# Any tips on softening leather?



## Phoul Mouth (Jan 6, 2015)

I bought a bunch of scrap leather, some of it is really good, some not so good. The not so good being that it is too stiff to really make pouches out of. I was wondering if anyone had some tried and true method for softening leather? I have read things saying to use all sorts of chemicals, and frankly I want to avoid that method as much as possible. Any help would be appreciated.


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## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)

Cut the pouches . Then add leather condition or mink oil and bend and twist them till soft . Leather gets soft when it is worked .


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## Flatband (Dec 18, 2009)

I had some really stiff leather ( 7 ounce ). I made it usable by hammering on it like you would tenderize meat. Took awhile but it eventually worked well enough. Damn near wore my arm out though!


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## Chuck Daehler (Mar 17, 2015)

I found that silicone based leather treatment products if soaked in well and worked by bending extremely seems to loosen the leather fibers so they glide over each other better (interpret this as adding suppleness). Lexol is one such product...can't get it here in bananaland but in USA, yes...but there are many silicone based products for leather. The idea as Treefork said is to work the leather with some sort of lubricant soaked into it. Neatsfoot oil I despise...it's actually oil and degrades any leather I ever put it on and it smells too. Many footwear mfgs suggest not to use it.

Mink oil is fine. Viscol would be my choice, used it since I was a kid on boots. Does not discolor leather when it's dry.

If the leather is really thick it isn't great for pouches. A pouch should fold over the ammo neatly and let you feel the ammo inside with your fingers. It should be just long enough to encapsulate the ammo, if it's larger it gets more air resistance and mass, slowing things down a bit. It should be about as wide as the ammo as well for the same reasons. A big floppy wide pouch is bad, a minimal but adequate pouch is good. You can make it an hour glass sort of shape to give it enough leather around the band attachment holes and adequate but yet minimal around the ammo.

Before the leather is cut into smaller pieces, you can work it with a lubricant much easier as larger pieces...crumple it up, stretch it, bend it radically over and over and pound it with a smooth faced hammer on something soft like innertube rubber so it doesn't break the fibers but thins it some.


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## Performance Catapults (Feb 3, 2010)

Flatband said:


> I had some really stiff leather ( 7 ounce ). I made it usable by hammering on it like you would tenderize meat. Took awhile but it eventually worked well enough. **** near wore my arm out though!


Sorry Gary, read that a couple of times and it made me chuckle.


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## Phoul Mouth (Jan 6, 2015)

Chuck Daehler said:


> If the leather is really thick it isn't great for pouches. A pouch should fold over the ammo neatly and let you feel the ammo inside with your fingers.


Yeah, that's the surprising bit though, it's not thick at all, it's right around 1/16th inch thick which seems to be the standard pouch thickness. It's just really hard. Luckily it's not brittle though so I figured I could fix it. Thanks for the advice.

I did get some really think pieces of leather, like 3/16th but those I plan on making targets out of so them being thick is okay. I just have to flatten them out since they were all rolled for some reason. I have it under a stack of text books, should be good in a week or two.


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## Phoul Mouth (Jan 6, 2015)

treefork said:


> Cut the pouches . Then add leather condition or mink oil and bend and twist them till soft . Leather gets soft when it is worked .


What do you think about baseball glove conditioner? I have an old bottle of that around here somewhere, think that would work if I can find it?


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## Phoul Mouth (Jan 6, 2015)

Flatband said:


> I had some really stiff leather ( 7 ounce ). I made it usable by hammering on it like you would tenderize meat. Took awhile but it eventually worked well enough. **** near wore my arm out though!


I actually thought about that. My buddy has an English wheel I was tempted to go over there and use it to see if that could do the job.


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## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)

Phoul Mouth said:


> treefork said:
> 
> 
> > Cut the pouches . Then add leather condition or mink oil and bend and twist them till soft . Leather gets soft when it is worked .
> ...


Yes .


