Quickest way to clean and soften old dry tack

[Lmabernathy]

Just bought a new lot of lesson tack. Everything looks pretty good as far as not cracked or missing pieces or anything but some of it is hard and dry. Looks like it just sat for a very long time collecting dust. This isn’t something I want to spend weeks on getting conditioned.

Any tips or tricks for restoring leather in a hurry?

[Chestnut_Run]

Hot oil treatment. Heat up pure neatsfoot oil in the microwave, paint it on heavy with a paintbrush. Let it sit on plastic, or somewhere you don’t care about the oil getting on, until it soaks in. Test for pliability, and if it’s still stiffer than you want, pain with hot oil again. After it reaches the level of softness you want, clean well with saddle soap of your choice.

The key is get your oil really, really hot, and don’t skip the cleaning it afterward. Hot oil and cleaning after keeps it from feeling oily. If the leather is quality leather in the first place, you’ll get a beautiful gloss to it.

[Drive_NJ]

if you cant touch the hot oil it is too hot and will COOK the leather

what we like is to wash the leather first with warm water containing a large squirt of dish detergent and a handful of baking soda

this will start to adjust the leather pH

let it dry out of the heat or sun on newspaper for a while but not to total dryness

then treat with Leather Honey (used to be Harness Honey)

just wipe it liberally on with rag and let it soak in

repeat til it wont take more of the top dressing

if it is strap goods - slowly and gently start to work the leather strap in a loop and straighten movement

if you see cracks in the leather it may be just too far gone
but it cant hurt to try

best of luck

[StormyDay]

I wash old, dirty, tack with dawn in the sink. then i let it dry, and put it in a container of cheap olive oil. make sure it is completely submerged. let it soak for a few min to a few hours, depending on how bad it is. With big items you will have to keep reapplying the oil over and over, I suggest using a paintbrush. Keep reapplying until it will not take anymore. Then wash again with dawn, and apply a light coat of your favorite tack cream. I prefer ones that smell nice

[Lmabernathy]

I did a combo of what was suggested. Put a disassembled bridle in a gallon zip lock bag with olive oil. Heated a soup pot of water on the stove to boiling and then turned off the heat. Then I took the whole bag and put it in the hot water and left it for several hours. Took bridle out of the bag, washed it with dawn. Bridle is so much better already. I still need to use a leather creme on it but huge difference and not much elbow grease!

[Mukluk]

Thanks guys. I saw an old western style silver (I think) halter at thrift store about 6 months ago and made an offer that they would not accept. Fast forward to yesterday and they accepted my offer. So other than being very dried out it appears to good thick leather with no cracks. More dusty than really dirty.

[Bluey]

After a good cleaning, Lexol heavily until the leather is noodley, then let it be, it will revert to nice, without the dry, stiff and cracked appearance.

The only concern, if the item was not processed regularly, but with strange chemicals, you may end up with a muckely looking item of several shades.

With that method, we have restored some old abandoned good quality western saddles to very nice looking again.

[Mukluk]

This is what I am doing. Cleaned halter in sink with some dawn. Used a nail brush to get dirt off of one part that was stubbornly dirty. Rinsed and let it get almost dry. Heated up 100% neatsfoot oil on double broiler till warm. Meanwhile turned on oven (lowest temp is 170) but I shut it off once it seemed to be “hot summer day” temperature. Painted oil on halter with a paint brush (used a large turkey pan to hold the tack). Put oiled tack in oven and let it sit overnight. Still a little stiff this am so redid neatsfoot and hot summer day oven temp. Will keep going until it won’t absorb more. Then will wipe off any excess oil and clean with saddle soap. I’ll let you know how this project turns out!