Harness Maintenance

The appearance of your harness may be greatly improved and considerable time added to its life if cleaned and oiled regularly. Moreover, needless repairs can be avoided through regular conditioning. The tools and materials needed for cleaning and oiling your harness are as follow:

A large washtub about ¾'s full of WARM water - NOT HOT.
A low PH soap, such as Murphy’s Oil Soap.
Scrub brush.
One board, 10" - 12" wide, 6’ long.
Strips may be nailed on sides if desired
Bench or stool to support scrubbing board.
Harness oil.
Clean rags and/or paint brush.
A foam or bristle brush will work.
Harness dressing or dye if desired.

The job of overhauling harness is usually done in the following order:

Take the harness completely apart.
Do all the needed repair work - be sure and check over your harness closely for excessive wear of BOTH the leather and metal parts.
Having filled a washtub about ¾’s full of warm water, add a couple of caps full of soap, and place all your harness parts in the tub.
Place one end of the scrubbing board in the tub and the other end on your bench or stool so that the water will drain back into the tub.
Having let the harness parts thoroughly soak, place each piece on your board and scrub!
Spread paper on the floor if doing this inside and lay each piece by itself to dry.
The harness oil should be warm and may be applied with a rag or paintbrush if a dipping tank is unavailable. It is NOT necessary that the harness be thoroughly dried before oil is applied. IN FACT, it is preferable that the harness be SLIGHTLY damp since the pores in the leather will be opened and thereby allow for better penetration of the oil.
Having applied the oil and allowed to dry (this can be as short as 30 minutes or as long as overnight), wipe off the excess oil. Additional coats may be applied, depending on the condition of the harness. Do NOT over oil! Too much oil will make your harness spongy and lack body.

NOTE: Harness oil, regardless of its composition, DOES NOT ROT THREAD - period! Many times with older harness the ONLY thing holding the different layers together is the dried stitching wax that once coated the thread. Once the thread between the layers of the leather is lubricated, and once the layers themselves are lubricated, further repair, unnoticed prior to the oiling, MAY become necessary. This is just a matter of wear, NOT a result of the oil used in the conditioning of your harness.
Apply harness dressing or dye, carefully following the directions on the container.
Reassemble the different parts and let’s go for a drive!