I’m having a moment with coconut oil right now. It’s been a game changer for my hair and skin. Which got me thinking: has anyone ever put it on their tack? I have a pile of take that needs to be rescued desperately. Thoughts?
It probably wouldn’t hurt but if I was trying to revitalize tack I’d be more inclined to use a product proven to work well. Sometimes I find coconut oil to be a bit tacky and not absorb very deeply so I’d be a bit concerned about it creating a light film without soaking deep.
If you try it out I’d be interested to hear how it went!
I’d be unlikely to use it only because it’s a foodstuff and becomes rancid after a period of time. I know that there’s always a morning in the shower when I unscrew the top on the jar and it’s gone from smelling delicious to smelling foul. For this reason, I’d steer clear (though admittedly I’ve never attempted).
[QUOTE=lmlacross;8624558]
I’d be unlikely to use it only because it’s a foodstuff and becomes rancid after a period of time. I know that there’s always a morning in the shower when I unscrew the top on the jar and it’s gone from smelling delicious to smelling foul. For this reason, I’d steer clear (though admittedly I’ve never attempted).[/QUOTE]
some of the boutique tack conditioners do have coconut oil as an ingredient. it is a staple in a lot of organic/boutique skin conditioners.
the way you need to think about tack: tack is skin. care for it the way you would care for your own hide. clean it daily, condition it occasionally, and wipe it down after hard use.
I tried it last summer when I was experimenting with coconut oil for hooves. Didn’t love it for either and went back to Farrier’s Fix and Higher Standards. IMO it didn’t penetrate leather very well, although I did like it for my hands.
I did a whole pile of tack with it last winter and it left a white film on it. I won’t be repeating it!
I would pick an oil that is liquid at room temperature, like olive oil, if you are going to use something other than a specific tack conditioning product.
I would stay with oils such as Hydophane, designed for tack, and tolerant of a little getting wet.
As mentioned before, it is a veggie oil and will turn rancid. What we use on our face gets washed of daily. Our skin is in a constant recreation process, leather is dead cells. Not renewable. I doubt that any boutique tack oils are completely coconut oil. Since it’s not edible they don’t ell you how much or how llttle they use.
I have tried it and didn’t care for it. It didn’t really soak in, but rather sat on top and turned into a white film that I then cleaned off before starting over with my regular oil.
Those products you mentioned may contain preservatives to keep it from going bad though, which pure coconut oil probably doesn’t have. And the coconut oil is probably a very small percentage of the entire product.
I prefer to stick to products that were developed for leather care.
[QUOTE=BAC;8625692]
I prefer to stick to products that were developed for leather care.[/QUOTE]
but there is the rub – coconut oil is an ingredient in many skin care products… it is also an ingredient in quite a few leather balms :winkgrin:
for those of you saying these oils go rancid… i suppose if you left your tack out in the sun and never cleaned it… yeah, you’d have a problem. i’ve never had anything on my tack go rancid, but i also clean my tack after every use.
so much of consumer happiness/satisfaction goes into using products correctly and appropriately…
Coconut oil is present in boutique tack cleanser/conditioners as a cleanser. It has been saponfied, and is relatively gentle but effective.
If white film sat on top of your tack there was either one of two problems one of which is totally unlikely (that we don’t know how to clean tack) and the other is that someone decided to play chemist without understand all the rules.
If you want to try something new(er) on your tack, pop over to the evening board and check out Ben’smom (I can’t spell it right, sorry) saddle soap review thread. She started/is Higher Standards Leather care. I’ve bought some an gifted it and everyone was happy!
