Over the years I have gathered interest and some knowledge on museum and archival conservation issues, particularly on ink corrosion on paper. However I have only little knowledge on leather conservation. After spending numerous hours at a national library and on scientifical databases, I have come to a conclusion that there is a great debate among the conservation professionals whether one should apply leather dressing to leather items or not.
Researches seems to point out that dressings have neutral or disadvantageous effects on leather in a long run measured in decades. If one would ask all the people in this field to give out their oppinion, consus might be that dressing should be only applied to such items that are facing mechanical stress, such as leather shoes, bookbindings, briefcase flaps etc. Study by Hannigan, Nagshki and Windus (see the first link) concluded that chrome-tanned leather resisted the deleterious effects of the atmosphere better than vegetable tanned in terms of tensile strength. However any of the leather dressings tested in the study did not prolong the life of the leather but merely kept it from loosing some of its tensile strength. The recommendations on how often you should apply dressing to leather varies in the case of bookbinding leather from once a year to once in five years but I quess we can assume that we normal people with leather shoes should apply it once or twice a year.
The best dressing tested was also the most simplest one; 60 units of neat's-foot oil and 40 units of anhydrous lanolin. This was originally developed by the New York Public Library in 1930. If you do not care to make a batch by your own, check out the fourth link. From U.S. Department of Agriculture's Leaflet 69:
Evaluation Of The Relative Serviceability Of Vegetable- And Chrome-Tanned Leathers For Bookbinding
Leather Dressing: To Dress Or Not To Dress
Research on the Dressing & Preservation of Leather
Talas Leather Dressing
Researches seems to point out that dressings have neutral or disadvantageous effects on leather in a long run measured in decades. If one would ask all the people in this field to give out their oppinion, consus might be that dressing should be only applied to such items that are facing mechanical stress, such as leather shoes, bookbindings, briefcase flaps etc. Study by Hannigan, Nagshki and Windus (see the first link) concluded that chrome-tanned leather resisted the deleterious effects of the atmosphere better than vegetable tanned in terms of tensile strength. However any of the leather dressings tested in the study did not prolong the life of the leather but merely kept it from loosing some of its tensile strength. The recommendations on how often you should apply dressing to leather varies in the case of bookbinding leather from once a year to once in five years but I quess we can assume that we normal people with leather shoes should apply it once or twice a year.
The best dressing tested was also the most simplest one; 60 units of neat's-foot oil and 40 units of anhydrous lanolin. This was originally developed by the New York Public Library in 1930. If you do not care to make a batch by your own, check out the fourth link. From U.S. Department of Agriculture's Leaflet 69:
Evaluation Of The Relative Serviceability Of Vegetable- And Chrome-Tanned Leathers For Bookbinding
Leather Dressing: To Dress Or Not To Dress
Research on the Dressing & Preservation of Leather
Talas Leather Dressing
