leather strap care

[dks]

I have some leather straps on watches, one of them being nearly 30 years old (little use) and i was wondering how to look after them.

I also have a tanned leather strap on a Timex.

shoe polish sounds extreme, and it will mean that my arm will get coloured too.

what do you use for the inside, the outside of a strap, what for a tan (suede) strap?

Vaseline, some oil?
any easily available products?

[pfrsantos]

(...)

shoe polish sounds extreme, and it will mean that my arm will get coloured too.

what do you use for the inside, the outside of a strap, what for a tan (suede) strap?

Vaseline, some oil?
any easily available products?

Believe it or not, she said all of that...

 

[dks]

 

[ducttapetech]

Not sure about watch bands, but most natural oils will protect leather. Also a mix of veg oil and bee's wax works really good and gives it a shine.

That's us mobile

[Tomcat_81]

Asked how he cared for a magnificent old leather sheath, an old hunter once told me that he only used to touch the side of his nose and then the sheath- "What's good for the skin is good for the skin!"

[Crow]

Any oil, grease or wax you use to your own skin works for leather also. I would beware of scented ones.

Like Tomcat said, "what is good for your skin, works for leather".

[dks]

Many thanks for all the suggestions!

[Tomcat_81]

The only thing you should take care of is not to drench the leather in a substance which weakens its structure (Ballistol will do so for example, great for touching up old and hard leather, but not good if the leather should remain decently stiff) or could become rancid. An all natural shoe polish, consisting only of natural oils and beeswax will do fine if you're not willing to test any home-erm-nosemade wonder-substances ;-)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_sebum

[firiki]

I wouldn't use vaseline, it seals the pores causind the leather to dry out, plus I don't know what else the put in there. For suede, I'd probably use extra virgin olive oil on some cotton, applied uniformly with light strokes.