Accumulator
Well-known member
There has been a good bit of info on this subject posted recently, and some of it seems to differ from the conventional wisdom. Turns out that I have a lot of various leather goods and I use various treatments on them. Now the following might not be properly analogous as there are different types of leather, but:
[long-winded post follows
]
My dress shoes (mostly Allen Edmonds and Johnson & Murphy brands) are all at least 20 years old, and I've merely (spit)shined them all with Kiwi brand shoepolish since new. They not only gleam like mirrors, they're also buttery soft and show zero signs of damage, though they are creased from a lot of walking. The last time I sent a pair back for resoling at AE they didn't even reshine them as they thought they were as good as they could be- I'd asked them to evaluate them to see if they could benefit from their full rebuilding/refinishing process and they said "no, just keep doing whatever you're doing".
I have casual shoes from AE and others that have "natural" and "matte" finished leather, and I treat these with Pinnacle Leather Conditioner; again, some of these are *old* shoes and they're all still soft and in great shape- I fully expect them to last me the rest of my life (with a few more new soles).
A mention of products containing lanoline and water being OK makes me think that some of the products I've done OK with (e.g., the Pinnacle) might be of that type. But the Kiwi is carnauba/etc. and I'll admit I'm (pleasantly) surprised that my dress shoes have done so well with it.
I know people who've been using Redwing Boot Oil on their workboots and other leather goods for *decades*. Yep, they have the same boots they bought over 20 years ago, they just have them resoled over and over again. My late father treated his leather goods with military-issue "leather dubbing", Lexol, and the Redwing Boot Oil (which made for a mess in some cases), and his stuff held up fine for ages- again, he got decades of use out of his leather goods and I'm still using some of them today.
He used Lexol for as long as I can remember (wonder when they first came out with it :think: ). He used it on antique leathergoods that are over 100 years old and I use it on them now; it works well on them. My dog leads/collars/harnesses have done well with Lexol too (but those are only ~25 years old).
I have other 19th century leather goods that were, according to the old-timer original owner, treated with "mink oil" since new; my father subsequently treated them with similar products, most recently "Cavalier Mink Oil with Silicone" (!) and I've continued to use it on them from time to time. These are also in great shape.
Again, I dunno if any of the above relates to automotive leather, but I wanted to post it while I had it in mind, and I didn't want to thread-jack any of the existing threads on the subject.
Also, I don't intend for this to be a contentious :argue But it *is* first-hand experience. I need to soften up the leather in the M3 some time, and I still don't know what I'm gonna use.. so I'm keeping an open mind on that particular application and, by extension, modern automotive leathers in general.
[long-winded post follows
]My dress shoes (mostly Allen Edmonds and Johnson & Murphy brands) are all at least 20 years old, and I've merely (spit)shined them all with Kiwi brand shoepolish since new. They not only gleam like mirrors, they're also buttery soft and show zero signs of damage, though they are creased from a lot of walking. The last time I sent a pair back for resoling at AE they didn't even reshine them as they thought they were as good as they could be- I'd asked them to evaluate them to see if they could benefit from their full rebuilding/refinishing process and they said "no, just keep doing whatever you're doing".
I have casual shoes from AE and others that have "natural" and "matte" finished leather, and I treat these with Pinnacle Leather Conditioner; again, some of these are *old* shoes and they're all still soft and in great shape- I fully expect them to last me the rest of my life (with a few more new soles).
A mention of products containing lanoline and water being OK makes me think that some of the products I've done OK with (e.g., the Pinnacle) might be of that type. But the Kiwi is carnauba/etc. and I'll admit I'm (pleasantly) surprised that my dress shoes have done so well with it.
I know people who've been using Redwing Boot Oil on their workboots and other leather goods for *decades*. Yep, they have the same boots they bought over 20 years ago, they just have them resoled over and over again. My late father treated his leather goods with military-issue "leather dubbing", Lexol, and the Redwing Boot Oil (which made for a mess in some cases), and his stuff held up fine for ages- again, he got decades of use out of his leather goods and I'm still using some of them today.
He used Lexol for as long as I can remember (wonder when they first came out with it :think: ). He used it on antique leathergoods that are over 100 years old and I use it on them now; it works well on them. My dog leads/collars/harnesses have done well with Lexol too (but those are only ~25 years old).
I have other 19th century leather goods that were, according to the old-timer original owner, treated with "mink oil" since new; my father subsequently treated them with similar products, most recently "Cavalier Mink Oil with Silicone" (!) and I've continued to use it on them from time to time. These are also in great shape.
Again, I dunno if any of the above relates to automotive leather, but I wanted to post it while I had it in mind, and I didn't want to thread-jack any of the existing threads on the subject.
Also, I don't intend for this to be a contentious :argue But it *is* first-hand experience. I need to soften up the leather in the M3 some time, and I still don't know what I'm gonna use.. so I'm keeping an open mind on that particular application and, by extension, modern automotive leathers in general.
