Leather - how to soften it?

[Gobi King]

I bought a cheek pad for my M1D, it is a repo. The leather is NOT soft, this thing won't bend much,
What can I do to soften it before mounting it on my M1D?

[foakes]

There are a lot of decent leather conditioning products out there, Shibs —-

I have used this "New Deep" for baseball gloves, boots, rifle slings, and saddles.

There is a lot more expensive stuff out there —- but this works very well for years at a time, protects, conditions, and increases useful longevity.

Sometimes, you don't need to buy the most expensive stuff —- just the best quality.

Best, Fred

[Midway Tommy]

Leather New works OK if you don't mind it darkening the leather, we used to use it years ago. My daughter shows horses and has some high dollar tack and show saddles (saddles in the $5000-$6000 range). The best we/she has found is Leather Therapy. We use it on all our leather goods now. It doesn't leave a film or darken the leather.

[PacRat]

I'm a layman here so take this advice with a grain of salt. The old Al Stohlman leatherworking books say to submerge in water for up to one hour or whenever it stops bubbling then to let it sit for between an hour and up to a day to make the leather fiber pliable before shaping and molding. This advice is for holster making and blocking but might apply to shaping your pad.

I'm not sure what the pad is stuffed with or what treatment product is already on the leather. I wouldn't advise soaking it in water for very long because you wouldn't want to affect the padding material inside.

Fred and Tommy have also recommended some good products. Just be careful and use less than what you think you need. Leather takes time to distribute the product evenly.

If you're on the Garand forum over on the CMP, they likely have a vast knowledge base over there. I haven't been there for a while and haven't looked into pads.

Show us what you come up with when you're done.

-Mike

[PacRat]

Disregard anything I said above. I just did a quick search and there's a ton of info out there. I can't remember my CMP user name so I couldn't use the search function but there's a lot of stuff you want to know before lacing your pad on. Seems like a lot of the guys use neatsfoot oil. I never knew screws are involved either. Also check milsurp and M14 sites as well.

The official 1944 manual says to use saddle soap and water and if that doesn't get it soft enough then use neatsfoot oil very sparingly.

-Mike

[Shellbelly]

I bought a cheek pad for my M1D, it is a repo.

If I may, where did you buy it?  I bought a cavalry holster for my 1911 and yours looks similar in materials and color.  Mine came from China and it's pretty stiff, too.  I have no idea what they used for coloring so I'm hesitant to treat it.  Most leather has to be "broken in", but I doubt I'll be toting mine while saddled up very often.

[Squidder Bidder]

Ball players use pure lanolin, which is sold in stores which cater to new mothers and infants.

[JasonGotaProblem]

You could always beat the heck out of it. Old fashioned conditioning.

[Cor]

If you wish to soften it temporary to bend it, stretch it, or shape it then wet it completely with Methylated spirits (purple stuff).   It becomes as soft as the finest Nappa leather and when the spirits evaporates the leather again becomes hard.

It does sometimes stain the leather depending on the dye used so test it first.

[Donnyboat]

from My exspeariance, in the shearing industery, to drive the down tube at the correct speed, you have a steel wheel, turning a leather cone, if it starts slipping, then the speed of your shearing gear, runs to slow, to get the correct cut when shearing, we used to use neetsfoot oil, it softens the leather, then it grips to the steel, very hard to shear sheep if your gear is not driving @ the right speed, they will kick the #### out of you, cheers Don.

[happyhooker]

Some good suggestions above.  Products suggested by Tommy & Fred are the "modern" ways to go.  Saddlesoap is meant mostly for cleaning, but might soften leather a bit too.  I would second the neatsfoot oil recommendation as the traditional way to go; read the label about darkening.  The label on mine (Angelus product out of Culver City, CA) says may darken some leathers and do not use on suede; for leathers that may darken, they recommend an Angelus conditioning product rather than the oil.

Frank

[Gobi King]

Fred,
Amazon carries Leather New, cheap is my middle name :-)

Tommy,
Leather Therapy - good point on staining the leather, this is a cheap repo

Mike,
I have not been on the CMP board in a while, thanks for checking, I think the cheek pad is solid leather with no filler material. Ok, saddle soap and h20 with neatsfoot, I had to lookup neatsfoot. Did know one could extract oil from those things.

Shellybelly,
Amazon, they had the best price, I did not expect it to be this hard tough

Suidder,
Just apply lanolin to the surface?

Jason,
you mean put it in a tumbler with some rocks?

Cor,
So same as wetting it with water but instead with Methylated  spirits?

Donnyboat,
Ahh I wish this was made with lamb skin, this looks like came right off an ox's arse

Frank,
Ah, conditioner vs oil, not sure which would be preferred and why


Stain: This is a concern not for the leather item but for the wood stock of the M1D, this is a NOS hardware but with new factory wood.

[Squidder Bidder]

Suidder,
Just apply lanolin to the surface?

Yup. The advantage of lanolin is that it apparently does not clog the leather's pores, and so is not susceptible to dry rot of leather. I used it on my Nokona glove for a long time with good results in terms of softening and keeping the appropriate moisture level.

[Cor]

Correct.   Water takes long to dry, Meth evaporates in an hour or two.

That is how they stretch leather to make holsters and acquire the shape.

[Shellbelly]

Also remember you'll be putting your cheek on that.  Don't put stuff on it that you wouldn't want on your face.  Your skin oils will eventually darken the pad, too.  Probably after your first 500 rounds on a warm day.  

That's a nice addition to your rifle, BTW!