Household Tack Cleaners

chickeninabun

chickeninabun

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Yorkshire
www.wix.com
Anyone have anything household-like that they clean their tack with, other than the conventional saddle soap, etc??

I can't find my tack cleaning bits and bobs (haven't used it in a digustingly long time, so it's probably upped sticks and moved to a new home where it's more appreciated) and really need to clean my tack tonight.:o

Any ideas on things around the house I could use???:confused:
 
For cleaning (pre soaping) of greasy tack I use a spot of washing up liquid or a handful of soda crystals in the water, but no hints on household stuff to use as soap, maybe old fashioned beeswax furniture polish?
 
sorry Oz, it's to do with my age, but we do differ on our opinion of NF Oil, I love it! Back in the 70's, when tack was either London Tan or (can't remember what it was called) dark brown, we dunked our new bridles in a bucket of oil and left them in it overnight. It can't be too bad for leather, today my everyday bridle was my first bought in 1976.... :)
 
mainpower said:
sorry Oz, it's to do with my age, but we do differ on our opinion of NF Oil, I love it! Back in the 70's, when tack was either London Tan or (can't remember what it was called) dark brown, we dunked our new bridles in a bucket of oil and left them in it overnight. It can't be too bad for leather, today my everyday bridle was my first bought in 1976.... :)
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ARGH!!! Heresy!WORST thing to use!
IF you HAVE to use oil, don't use neatsfoot, use cod liver oil and VERY sparingly on the flesh side only, Oz :)
And yes, London Tan is my favourite colour, I remember it well in the 70's a it matures down to a nice chestnut colour when saddle soaped regularly, see I am your age by the sounds of it!
The reason your bridle you bought back in 1976 is still ok has nothing to do with what you have put on it, the leather then was MUCH better than today, today's leather is poor in comparison, it's substance is too thin, not alot of fat content, basically the cattle aren't allowed to mature long enough to build up the good fibres needed to make good leather, it's the intensive factory type farming today that has caused this as well as the feed has changed, the best leather by far is from Aberdeen Angus cattle that have been grass fed and allowed to grow to maturity, sadly this isn't often the case today .There is advice within the saddlery trade now to make 1 1/4 inch wide stirrup leathers as standard adult widths instead of 1 inch as the leather is not as strong as well as people are getting heavier!
Oz
 
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NF will rot out linen threads, the nylon threads don't tend to be as affected as much but the main reason too much of any oil is it makes the leather pappy, it weakens the fibres, the best thing for leather is fat, they are thicker and get right into the fibres and lock them together, giving the leather a good fat content and substance, oil just drains out after weakening the fibres leaving the leather soggy.If you put leather under a microscope after coating it in oil you'd see what I mean!
 
Well I use sunflower oil sparingly and all my tack looks gorgeous and feels soft as silk.
I have never found any of the conditioners, leather feed ect containing beeswax to be any bloody good- next day leather appears unchanged or patchy in colour, hard and unconditioned, especially if in the house for a bit.
I have still found ans spot of washing up liquid to degrease, then Carr Day and Martin original saddle soap bar is the best for cleaning and softening, although I prefer the old orange coloured one to the bright yellow one for some reason! And I have tried loads!!!!
 
martha said:
What sort of fat please?
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Any product with lanolin, tallow, as well as beeswax but you can use lard, dripping or any animal fats if you have to, get it into the flesh side if you can which is the underside, leave it overnight at least. On the underside (flesh side) the fibres are open alot more to allow the fat in, the grain side (the top shiny side) is alot harder to get the fat into it, it is made like that, think of it as a funnel and you are adding fat to the open end (flesh side) then try to start putting it in the spout end, it would take you twice as long, if that makes sense!
I make my own leather dressing, I have hides that are in excess of 25 years old which I still used to make new saddlery as the dressing keeps it in good condition.
 
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Thanks everyone.

Well I used washing up liquid first, gave it a rinse then left it to dry a little then went over it with a Carr Day & Martin conditioner in a bar. It seems to be a bit dull afterwards, but looks better than it was.

I can't get the grease off the underside of the brow and nose bands for love nor money! Any ideas of cleaning that a bit better?? I know, I know, I should just actually clean my tack (and my horse) a bit more regularly but I just can't find the time!!:o
 
chickeninabun said:
I can't get the grease off the underside of the brow and nose bands for love nor money! Any ideas of cleaning that a bit better?? I know, I know, I should just actually clean my tack (and my horse) a bit more regularly but I just can't find the time!!:o
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My 30 year old Pony Club manual would recommend a blunt knife to scrape the grease off :) I use a scrubby pad for non-stick saucepans to do mine, but then it's not usually THAT bad :D:p
 
Hi;I am new on the forum,I now live in Belgium but was born in Brazil;my english is to say the least a little wobbly;So please don't shoot me down!!!
We often had to deal with dry unkept leather tack over there;my english born grandmother had a very efficient solution She would melt a bar of Carrs Day&Martin saddle soap(the orange one)in one liter of full fat milk.She would pour the resulting mixture in small containers and leave to set.
The result had the texture of cold cream;this mixture never hardened completly, thus allowing you to spread it evenly and getting it in all the cracks
it was not greasy and fed the leather beautifully giving it a lovely shine! We used this for ALL our leather goods including our boots...It streches your bar of soap a long way and keeps for months.....
My husband hunts and has adopted this method on all his tack; I have been
told it is also used in the army?
 
milliepops said:
My 30 year old Pony Club manual would recommend a blunt knife to scrape the grease off :) I use a scrubby pad for non-stick saucepans to do mine, but then it's not usually THAT bad :D:p
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Mine says that too :D what i also use is a plaited bit of hair. I have a plait size peice of tail hair for the job.
 
I once used one of saddle shine products..it looked great!I couldn't believe the shine.There is no substitute for good old fashioned elbow grease to keep your tack looking great.
 
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