Applying Obenauf's Boot Preservative to a leather jacket

[Jonanah]

^^
Dude, I clicked on this thread because of Obenauf's in the title only to find out you responded to an unrelated post that is almost four years old by a poster who was last seen here a year ago.

Hahah sorry about that. To be fair, I also was reading through this thread to learn about using Obenauf’s to condition a jacket, only to come across digressions that include these tired boomer talking points about “kids these days” and several pages about the pros and cons of wearing leather overcoats of various weights and sizes. Also, my comment doesn’t take away any of the useful information contained in the thread — it merely bumped it to the top so you could find it, as you apparently have.

 

[PeterRocco]

A lounger suggested (sorry I cannot recall who) buffing with a microfibre cloth.

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Seems to work

Looks Great!

 

[PeterRocco]

I recently acquired this Polo Ralph Lauren leather jacket. I think it's 15-20 years old but it might even be older.

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It's hard to capture on photo but the jacket looked a bit pale. There were some scratches here and there but most of all it was a little bit flat looking overall.

@handymike suggestest to apply some Obenauf's to make the jacket a few shades darker. Obenauf's is a beeswax formula that was originally developed to restore and protect fire fighter boots. I did some internet searching and found testimonies of people successfully using it on their leather jackets too. Here's a guy who applied it to his RRL A2 jacket:

https://www.styleforum.net/threads/obenaufs-lp-on-an-rrl-leather-jacket.286264/

@handymike shared a photo of a Hercules jacket which most likely served as the inspiration for this Ralph Lauren jacket. The darker color on the original looks much better than my pale / yellowish RL. I was hoping the end result after applying a couple of coats of Obenauf's would look more like the original.

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I was a bit worried that applying the Obenauf's would be really messy and that it would be hard to spread the stuff evenly. I've read somewhere that people used hairdryers to melt the waxes into the leather. We have heated floors so I guessed simply laying the jacket on the floor might be helpful as well.

To my surprise applying the Obenauf's was really easy. No additional heat sources were needed. I just used my hands to 'massage' the waxes into the leather and the jacket soaked it all up without leaving any stains.

I was really happy with the result I got right after applying the Obenauf's. It had easily become three or four shades darker. However, after leaving the jacket to dry for a day it lightened up again, almost back to its original shade. A day after the first application, I applied a second coat which had a similar result. First dark, then light again.

Here's the result. From left to right: Before - after first application - after second application.
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Looks
Although I didn't get the shade I was hoping for, the jacket does look much better now. Before the jacket had pale spots and looked flat overall, not much color dept. After the treatment the pale spots were gone and the color had gotten much more vibrant. It now shows great color depth. One of the best leathers, if not the best, I've seen on a fashion jacket.
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The leather shows some beautiful subtle patina which has developed over decades and I was worried the Obenauf's would remove some of it. I'm glad it didn't. It might even have enhanced it a bit.

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Feel
I think I've used a quarter of the container's content which made the jacket feel noticeable heavier. It also made it slightly stiffer. Which is all good, it feels more substantial now. However, the jacket is also somewhat squeaky now. Buffing the leather with some cloth did help to tone down the squeaks but they're still there.

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Final verdict
Although I didn't get the result I was hoping for, the jacket definitely looks much better now. Applying the Obenauf's was really easy and didn't take any skill or special technique. Would I use it on a top tier jacket? I don't think so. This jacket came out great but that's just n=1. It might not work as good on other leathers and since it's irreversible, there's definitely a risk to it.

Hi I just used LP On my 1980’s Schott Jacket. I tried Bick 4 first but was not happy with the results. I found it very easy to apply the LP WAX. I Love the way it came out. This is just after I applied it.