I have a really lovely leather girth. I will clean it with castille soap after every ride and condition with lederbalsam about 2X per week. I’m deep cleaning all my tack today, and there is a buildup of gunk around the stitching on the inside of the girth. I’ve tried scrubbing with a tooth brush but it’s not working. Any ideas?
Toothbrush and castile.
But better yet, spend about $20 on a couple girth socks, I LOVE them, to put over your girth so once you get the gunk off, it stays off.
They last well, wash well, and are alot nicer IMO than those fleece girth covers of old.
You might try a diluted solution of ammonia and water with a toothbrush for the stitched areas, though I’d test it on a small unnoticeable area first. I’ve used lederbalsam for years and had the same “gunking” problem on some of my tack. I’ve been trying olive oil lately (per another COTHer’s advice), and have had much better results.
Add a handful of baking soda and a squirt of mild dish soap to a bucket of water. Wet the girth (we actually dunk and let it sit for a minute, but wiping it wet and letting it sit a bit works too) wipe down or scrub with a sponge and it should come off. The soda/soap changes the pH and lifts the gunk off the leather/stitching.
An old harness maker told us this and we’ve been doing this with all our tack and harness for years - like over 20 years on the harness.
Effax Leder Combi! I used it on a bridle that had literally not been cleaned in years - tons of buildup in the crevices and stitching, dirt jockeys, etc. Nothing else even made a dent in the gunk.
[QUOTE=Inclined;7791920]
You might try a diluted solution of ammonia and water with a toothbrush for the stitched areas, though I’d test it on a small unnoticeable area first. I’ve used lederbalsam for years and had the same “gunking” problem on some of my tack. I’ve been trying olive oil lately (per another COTHer’s advice), and have had much better results.[/QUOTE]
Do you find the olive oil darkens the leather?
A tooth pick will work well at cleaning out stitching. Can be a bit time consuming, but you should be able to pick all of the gunk out.
I remember back in my pony club days - I had a bridle with white stitching - that bridle had to have a going over with a tooth pick for every weekly inspection!
And I agree with the notion that leather balsam = gunk. And much prefer olive oil - but it WILL darken tack (like most oils - but even leather balsam darkens some).
Wiping down with ph neutral baby wipes can do wonders for keeping gunk at bay as well.
I have also used the baking soda/dishwashing liquid with good success.
As for olive oil - we found out the hard way quite some years ago that mice consider tack rubbed down with olive oil somewhat of a delicacy. 
[QUOTE=DownYonder;7794525]
As for olive oil - we found out the hard way quite some years ago that mice consider tack rubbed down with olive oil somewhat of a delicacy. ;)[/QUOTE]
When I switched to olive oil, I wondered if this would be a problem, too, but so far, the little monsters here haven’t been hungry enough. I was also worried about the lederbalsam, because it smells like honey/beeswax, definitely good enough to eat!
[QUOTE=ellevt;7794325]
Do you find the olive oil darkens the leather?[/QUOTE]
Yes, it does darken the leather a bit (like other oils), but after it soaks in, the leather returns to a lighter color (though not as light as pre-oiling). Most of my leather is older, Havana colored stock, but I did use it on a new chestnut colored Stubben martingale, and it deepened the color just a little, and was IMO quite beautiful.
