Mink oil for boot polish, safe or no?

[tashawithanekkie]

I need to polish my boots, it's getting to be that time of year. I have mink oil, it stinks kind of like gasoline, I'm guessing it's not safe? Or maybe if I use it in a different room after the bird's in the cage for the night?

Forgive me if it's been asked before. 'Mink' didn't have any results in the search.

 

[ToMang07]

If it's real mink oil I don't think it would hurt, however I'd avoid direct contact.

 

[tashawithanekkie]

If it's real mink oil I don't think it would hurt, however I'd avoid direct contact.

Cool thanks!

 

[YUMgrinder]

that's a good question! I use it on my leather boots and jazz likes to chew on my shoes. I typically forbid her from chewing on my boots as I don't want them ruined but my sperrys are leather too and have used mink oil on them in the past..... I let her chew on those. She seems ok but I haven't used fresh mink oil on anything since I got my birds a year ago. so I dunno.

 

[Kentuckienne]

Yeah, mink oil is just a name. I have some leather conditioners I use for bookbinding. For winter boots, Sno-Seal is good. It's a very waxy product that penetrates into the leather and the wax gives it good waterproofing properties. There are some good solid polishes from Kiwi, neutral without pigment, that penetrate well and give a good polish, more sophisticated than the Sno-Seal. And there's something called "Amish Leather Schmutz" formulated by an old Mennonite binder friend, kind of like soft amber vaseline, that soaks in and really helps keep the leather supple. But that's probably kind of special purpose and hard to find, maybe only Mechling's has it.

Anything that smells, if you leave the shoes outside, especially in a warm car, the volatiles will come off and the residue should be pretty safe, waxes and heavy oils.

 

[tashawithanekkie]

Yeah, mink oil is just a name. I have some leather conditioners I use for bookbinding. For winter boots, Sno-Seal is good. It's a very waxy product that penetrates into the leather and the wax gives it good waterproofing properties. There are some good solid polishes from Kiwi, neutral without pigment, that penetrate well and give a good polish, more sophisticated than the Sno-Seal. And there's something called "Amish Leather Schmutz" formulated by an old Mennonite binder friend, kind of like soft amber vaseline, that soaks in and really helps keep the leather supple. But that's probably kind of special purpose and hard to find, maybe only Mechling's has it.

Anything that smells, if you leave the shoes outside, especially in a warm car, the volatiles will come off and the residue should be pretty safe, waxes and heavy oils.

Awesome, thank you.

Also, leather bound books?! *swoon* Tell me more, what sort of books? I'm a bit of a book fiend.

 

[Kentuckienne]

Yeah, mink oil is just a name. I have some leather conditioners I use for bookbinding. For winter boots, Sno-Seal is good. It's a very waxy product that penetrates into the leather and the wax gives it good waterproofing properties. There are some good solid polishes from Kiwi, neutral without pigment, that penetrate well and give a good polish, more sophisticated than the Sno-Seal. And there's something called "Amish Leather Schmutz" formulated by an old Mennonite binder friend, kind of like soft amber vaseline, that soaks in and really helps keep the leather supple. But that's probably kind of special purpose and hard to find, maybe only Mechling's has it.

Anything that smells, if you leave the shoes outside, especially in a warm car, the volatiles will come off and the residue should be pretty safe, waxes and heavy oils.

Awesome, thank you.

Also, leather bound books?! *swoon* Tell me more, what sort of books? I'm a bit of a book fiend.

I have training in fine hand bookbinding, conservation and restoration. I’ve been doing more repair and restoration than hand binding, so I’m working to wrap up the remaining restoration work in the bindery and clear the bench for some design binding: hand sewing of books on linen cords or tapes, lacing the cords into the covers, and covering the covers with quality vegetable-tanned goat or calf bookbinding leather, then stamping or hand tooling gold decorations. Most modern leather books are covered with thin cow leather, are glued or machine-stitched and not sewn, and all that holds the covers to the book is the weak leather and inside endpaper and maybe some cheap cheesecloth.

I have a couple of design projects on deck, including a two volume reproduction of a Gutenberg bible that will be sewn on double cords with carved oak boards. If I stop staying up past midnight working on websites, maybe I’ll make more progress.

 

[tashawithanekkie]

Yeah, mink oil is just a name. I have some leather conditioners I use for bookbinding. For winter boots, Sno-Seal is good. It's a very waxy product that penetrates into the leather and the wax gives it good waterproofing properties. There are some good solid polishes from Kiwi, neutral without pigment, that penetrate well and give a good polish, more sophisticated than the Sno-Seal. And there's something called "Amish Leather Schmutz" formulated by an old Mennonite binder friend, kind of like soft amber vaseline, that soaks in and really helps keep the leather supple. But that's probably kind of special purpose and hard to find, maybe only Mechling's has it.

Anything that smells, if you leave the shoes outside, especially in a warm car, the volatiles will come off and the residue should be pretty safe, waxes and heavy oils.

Awesome, thank you.

Also, leather bound books?! *swoon* Tell me more, what sort of books? I'm a bit of a book fiend.

I have training in fine hand bookbinding, conservation and restoration. I’ve been doing more repair and restoration than hand binding, so I’m working to wrap up the remaining restoration work in the bindery and clear the bench for some design binding: hand sewing of books on linen cords or tapes, lacing the cords into the covers, and covering the covers with quality vegetable-tanned goat or calf bookbinding leather, then stamping or hand tooling gold decorations. Most modern leather books are covered with thin cow leather, are glued or machine-stitched and not sewn, and all that holds the covers to the book is the weak leather and inside endpaper and maybe some cheap cheesecloth.

I have a couple of design projects on deck, including a two volume reproduction of a Gutenberg bible that will be sewn on double cords with carved oak boards. If I stop staying up past midnight working on websites, maybe I’ll make more progress.

*drooling* Ah, real Quality binding, made to last. The newer books I have are always losing pages or falling apart. Older ones, the binding seems to last longer than the paper. *sigh*