The first thing you need to ask is; “What kind of leather am I caring for?”. There are two ways of tanning leather, the old-fashioned way, vegetable tanning, and the new way, chemical tanning with Chromium. Read our post on leather tanning here.
Chrome tanned belts are usually two pieces glued together so if your belt isn’t stitched keep an eye out for de-lamination. You might want to re-glue your belt before it gets too bad.
Our belts are all veg-tan. If you’d like a shine you can use a natural polish (one without a petroleum-based solvent to keep it soft is better). If you wear your belt regularly the natural oils from your hands touching the belt should be all it needs to keep supple.
If your belt gets wet, dry it out at room temperature and not in front of a heater. When veg-tan leather is wet it will maintain the shape it drys in, so make sure it's laid flat not scrunched up. If your belt is a light colour and only part of the belt get’s wet, you might want to wet the whole belt and gently dry it to avoid watermarking.
Lastly, the edges of your leather may over a long time get a little “frayed”. If you’d like please bring it back to us and we’ll re-burnish the edges for you with our homemade wax mix to keep it looking sharp.