softening a old harness

[Decker]

Does anybody have Idea's or which is the bes way to restore old leather harness?

 

[Lenahorse]

I have used 2 items and had fair to good results depending on just how bad it was. Lexol & Leather New. Leather new seemed to work better.

 

[Lonecowboy]

I've never personally tried this method, but sounds like it would work for really old dry dtiff harness-- an old timer told me this trick:

Here's the plan. fill a old oil barrel ,with the top cut out, mostly full of water, drop your harness in with a rope attached,pour some neatsfoot oil on top of the water, it will float, if you have 2" of oil on top of the water, then everyday raise the harness up 2" by pulling on the rope and tying off. 3" or 4" of oil would make it go faster. etc.

I think this would be for the really old terribly dry nasty break if you look at it kind of harness.

 

[Brad S]

You need to dip the harness in a vat of neetsfoot oil. There are a couple harness shops in Yoder Kansas that do this commercially (Amish). They'd probably do it mail order. There's a guy named Larry Geifer at Kingman Ks that would know somewhere closer to you. Also Major Cokley at Mt Hope Ks would know someone closest to your area.

 

[jodywy]

Neighbor used to have a saddle, harness, leather repair shop, his dad was an old country doctor. He took an old sterilizer tub of his dad and heated neat's-foot oil and had a pulley system to dunk the harness.
Neighbor died and we got another outfit that dose the some what the same thing with some old milk bucket tubs (deep vats for washing the old bucket milers)

 

[Northern Rancher]

I used to just hang mine on the fence on a sunny day and get after it with the neatsfoot oil.

 

[nr]

Why would cattle feet be called neat??? (I'd never heard of that product and googled it.)

 

[Soapweed]

Why would cattle feet be called neat??? (I'd never heard of that product and googled it.)

nr, since you "picqued my interest," I googled it too. (You made some more money off the deal, Kolanuraven. :wink: ) Here is what Wikpedia said:

Neatsfoot oil is a yellow oil rendered and purified from the feet (but not the hooves) and shin bones of cattle. It remains liquid down to a low temperature, and is used as a conditioning, softening and preservative agent for leather. In the 18th century, it was used medically as a topical application for dry scaly skin conditions.

The fat in animals' legs generally has a lower melting point than the body fat, because the legs and feet of such animals are adapted to tolerate and maintain much lower temperatures than those of the body core, using countercurrent heat exchange between arterial and venous blood. Because of this, neatsfoot oil remains liquid at room temperature and so can easily soak into leather.

Neatsfoot oil is produced much less than it once was. Currently, most neatsfoot oil is now made from pigs[citation needed]. Lard is pressed and the liquid produced, (which may have new or reclaimed mineral oil added) is sold as neatsfoot oil. The best quality neatsfoot oil still comes from the legs of calves and has no mineral oil added. "Prime neatsfoot oil" or "neatsfoot oil compound" is a term used for a blend of pure neatsfoot oil and non-organic oils, generally mineral oil. Although the "Prime" is marketed as "the saddlemaker's choice", many saddlemakers actually recommend pure neatsfoot oil for leather goods, particularly saddles. Pure neatsfoot oil has superior softening and preservative properties, the addition of mineral oils often leads to more rapid decay of stitching and speeds breakdown of any adhesive materials that may have been used.

'Neat' in the oil's name comes from an old term for cattle.

Neat may also mean:

Neat - a bartending term for liquor consumed with no additives or ice described along with the related term, "straight up," or an individual animal of the species of cattle (Bos taurus)

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows (though technically cow refers only to female bovines), are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat (called beef and veal), dairy products (milk), leather and as draught animals (pulling carts, plows and the like). In some countries, such as India, they are honored in religious ceremonies and revered. It is estimated that there are 1.3 billion head of cattle in the world today.

CATTLE Word origin

Cattle did not originate as a name for bovine animals. It derives from the Latin caput, head, and originally meant movable property, especially livestock of any kind.[3] The word is closely related to "chattel" (a unit of personal property) and "capital" in the economic sense.[4][5]

Older English sources like King James Version of the Bible refer to livestock in general as cattle (as opposed to the word deer which then was used for wild animals). Additionally other species of the genus Bos are sometimes called wild cattle. Today, the modern meaning of "cattle", without any other qualifier, is usually restricted to domesticated bovines.

This hangs in our local accountant's office, and has hung there for many years, through many different owners of this accounting business.

 

[nr]

The word origins are so interesting! That idea that cattle= chattel and in some cultures eg. the Moslems, chattel=women and other possessions does greatly conflict with the Christian belief that man and woman are created in the image of God. Thank you for looking that up, Soapweed.