Lighthouse Leather

Specializing in Quick-Release collar/lead combos.

Leather Care

Leather Care

 

Remove your collar/leash from the plastic bag it was shipped in.  Leather should not be stored in plastic.  When not in use, store it in a place where it will remain dry.

 

Leather needs to be cared for much as we would care for our own skin.  It needs to be cleaned to remove oils and dirt and conditioned to keep it soft, pliable and strong.  It needs to be kept dry.

Keeping your new lead or collar well cared for will extend its life and help keep it looking and feeling  great. We recommend applying leather conditioner to your collar/lead when new. After that, clean and condition the leather as often as is needed to keep it clean, soft and supple.

 

Softening: After applying a leather conditioner for the first time, you can follow this process to soften the lead.  It is not usually necessary to attempt to soften the collar, because the heat and moisture from the dog is usually all that is necessary.  For leads, we recommend wrapping the lead around a finger and gently stretching it. This should always be done with the finished side out.  Avoid the stitched sections of the lead. Flexing the full length of the lead in both directions results ns an evenly softened lead with little creasing of the finished side of the leather.

 

Cleaning: Just as a result of daily use and handling, leather that looks clean may not be. Regular cleaning is an important part of leather care and is strongly recommended. Without cleaning, dirt can work its way into the leather fibers and abrade them, causing the leather to weaken.  To clean, apply  liquid glycerin soap to a damp, soft sponge, using just enough to make the sponge slightly sudsy. Scrub the lead thoroughly. Rinse the sponge, wring it dry, and use the dry sponge to wipe excess soapsuds from the leather. Rinse the soap from the lead.  Let the leather dry.

 

Conditioning: After cleaning, apply a small amount of leather conditioner to both sides of the leather. Use only the amount of conditioner that the leather will absorb. Let it dry for 24 hours, then buff with a soft dry cloth.  We recommend Sedgwick’s Natural Leather Dressing not only for our Sedgwick’s English Bridle Leather, but for all of our fine leathers.

 

Sedgwick's Natural Leather Dressing

 

Sedgwick's take huge pride in the quality of the leather it prepares for use in the production of saddlery and tack and has rigorous procedures in place to ensure that leather is prepared to the highest standards - including an increased focus on after sales care.

Part of this service includes being on hand to assess any leather damage, particularly if a piece of leather has broken or shows a marked change from its original state during use. Indeed, in recent years, there has been an increase in the number of cases that have warranted a serious investigation.
The majority of instances of damaged leather can be linked to misuse or the incorrect care of the leather equipment, with users allowing leather to become desiccated and brittle either from drying wet leather near a heat source, or by not cleaning or moisturizing it sufficiently. An equal number of users actually over oil the leather. These common mistakes result in a radical change in the fibrous structure of the leather, weakening and distorting its substance.

In many cases the causes of damage in the leather have not been so obvious, leading to Sedgwick's analyzing the Neatsfoot, saddlesoap and leather dressing that can be found on the shelves of any tack shop or tack room. Sedgwick's discovered that many of these compounds had been re-formulated to suit modern manufacturing processes and consumer tastes, This reformulation has taken many guises including being sanitized, diluted and perfumed with the addition of synthetic oils, solvents and fixatives.
Neatsfoot Oil has a very thick consistency, is malodorous, prohibitively expensive and bears very little resemblance to the liquid available in the commercial form today.

 

The additives contained within many of these cleaning products actually undermine the fibrous structure of the leather, which is essential to its tensile strength and flexibility whilst sapping the color. Regular usage of these products, over a significant period of time, can actually shorten the leather’s lifespan.
It seems obvious, but the key to long term care and maintenance is to sustain leather with the same ingredients used to prepare the hides for making riding equipment. Specialist equestrian leather curriers, such as Sedgwick's, treat leather with natural products free from man-made or synthetic additives. Using natural oils and fats to impregnate the hides in the process, which ensure that the natural fibers in leather are consistently meshed together without separating or parting. This preparation results in the hides that are flexible, supple and resilient with a high tensile strength.

Consequently, Sedgwick's have developed and launched on the market, a leather dressing that contains only these natural ingredients. With Sedgwick's Leather Dressing, every day care for leather could not be simpler - a quick wipe over of tack with a damp sponge or cloth, leave to dry naturally and then apply the leather dressing sparingly to both the grain (top) and flesh (back) of the leather. When dry to the touch, buff with a soft, dry cloth.

Contact Information:

Rebecca Stanevich

Rt. 4, Box 238-AA

Grafton, WV  26354

 

bstanevich@aol.com

304-265-4375—Home

304-288-7345—Cell

 

Sedgwick’s English Leather Care

 

50 gram jar                            $7.00

500 ml jar                               $20.00