You need to re-break the protein bonds in the leather to allow it to restretch, and water will do that.
Once stretched to your liking, always wash with an enzyme product like Pepede or LT, but never detergent, and upon removing damp from washer, restretch and reshape the seat.

[ThreeFigs]

I use Eucalan Wool Wash (available on Amazon) on all my leather seats, delicates and genuine fleece saddle pads. I add some of the Eucalan to the rinse cycle, too. I was advised by a saddler to add a bit of Downy fabric softener to the rinse for my Christ Horsedream wool pads – I imagine it would be good on the leather seats, too. Everythin comes out so nice with the Eucalan – and you don’t have to rinse – hence adding it to the rinse cycle for extra conditioning.