Lesson #11) Learn Leather Maintenance, Repair, and Crafting

UPDATED AUGUST 27, 2025

In Lesson #10, we covered vintage leather rescue. 

In this post, our last lesson in the Leather Learning Series, we'll talk about how to prevent leather ever needing rescue. Regular maintenance includes leather care products and learning leather crafting for basic repairs.

There are a lot of leather care products on the market, and it can be hard to know what you need for what type of leather. There are also a bazillion names for what mostly seem to be mostly the same products, all of which contain a combination of oil and wax:

• leather creme / cream
• leather conditioner
• leather wax
• leather care
• leather dressing

But as you know from Lessons #1-10, not all leather is the same: sources, tannages, splits, and finishes. Different kinds of leather require different care products.

For vegetable-tanned leather, here's a breakdown of the different products you need (top grain or full grain):

• Leather Cleaner: You don't need any fancy pre-packaged leather cleaner products for vegetable-tanned leather. A damp rag will clean most veg-tan leather. Plain, unscented, diluted liquid soap works just fine for cleaning leather if it has gotten especially mucky.
• Leather Conditioner: Conditioning veg-tan leather is, at its simplest, the process of replenishing natural oils and waxes that may have dried out over time. At a bare minimum, it's a simple hand-rubbed application of mineral oil, just like with a wood cutting board. Beeswax can help with water resistance, and essential oils can retard mold and mildew growth.

Read our full recommendations on leather care with dilution ratios on our webpage and video: 

For non-vegetable-tanned leather, we suggesting investing in the specific product(s) recommended by the product manufacturer. 

Most of the products on the market are designed for these other leathers and they have special needs:

• mineral-tanned garment leather (like athletic shoes, sneakers)
• upholstery leather
• suede

Some shoes and purses do use vegetable-tanned leather and can follow our veg-tan leather care instructions above, such as classic Western cowboy boots. 

We don't have expertise in caring for other kinds of leathers, so if you have those, we recommend buying products that cater specifically to the type of leather. Suede care is particularly tricky! 

It can be difficult sometimes to find a leather repair expert. In your local yellow pages, try looking for cobblers, or calling leather supply shops to ask if they have any recommendations. Leather supply shops, such as Tandy Leather, may have bulletin boards where local leather crafters leave their business cards.

But now that you're knowledgeable about leather types, thicknesses, tannages, sustainability, and craftsmanship details, perhaps you are ready to learn yourself!

As self-taught leathercrafters, we've compiled a list of resources to start learning leathercrafting today at home: schools, kits, books, videos, and more. Learn more on our blog: 

We hope you've enjoyed our leather learning series. Did you enjoy this series? Share it with a friend, or shoot us a line and let us know what you think!