Neatsfoot Oil
Part of knifemaking is making leather sheaths. When I went to get the hay today, I asked if they had any leather products -- specifically Neatsfoot Oil. They did and I brought home two quarts. I was joking with the clerk about what kind of animal a "Neat" was and why it's feet were oily.
A few minutes with Google and we find that "Neat" is an
archaic term for a horned Ox and that
Neatsfoot Oil is refined from the shin bones and the feet (but not the hooves) of cattle.
From the Wiki entry:
Fat from warm-blooded animals normally has a high melting point, becoming hard when cool � but neatsfoot oil remains liquid at room temperature. This is because the relatively slender legs and feet of animals such as cattle are adapted to tolerate and maintain much lower temperatures than those of the body core, using countercurrent heat exchange in the legs between warm arterial and cooler venous blood � other body fat would become stiff at these temperatures. This characteristic of neatsfoot oil allows it to soak easily into leather.
Who-da thunk it?
Posted by DaveH at January 8, 2012 9:27 PM