STOP Ruining Your Boots With Saddle Soap | How to Clean and Condition Leather Boots The Right Way!

My father-in-law has done it. My friends have done it... They grab a big ole dollop of saddle soap, rub it all over their boots, and treat it like shoe polish. The problem is that saddle soap is an astringent. It has lye and other acids that will actually hurt your leather over time if you don't completely remove the saddle soap after application. In this video, I'll show you how to properly apply saddle soap and how to condition and protect your leather boots so they can stand up to the elements, work, and play.

[JeriRowley]

Saddle soap "makes water wetter" so dirt can be washed out. Thanks for sharing Ray Holes Saddle Butter with your viewers. Our family still makes Saddle Butter using my grandfather's original 1936 recipe. The beeswax and carnauba wax waterproof the leather. You may want to put another coat on the stitching if you will be exposing the boots to water/snow/barnyard. The waxes also hold in the rich conditioners in the leather to keep conditioning.

Jeri Mae (Holes) Rowley
Generation III

[B-Dubba-U]

Good video. it's surprising how many people have multiple pairs of very expensive handmade boots and are still completely clueless about conditioning and think saddle soap is a conditioner.

[SirLancelotized]

I talked to a leather worker in Wellington that works on tons of riding boots and such. He said fats like mink oil aren’t good unless you have very heavy duty applications. The example he gave was farming equipment used to have leather belts that would turn equipment and farmers would slather animal fats on them.
The reason being, is that any waterproofing type grease will “lock up” the leather. Just like our skin, it is porous and needs to breathe. If you lock it up, it will eventually start cracking.

[Woofy-tmsi]

I have never wiped off saddle soap. I rinse it off using cold water using a soft brush to take sure all dirt and soil are removed. After a couple hours on a boot dryer with a fan blowing on the exterior to dry it. Then I thoroughly condition the leather as you did, using a brush to remove any remaining conditioner around the stitching. An old guy who'd been making and maintaining saddles and tack for several decades showed me how to do it in exchange for a few bottles of 12 year-old scotch. I have boots and leather motorcycle gear that have been used for over three decades (and more than a few resoles) that look almost new.

[Zebul]

Saddle soap should be used only when needed, I only use it if I want to strip waxes, stains, and heavily soiled leather. Usually a dry brush pass a warm damp towel after should be ok to take off dust surface dirt. Whichever you use leather needs to be conditioned after cleaning, you want a light conditioner bick4 is good. If you want a heavier conditioner I like red wing oil, cobblers choice conditioner, walrus oil leather oil. If you want to really give a workboot a good conditioning and waterproof it Huberds shoe grease. I don’t use mink oil, I don’t like mink oil, if I want something similar I would use Dubbin for work boots. It all depends on the leather, the use you give it and conditions. Most conditioners will darken leather bick4 is the only one that doesn’t but it is not a deep conditioner. Suede, nubuck and roughout you need different brushes, different cleaners and waterproofers it’s a different ballgame. Exotics stick to bick4 or exotic leather conditioners. It has its learning curve.

[johnnymissfire]

As an auto mechanic in the rust belt this needs to be done monthly saddle soap and all. Otherwise they get too gummed up with motor oil, chemicals, coolant, salt and whatever else. Wiping them down at the end of each day seem to be helping my new boots but it is kind of a pain but probably worth it when considering that they are extremely expensive hand made boots.

[stevenroche]

Many saddle soaps contain glycerin which causes leather to absorb water. Fine for cleaning, just rinse it off thoroughly with warm water and let the boots dry overnight.

[davidgregg]

After reading most of the comments, l find it rather amusing to see all the opinions on a such a simple thing as taking care of your leather boots . If your boots are really dirty, use saddle soap, let them dry . I use a peet dryer myself. Works great . Dries with convection heat . Then condition them with a quality leather conditioner. Not petroleum jelly or other petroleum based products. Take your pick, Bick4, Blackrock, Lexol etc for dress boots . Obinoffs, mink oil, Skidmores neatsfoot oil for your workboots . Not that complicated kids.

[robertplumer]

I have some new buck Wolverines they’re 4-5 years old and beat up. The saddle soap and conditioner made them much darker and they look like a whole different pair of boots. I knew it would darken them but I like it.

[nbrosens]

One thing i'd say, if you have veg tanned leather, or aniline leather (think shell cordovan, horween dublin or horween essex) DO NOT USE SADDLE SOAP. It will suck up all the oils from the leather and leave it dry and prone to cracking. Instead use only water, and if the boots are really REALLY grimy you can add just a couple drops of castile soap (bronner for example). Let them dry overnight and then condition them with Saphir Renovateur (don't use oil or grease, it will nourish the leather alright, and won't damage it per se but it will darken them forever. If that's what you want then go ahead as the conditioning will be great anyway).

