Leather dressing

I will have in mind John E. McIntyre's good experience with leather
dressing.  Lanolin and neatsfoot oil are still recommended by many
conservators.  A leather conservator, Toby Raphael, believes that
lanolin is not stable (will become acidic). One of my colleague here
in Trondheim (she is working with historic leather) says that it is
very difficult to get a clean neatsfoot oil, therefore she two years
ago recommended Maroquin Leatherbalm to me:

Maroquin Leatherbalm contain:

    20% Lipoderm Licker SA (sulphochlorinated paraffin oil fat
        liquor)
    10% Lipoderm N (anionic emulsifier with fat effect)
    10% Karion F (sorbitol)
    1/2% Bronidox L (fungicide)
    59 1/2% Distilled water.

It is mixed together and  heated to 60 celsius degree.

It is a recipe from the German Leathermuseum in Offenbach, made by
Werner Smitzer in  close contact with manufactures of products to
the Leather industry.

You see it is not only a cleaning agent, since the fat lubricates
the fibre, and Sorbitol F is mildly hygroscopic and prevents the
leather drying out. Also in the paper industry Sorbitol F has been
used as a plasticizer for many years.

After brushing the leather with leatherbalm I clean it over with a
cloth. In addition to leather balm it is recommended to use a
Maroquin Leather Vaseline. (A neutral anhydrous vaseline from a
chemist shop will probably be useful). I don't use it because I
feel it is not necessary to apply vaseline after cleaning with
leatherbalm.

The Maroquin products can be obtained from:

    Peter Alexander von Schimpff
    Maximilianstrasse 7
    D-6000  Frankfurt a.m.

The Lipoderm products comes from BASF.  Karion F comes from Merck.
Bronidox L comes from Henkel in Duesseldorf.

Soren Ibsen
Conservator
NTNU
University Library
N-7004 Trondheim

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 10:28
                Distributed: Tuesday, September 17, 1996
                       Message Id: cdl-10-28-003
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