[Sieger]

Originally Posted by lugerholsterrepair

The German Army used it, through 1945, on wood, leather goods and for gun cleaning; as it was designed and formulated to do just that. Neats Foot oil was designed to soften the newly applied stiff soles of shoes and to repel water. Disposable and used used up eventually.


What the German Army used during combat use is totally wrong for the preservation of static collectables 100 years later. Army's are not interested in anything but SHORT term preservation. As collectors we are interested in LONG term. Actual preservation, not use.



Neats foot oil is DEATH..IMMEDIATE DEATH to vintage holsters. One drop of it instantly penetrates from the front where it is put on through a quarter inch of leather to the back. INSTANTLY! It becomes an oil soaked rag taking out any form put into the holster 89-100 years ago by the water wet molding process. Ballistol is no different. Ballistol is a different type of oil is all. It is STILL AN OIL.



Vegetable tanned leather is made up of long fibers, interlaced fingers giving it strength & stability. These fibers have friction and stay where they are because the friction is dry and natural. It's as if you interlace your fingers together..it is quite difficult to pull your hands apart..UNLESS you pour OIL on your interlaced fingers. Now your fingers/fibers will easily slip and slide, unable to keep any form or stay together.

When a Luger holster was initially formed the wet leather is draped over a skeleton mold and quickly dried. It will maintain this form BECAUSE of the fibers having swelled when wet but now when dried have shrunken into one another and forms a tight bond. This bond/form as we all know is still with us 80-120 years later. If the form is taken care of, not squashed out of shape or otherwise abused it stays the way it was intended. The worst malady this shape/bond/form can meet is slippery oil. It PENETRATES and surrounds once tight fibers and allows them to slip & slide. This travesty is only one of many problems that WILL take place with the use of Ballistol or Neats Foot oil or ANY OIL put on a vintage static holster.



Once any type of oil is applied to a vintage static holster the damage is done and irreversible. It cannot be removed. Like a sponge, leather will soak up an amazing amount of oil but unlike a sponge you cannot just wring it out. Another type of damage after oil application is the leather now cannot absorb and expel air & moisture. Oil also attracts dirt, debris and Ballistol expressly stated that their special oil is edible! Well if I can eat it, so can the microbes.



I state my case as gently as possible as everyone here I consider a friend. I don't try to change your minds, they are made up already, but to get other collectors to think about care, preservation and the subject at hand, the eradication of mold. My favorite is heat. unlike oil, it can be applied and then removed. Just as alcohol or acetone is benign, applied then removed. Even water cannot be applied & removed..it changes form, moves color, shrinks & expands. IT is NOT benign to vegetable tanned leather.



I have seen way TOO many holsters damaged by oil to remain silent. The worst ones get that way by the overuse of oil on a pistol which then wicks off the pistol onto holster muzzles, mag pouch bottoms or wherever, hardening to a black brittle scab that when probed, crumbles, similar to a burnt pastry crust.

Jerry,

Very interesting and informative summary from a true expert on the topic.

Thank you for it!

You are very right in saying that Armies have very different priorities than collectors some 75 to 100 years later.

Sieger.