[hamwallet]

I clean and condition mine with lotion and rub it in with my hands and use a soft bristle brush to get in tight spots. It’s made for skin and leather is skin so it works pretty damn good. My boots always look like the one on the right. Don’t use soap or water to clean your leather boots. It strips the conditioner off of the leather and they dry out. Use a baby wipe to get the dirt off and then Put lotion on them and let it sit for a few minutes and then wipe it down with a soft paper towel. It’ll bring that dark rich brown color back. My boots always look brand new and if you follow these simple steps, yours will too.

[thesharpercoder]

In my experience with saddle soap there are two rules i always follow. The first rule he only breifly mentions in this video. I also use two brushes, not just one like you almost always see people demonstrating.

One, do not leave the product on the leather too long. Saddle soap can be invasive. Just like cooking with salt, you can always add more later, but you can never undo it and take it out. I clean only one panel of leather at a time.

Two, I clean off the saddle soap just like I would soap in a shower. This means I “rinse” the product off the leather. I wipe down the leather with a clean cloth, just like in the video. This does not remove all of the soap.

So, I then take the extra step to use clean warm water and a second brush to “rinse” the remaining soap off the leather. I dip a clean second brush into warm water and repeat Step One, but without the soap.

Be careful not to soak the leather in Step Two. I wipe the leather as dry as I can get it, and allow it dry at least 12-24 hours in a warm, dry location. No direct heat. I rotate the boots and flex the leather every 4-6 hours during the drying.

The leather is usually pretty dry after this process. Dyed leather will have smeared the dye evenly across the leather panel. Burnished toes and heels are gone forever.

You would need to hand dye them again. This is what saddle soap does to dyed leather, which is why it is important to clean one panel of leather at a time.

I hope this helps someone.

[rg]

Don’t place your leather boots or shoes too close to a heat source, they will shrink! If they are wet, don’t attempt to accelerate the drying this way, you would ruin the sizing…

[z]

Misleading heading; most saddle soaps are nearly pH neutral, far from acidic or alkaline. They lather like any glycerin soap sold for people's skin; as he shows, lathering, gently scrubbing, then wiping, cleans and leaves a fairly inert lubricant in the fibers. Repeated wetting and drying without replacing lost oils eventually dries the leather, and as some mention here, heating can actually destroy many vegetable tanned leathers, irreversibly shrinking into hard bricks. Chrome tanned hide is the most impervious to water damage, but is a silver grey, until it gets retanned and dyed for aesthetic uses. Waterproofness is a separate matter, and quality, dense full grain leather can be waxed with compounds like SnoSeal, to near total proofness. Modern things like NeverWet are on another level, invisible yet very effective - but further treatments with polish or waxes will negate its performance.
Confusion reigns with car seats, jackets, and fashion items that generally are leather only underneath, then "finished" with some plastic coating, sealant, and products meant for such are less leather conditioners, than vinyl treatments - if you must go that route, Original Formula 303 Protectant is actually far better than most containing silicones, and it also does work on actual leather, minimally altering color or sheen, but likely not adding restorative oils, either.

[byronrichards]

Thank you for this informative upload. Your knowledge and experience is very much appreciated. Keep informing the people...

[forgedglory]

Chamberlain’s is my favorite conditioner, it doesn’t darken the leather.

[bigoldgrizzly]

For me it is a 3 stage process
- clean with saddle soap, [usually don't need this, water does fine] set aside till dry
- Apply leather food [conditioner] mainly neatsfoot oil and lanolin give this a few days to soak in.
- Waterproofing - 80% mixed waxes, 20% mineral oil applied hot with a brush onto a hot boot and allowed to soak in well. As the boot cools, first brush off with dry bristle paperhangers brush or similar and a couple of hours later, buff with a cloth wad. [Always take the laces out and pay attention to the seams and the tongue, especially at the base
I'm not bothered how they look so long as they bend where they should, keep my feet dry and don't crack. They will have a pleasant sheen, but are not in any way 'pretty'
I make all my own mixes but won't bore you with them - everyone swears by his own mix

[mouse]

I have 2 pair of the same about style double h boots, one is 7+ years old and the other is ~1.5 years old. The older pair I tried to keep up on wasing them with saddle soap when they got too dirty, but salt in the winter would take its toll on that pair adding up on the cracking each year. I used red wing boot paste on that pair and did make them a very dark brown, was fine with that coloring since hid motor oil that got on them. They may now have cracked holes but will continue to wear them for work, till there no longer useable. The newer pair are my good pair that are worn when not intending to get them dirty, they have only been washed twice in there life. I have only been using distressed leather conditioner on them when lighten up, it only slightly darkened the tan they have and brush off any dirt that gets on them. That saddle butter dose not darken like the red wing paste, may consider that for the newer pair when they move to being the work pair. As for how I wash them, I get a dab of the soap on one end of a wet brush and brush the soap on. Then on the other end of the brush will be just water, to brush the soap off and followed by a towel to get excess water off. Then let sit over night to dry and when dry, I use a small bit of the applicant on my finger tip to apply and brush it in from there.

[allanfuentes]

Great video! What brand are those cowboy boots shown at 02:15? I instantly fell in love with them.

[brandonmorrison]

Have a link for saddle soap and or butter or the products you like to use