Will mineral oil damage leather sheaths??

[tueller]

I like to keep my carbon blades pretty wet w/ mineral oil. And as I am sure most of you know that stuff gets all over the place whether you want it to or not. Will it damage a quality leather sheath? I maintain the outside of my sheaths with mink oil but I am sure the insides are stained with mineral oil. What affect will that have? Thanks.

 

[sheathmaker]

If it is food grade mineral oil, then it is okay for the leather.......but too much of a good thing (i.e.. saturation over time) is not good for your leather as it relates to performance. It will, if it becomes saturated, start to soften the leather and cause some shape and retention loss. I would encourage you to wipe the excess oil off the blade prior to insertion to minimize the possibility or probability of unintentional oil saturation.

Oils that contain petroleum distillates are not good for leather at all.

Paul

 

[tueller]

Thanks Paul. Yes it's food grade and yes I am going to start wiping them down better.

 

[Wild Rose]

It may be food grade but mineral oil is still made from a petroleum base - on the other hand I know that Ballistol has a good record being used on leather from some folks whose opinions I trust and it is basically a high grade mineral oil..
FWIW - I use food grade flax seed oil on my blades it's available from most health food stores.

 

[Alberta Ed]

I seal my leather sheathes with SnowSeal, melted in (2-3 coats), and wipe my blades down with BreakFree. Works well for me.

 

[yoda4561]

The big problem with mineral oil, or any oil based leather treatment on hard leathers is that they WILL soften them once they get saturated, and they don't get hard again even after years. The waxes work much better.

 

[tueller]

Thx guys, I am going to look into the ballistol and flax seed. I try to stay away from the commercial products, snowseal, break free, etc, because of food prep and the fact that I am kind of a traditionalist... Thus the carbon blades. But I do use break free on my firearms, I don't often use those to slice an apple.