A friend gave me a nice-sized hunk of leather, but it's a bit stiff and seems dry.

Can it be resuscitated with a leather conditioner? Or is it just unusable?

I would try mink oiling the hell out of it.

Will it work? I don't know, but it's what I'd try.

Mink oil would ruin it for holster making material, wouldn't it???

I'm not sure what qualities you would want for holsters in your leather, but I've used mink oil on my boots and a couple jackets to condition and water-proof.

Exactly. Holster leather has to have some body to hold the handgun. Too much a things like mink oil will give you a soft and suppe leather bag to put your handgun in. I may be wrong but I have a few high end leather holsters and all of the instruction specifically warn about staying away from things like mink oil. They do not what their holsters conditioned and water proof, they want them to retain their form to hold the handgun.

Just trying to give a heads up.

There is some leather conditioner at Tandy that might do the trick. Mink oil will make the leather to soft IMHO.

Thanks for the info, I'm still learning.

How about mink oiling it to condition and revitalize, then build a form and boil the leather and mold it to the form for it to dry and shape itself? I have some instructions on how to do it to make things like breastplates, I would imagine that it would work for a holster. Or would that be counter productive? or would boiling it in the oil take the place of the mink oil?

Damn, wish I had more free time to research this properlly.

If the leather isn't cracking when you flex it you can probably save it. Neet's Foot Oil is what we used for brittle harness on the farm where I grew up. Saddle soap was the second choice. You might also try just dampening it with a sponge and working it a little to see if it softens up.


Do you know what kind of leather it is? Horsehide feels about like boiled leather when its just been sitting around.

It might also just be poorly tanned leather. If it's not done right it tends to start cracking and separating.

ETA: For the record, a lot of leather feels stiff and dry in the unworked state. If you've never dealt with raw leather before take it to Tandy and ask them if its salvagable.