How To Soften Hard Leather Gloves?

Leather gloves are a common type of glove, made from cowhide, goatskin, sheepskin and deerskin. Leather gloves are not easily damaged and have a long service life. They are comfortable to wear, grip objects precisely and have the advantage of being heat resistant and insulating. Unlike artificial leather, leather gloves still retain the characteristics of animal leather and therefore require some skill to care for them. One condition is that leather gloves become hard. How should we soften hardened leather gloves?

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1. Why are leather gloves soft?

The reason why leather is soft is that during tanning, grease is introduced into the interior of the animal hide to form an oil film that covers the surface of the fibres inside the hide, i.e. between the surfaces of the fibres inside the hide, separated by an oil film of suitable thickness. The internal fibres of the leather are filled with grease and lubricated, thus making the leather very soft.

2. Why do leather become hard?

The oil introduced into the leather will evaporate over time in its natural state and be lost. Or due to other reasons so that the oil film is destroyed, such as water hydrolysis or in a high temperature environment, the oil film is destroyed, the oil evaporated away, so the leather internal fibres will be bonded to each other, so that the leather becomes hard, brittle. In short, the root cause of leather hardening and brittleness is due to the lack of lubrication between the internal fibres of leather, bonded to each other.

3. How to soften leather gloves?

If the oil film between the internal fibres of the leather is damaged or the oil is lost, the surface between the internal fibres of the leather should be re-injected with a good quality oil or leather softener that forms an oil film. Please note that when applying the conditioner, the leather product should be laid flat so that the conditioner can penetrate deeply into the leather fibres by gravity.

5. The wrong methods to soften leather?

  • Leather cannot be rubbed when it is hard, as this will destroy the fibers inside the leather. If you do this, the tensile strength, tear strength and grain breakdown strength of the leather will be greatly reduced and will even crack soon, causing permanent damage to the leather.
  • Do not apply excessive oil or leather softener, as this will block the pores and break the oil film, affecting the use of the leather gloves.

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