Walnut oil leather holsters -- removing excess oil?

[ArmedBear]

I have a few, and some are just a little greasy.

However, the worst one, and a gunbelt of the same walnut-oil finished leather, stain my clothes with reddish brown, from all the excess oil seeping out.

Does anyone know how you get rid of the excess oil in the leather?

 

[hushnel]

Soap and water will remove oil, when I case leather for moulding I have to add oil back that the water removes. When I add oil to the leather I don't add much, I use Neatsfoot oil and very lightly brush it with my fingers, it will look splotchy and streaked but after a few hours it will be evenly absorbed.

 

[Oro]

I would try treating it a few times with saddle soap or the spray-on Lexol. That should help remove the excess oil without stripping too much out of the leather.

hushnel's advice is good, too. It will likely take out more, but then a light touch of new oil should balance things out. Neatsfoot oil is a wonder for leather, but it can darken light leathers and you have to use a small amounts so as not to over-do it like he said.

 

[hushnel]

That Lexol is good stuff but you got to get that oil off the leather, it causes the fibers to slide creating weakness, in some ways it's as bad for the leather as it being too dry.

I make up a wax that includes beeswax and neatsfoot oil along with a few other ingredients, it protects the leather and allows the oil to be absorbed slowly and evenly.

 

[Oro]

I make up a wax that includes beeswax and neatsfoot oil along with a few other ingredients, it protects the leather and allows the oil to be absorbed slowly and evenly.

Now that sounds like a good idea. I've used both and each has its flaws. The beeswax won't penetrate ro go on easily, and the neatsfoot oil can penetrate too much and weaken the leather if you aren't careful. A nicely mixed compound of both sounds like a great idea. How do you do that? heat them to blend? What proportions?

 

[hushnel]

I don’t have any exact recipe but I try for a consistency, not to hard not too soft, along the lines of shoe polish seems about right. I heat the oil up in a double boiler then mix in the beeswax, I drop samples on tin foil and test the consistency, once it has cooled and set up. The last batch I made filled 25, 4 and 8 oz tins, and I still have 3 or 4 pounds wrapped in wax paper. I do use a scale so I can keep the proportion I like so I can increase the batch but never wrote it down.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Pack in Sawdust tightly for a week.

 

[average_shooter]

A nicely mixed compound of both sounds like a great idea. How do you do that? heat them to blend? What proportions?

Sounds to me like you might want to look into "Obenauf's Heavy Duty LP." Used on wildland fire boots for some time now, and that's leather that needs to hold up to a lot of abuse. You can apply it to leather just like shoe polish and work it in with the warmth from your hands, but any excess on the surface will work into the leather as it is stretched or scraped or warmed by the body.

It's good stuff, and you don't need to worry about mixing anything yourself if you don't want to deal with the mess.

There's also an Obenauf's Leather Oil, but I haven't had any personal experience with that, just the paste-like LP on my boots.