Saddle Soap Truths

Conventional wisdom has influenced the general public, as well as leather care professionals, to accept implicitly that saddle soap is the ideal maintenance product for leather; it's considered both a cleaner and conditioner for many types of leather articles. There is strong evidence, though, indicating saddle soap isn't the leather care product everyone assumes it to be.

"It's application," stated Toby J. Raphael in an annual issue of Leather Conservation News, "has caused considerable permanent damage to significant objects since its components cannot be easily rinsed out and adequately removed from museum objects (as its instructions suggest)."

When cleaning any type of leather, the objective is to unclog its pores and provide sufficient air flow; this allows leather to vent itself. The high oil content in saddle soap, however, reduces its ability to remove dirt effectively.

A Conservator in the Division of Conservation at the National Park Service (Harper's Ferry, West Virginia location), US Department of the Interior, Raphael believed that due to the oil in saddle soap, some dirt is retained in the pores and distributed, "deeper into the material."

Why oil? It was discovered saddle soap was originally developed to soften, or condition, newly-tanned chrome leather during the late 1890s. The soap exists only to disperse the oils needed for proper lubrication.

The use of saddle soap as a leather conditioner is questionable as well. A strong nonacid emulsion (pH 9 - pH 10), the high alkalinity level of the emulsion (from the soap itself) alters the acidity of the leather, and may cause the fabric to shrink and crack over time.

"The bond between hide protein and tanning agent is only stable at lower pH levels - preferably about pH 3 to 6 ... ," says Dr. Herndon Jenkins, Technical Director of Marietta, Georgia-based Summit Industries, Inc., manufacturer of Lexol Leather Care Products.

When saddle soap was utilized as a conditioning agent during the late 19th century, the level of alkalinity wasn't a considered a problem at the time. Once the chrome leather was lubricated and softened to the curriers specifications, theory suggests the soap emulsion may have then been neutralized, or it was never realized by professionals it needed to be. Whatever the truth may be, it's an essential step that makes using saddle soap as a leather care product something to be leery of.