Lets Talk Leather

[sse]

Musketman - The shelf life of bear grease is indefinite.

Regards, sse

 

[musketman]

Thanks, I never messed with it before...

 

[fatboy]

Never tried it but what about a mix of bees wax and mink oil like the mink oil that Track sell's for patch lube?

 

M.M. NOPE I've got some out on the porch thats 5or6 years old, its been HOT and froze all that time and it's still GOOD.. Ya gotta get ALL the blood and meat out of it though or it will SOUR :curse: :nono: :curse: :nono: in fact when it goes 'funky' it'll pop it's lid off and you can smell it for 'bout 20 miles!!!

 

Funny thing... I've never had critters mess with my gear since I been useing bear grease but it seems that porcupines and bears like to munch on gear that has deer tallow on it :hmm: :hmm: I used to use rendered deer tallow before I got my 'bear' connections lined up. :thumbsup: Porky hauled off and ate a really good pair of moc's, and a black bear chewed the hell outta my sons shooting bag, thats the only time I wished we shot cap guns....woulda been like an anti-bear claymore mine if he chomped down on a tin of caps :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

 

[sse]

I get my beeswax from a couple of local bee keepers, it is NASTY stuff, but it cleans up o.k. ...I get about 2 to 4 bears worth of fat from various local hunters almost every year .. I just freeze it till I got time and the weather is nice then I put my big pot on the BBQ and fill it w/ fat, as it 'melts' I add more till I got a pot full, then you skim off all the brown junk, dirt, meat, etc. and let it cool, later I pour out about 1/2 the grease into an old enamel pot, top it up w/ water and bring it to a fast boil, let cool AGAIN, CAREFULLY pour off the grease when it just feels cool into 1/2 gallon mason jars and cap it... I split the grease w/ the guys who shot the bears .. for most purposes it is good to use at that point, but for leather dressing I clarify it one more time, just cut 50 50 with water, boil it and pour off the now even cleaner grease..

Why do you add the water and boil again? How long to you boil the mixture after it comes to a rolling boil? I assume the water blends right in and dilutes the grease a bit. ??

I got a bud with a bucket of bear fat in the freeze waiting for me, so I gotta get up to speed on this.

another recipe that pops up on a google search:

5 oz beeswax, half pint of tallow, half pint of neatsfoot oil.

I'll bet bear grease would make a great substitution for the tallow.

Regards, sse

 

[vradin]

Why do you add the water and boil again? How long to you boil the mixture after it comes to a rolling boil? I assume the water blends right in and dilutes the grease a bit. ??

Helps make the grease cleaner- blood, meaty bits, crud, other bleeech sinks to the bottom after the good fats are boiled out. Another method for those of us living in the frigid north is to do the cooking outside on a gas grill, and let it set overnight to freeze, and then just tilt out the pure, easy-to-handle, grease "cookie". Make sure the pots covered and in a safe place or the critters will eat all the goodness before you get to use it.

IIRC, purer grease will not go rancid and stink up the house.

vic

BTW- I do this with chicken fat for cooking. Never thought to use it as a patch lube tho. Might make an interesting lube for an egg shoot :youcrazy:

 

boil it for 5-10 minute's, the water does mix while its cooking, then when it cools it settles down and the 'clean' grease floats to the top, let it cool and you can see the 'ICKY' stuff between the grease and the ICKIER water, you want to get just the top layer of CLEAN grease or 'oil' the more times you do this the cleaner it gets, BUT I only do it 2 or 3 times, it depends on how dirty the bear fat is..... :thumbsup:

 

[sse]

Thanks, everybody.

Joe Y (or anyone) - What is the function of "glycerine" in the treatment of leather?? I've seen a few products available for sale containing it.

Thanks summore, sse

 

[Maestro]

Lexol works pretty well as a conditioner but I don't think it does anything for water resistance.

:agree:

If you aren't into making your own beeswax-beargrease mixture, the closest thing I've found commercially is Bumblin' Bear Grease (it may have a few additives besides those basic two ingredients). It ain't cheap ($11-$12 for 1/4 lb.) but (like the pure homemade stuff) it also works good on metal, as a patch lube, and even chapped hands & lips!

If you do a Google search for it, you'll come up with a few suppliers.

 

My understanding is that sno-seal is beeswax based. I used to use it on all my leather boots. For my pc stuff I use mink tallow, but a mixture of mink tallow and beeswax should be better....need to mix some up.

 

[sse]

Mike - Thanks for that further info. I am not surprised tht Sno-Seal contains beeswax, many swear by the stuff.