Treating an old leather jacket

[KnottedYet]

I inherited a relatively old (about 15 years) and well-worn cheap leather jacket. The leather is quite thin and soft, and is showing blue and white in some areas. It had some shiny thin-layered surface treatment, which is wearing off and disintegrating in several spots.

Didn't want to Nikwax it, because Nikwax seems too heavy and waxy for it. Attacked it with generous amounts of saddle soap, which seems to have helped somewhat, but it still looks dry.

I'm not trying to make it shine, just want to get it out of the dry fragile stage. And I realize it won't last long since it is really cheap leather. (but it fits well and I like it)

Any ideas of what I should do next? More saddle soap? Some form of dubbin?

This is NOT a good quality motorcycle jacket. The leather is thin crap, but looks kind of sexy as a jacket. I only want to rejuvinate it. Doesn't need to be waterproof or shiny, just not a dried out husk.

[OakLeaf]

I'm a big fan of Lexol (both the glycerine wash and the treatment). Expensive stuff, but it's always given me great results.

[TxDoc]

Get a bottle of quality silicone lubricant, the best you can find.
I buy wet platinum and use it for everything. My 4 years old leather jacket still looks like new, and so do my sofa-bed and chairs. It is also good if you have good quality leather seats in your car, it keeps them soft like when the car was new out of the dealership.
And of course it was intended for the skin in the first place, so it's a wonderful moisturizer if you have allergies and cannot use lotions. Seriously, I buy giant bottles of the stuff, and haven't purchased a tub of lotion in years. It is especially good for your hands when you have to wash your hands a million times a day at work!

[KnottedYet]

Will the silicon or the lexol go ok over fresh saddle soap?

Or should I let it wear off a bit first?

The extent of my leather care experience is dubbin and Nikwax. All I knew for sure was that Nikwax would be way too much for this jacket, and that dubbin would probably be too heavy/greasy.

I think saddle soap may have been too light.

Sigh... Thank goodness I have a cheap (glued top seams!) leather jacket to practice on, eh? :rolleyes:

[OakLeaf]

I usually treat my leather while it's still damp from soaping. It's okay to treat it dry too - you don't need to do anything to remove the soap.