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## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)

Performance Catapults said:


> Flatband said:
> 
> 
> > I had some really stiff leather ( 7 ounce ). I made it usable by hammering on it like you would tenderize meat. Took awhile but it eventually worked well enough. **** near wore my arm out though!
> ...


Well . At least he didn't go blind or grow hair on his palm .


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## lunasling (Apr 5, 2015)

Beat it with a rock ! Lol .


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## Chuck Daehler (Mar 17, 2015)

If the hard leather won't respond, it simply won't work. It may be compressed leather, they wet it and press it with a warm iron press to compact the fibers. Wetting it again may restore some of the original properties...worth a try. Then dry it and work it over with conditioner, flexing and bending it profusely.


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## slingshotnew (Oct 29, 2014)

For leather (cowhide) lard it is good but it can alter the color . Alternatively I recommend using hand cream type glysolid , venus or leocrema etc . then massage as fingers pressing , roll the leather Excellent results and does not alter the color. If the skin is thick the thinned with sandpaper or put under the grip


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## harlan whitman (Mar 27, 2012)

Lots of oil conditioners available for purchase such as mink oil, saddle soaps, etc. However most cooking oils will do a decent job. I prefer coconut oil if I'm pulling from the kitchen, other wise mink is probably the best. Good luck.


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## Phoul Mouth (Jan 6, 2015)

So I cut 2 pouches last night and put some old baseball glove conditioner on them. This morning I put some more on them and started working one a bit, twisting it and bending it. Seems to be working out pretty nicely. The other I took a hammer to, also seems to work, but not as good as hand working them.

So I just took all the scraps and rubbed in the baseball glove conditioner and will continue to do so in the morning and afternoon until I need it for pouches. I figure this should help loosen it up without all the effort.

Thanks for all the advice guys, it helped tremendously.


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## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)

That's what the forum is all about ! :thumbsup:


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## Teach (Jul 5, 2014)

Unless I have missed it, I've not seen any mention about the tanning methods used to tan the leather these scraps came from. Depending on the type of tan used....you may or may not be successful in softening as some methods such as chrome tanning often used for tanning thick leather for such things as the souls of shoes cannot be softened satisfactorily.

For the work involved in softening those scraps I'd simply use them for another project and find suitable leather to make your pouches etc. from. That would be a lot easier.

I've done lots of home tanning of deer, moose and buffalo hide tanning back home and can speak from experience that the softening process is the most work.

Leather from old work gloves often makes very suitable pouches as well as leather aprons, some parts of old shoes and even belts from time to time but belts are generally too thick to work well. There are lots of sources out there for leather the easiest is your local Cobbler.


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## bigdh2000 (Feb 9, 2015)

I noticed a few comments here about it already but I use and follow baseball glove softening methods. There are hundreds of how-to items on softening a baseball glove all over the internet. Just follow them. Mink oil happens to be one of the main ones.

Now, that being said, someone mentioned 7+ ounce leather - I would never use that for a pouch but it makes excellent gypsy tabs. Another secret, the larger the ammo, the softer the pouch leather needs to be. Stiff leather works best with smaller ammo.


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## Ducksoup (Jan 19, 2016)

I've heard not to use vegetable oils on leather because it can get rancid. I'm wondering about pure mineral oil. It will not get rancid. I use it on my wood cutting boards all the time.
Any thoughts on that?


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## Jolly Roger (Aug 14, 2017)

Good old fashioned saddle soap and water works. Then rub in the mink oil or better yet Olive Oil.


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## K Williams (Dec 9, 2015)

Obenauf's Leather Oil.


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## Home123 (Jun 28, 2019)

Bone oil, castor oil, glycerin - in principle, any non-polymerizable oil will do ... I used to wipe my wife's purse with orange oil from a pharmacy. There are also tips here.

https://leather-toolkits.com/blog/how-to-soften-leather/


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## Grandpa Pete (May 2, 2013)

Jolly Roger you stole what I was about to write.

GP


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