For a blade itself (it's fittings, handles and such not considered here) I use mineral oil. It's not a fast drying, relatively low inclusion/grit, has low free acidity, and is food safe.
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Originally Posted by M ELEY
For dry, damaged hide/leather or wood, like on hilts and scabbards, i find that linseed oil has an amazing way of re-lusturizing (is that even a word-  ) the finish. Also works great on old gun stocks...
Anyone else try this product?? |
Linseed (raw or boiled) while good for wood, can be bad for leather. It's a drying oil. Which means it has relatively high reactivity with oxygen that polymerizes it. While all leather will embrittle over time, regardless of treatment, linseed will speed that up. Especially in top grain, eventually forming unsightly crazing, and undesirable hardening.
As a leather worker my two best friends for conditioning leather are neatsfoot oil and bee's wax. Neatsfoot re-hydrates leather in a lasting and beneficial manner given that it is rendered from the shin and feet bones of a cow. So it contains a lot of the lipids, fatty acids, and glycerol compounds that the lather would have had as a living skin, or fresh out of the tannery but without treatment looses over time to dehydration. So it's a true restorative treatment for leather.
That said thinner and more paper like animal skin products, such as reptile hides (hides being different from leather in that they are cured and cleaned but not tanned) dry faster and require something that retains moisture better. Which requires very high glycerol content. So rose water is far better for those. Especially since it won't darken much which is undesirable for reptile skins (most reptile skins have high contrasts in the pattern that one typically doesn't want to become more muted through darkening).
Like most oils neatsfoot eventually dries. But does so a lot more slowly (can take weeks or months as apposed to days or hours). It's slow enough that when leather is rubbed with hand warmed bee's wax after application that it won't dry at all. As the bee's wax seals the surface from contact with oxygen. Beeswax also gives the surface a nice luster. It makes a handle a bit better in the grip, has a nice to somewhat neutral odor, and leaves far less residue on the hand.
If one feels at any point that they need to apply more neatsfoot. They can use a damp steaming hot wash cloth to remove the film of bee's wax. Allow it to dry for about 10-15 minutes (to make sure all the water has evaporated off the surface). Apply a new coat of neatsfoot. Then re-apply hand warmed bee's wax (rub it vigorously between the palms until it almost lathers).