Okay, I've given up on Search Engine results. Seems everyone with a tutorial on it is American, and I want products I can buy here. Recommendations appreciated for leather jacket waterproofing products.
I use Mink Oil or Renapur. Leave leathers in a warm room or outside in the sun (when weather is better) to ‘open the pores’ - apply with a sponge, then leave for an hour, then wipe excess off with a cloth. Obviously any zips, neoprene sections etc will not be treated and thus not waterproof. Hope that’s helpful.
I've ordered Renapur. Also - as recommended by the people I bought my bike jacket from - Auto Glym. I'll use the Renapur on my flying jacket.
Truth be known you’ll never fully waterproof leather, you’ll only really give it a small amount of water repellency so if caught in a light shower the water beads and runs off.
Yeah, well anyway there's all the gaps - especially if, like me, you'd rather get wet than look like a dry pillock. Like my Fieldsheer gloves (still serviceable after 35 years!) with the centre layer of rubber, eventually it gets in at the cuffs. But if you can delay, say, saturation point, you delay the onset of hypothermia. In fact, whether you get wet or not.
I water proofed mine (partially) with this ....... RST RACE DEPT MOTORCYCLE WATERPROOF WET SUIT CLEAR MOTORBIKE JONNY SUIT
And, yeah, it's not waterproofing leather, per se, as 'treating' it. Not just that leather looks and feels good if you take care of it, but it cracks if you don't. I used to use 'Saddle Soap'. Once in a while I didn't mind doing my jacket (and jeans, at one point) by hand, partly because it was never clear to me if the aerosol stuff was meant for leather, but particularly because I could buy it at the hardware store 5mins walk away, and probably Sainsbury's too. I really hate not being able to buy this stuff not even in the supermarket now, let alone the High Street, let alone the shopping precinct. And Lord Sheraton Leather Balsam, that smelled like marzipan, in a small glass jar, that I used to get almost everywhere. Last time, having forgotten what it was called, it took considerable online searching to find somewhere you could still buy it. Because what you get, from Amazon and eBay, are the same product over and over and over - like Google search results entirely reflecting quantity over quality and not just able to be gamed but designed to be. I hate the internet.
I still clean my leather with saddle soap and a sponge. Then I drench them in leather softener/ restorer treatment. Lastly depending on the time of year I put some dubbing on to and warm it with slightly heat gun to make it rub in. In summer the dubbing is left in the cupboard. I also have a bottle of waterproofing leather cream, which is always smoothed on my gloves.
I have a conditioned dislike of Dubbin on account of being forced to do my football boots as a nipper. It occupies a niche along with tartan shortbread and boiled sweets.
Well if you put some on your jacket, the shortbread and boiled sweets won't be wet in your pockets anymore. You might get to like them. Eat separately!
Both are miles away. Something that's never not bugged me, that they're always an expedition. Apparently it's a Rustins product - who I've ordered some from. I've a feeling radiator paint is what I last had with that name on.
Altberg Leder Gris https://www.altberg.co.uk/bootcare/leather-boots-for-water-repellency-leder-gris-treatment-video https://www.altberg.co.uk/bootcare/history-of-leder-gris
