Velo orange has a saddle care product that seems like a good deal. $8.50 for 4 oz. That's last a while..


https://store.velo-orange.com/index.p...ddle-care.html

Sheldon Brown also recommended oil soaking. My suspicion is that some of the saddles he's talking about were already toast before the wrench touched them.

With so many different results, I suspect there's some significant saddle-to-saddle variation in addition to the ass-to-ass variation. It wouldn't take much, just the natural variety in thickness and grain of the leather. Hand made saddles are going to be somewhat inconsistent (someone on another thread got a new lopsided Brooks). And then there's model: my trampoline of a B67 isn't going to wear the same way a narrow B17 does.

I'm no expert and just getting my first Brooks saddle now, but it seems to me that if your saddle isn't broken and it's comfortable to you, you're doing it the right way.

I would avoid neatsfoot or baseball glove oils. Those are designed to soften the leather - thats not what you want on your saddle. Snoseal should be good for waterproofing, but I would suspect that it will darken the color of your saddle dramatically. You might like that - you might not. When I have used it on shoes, it has significantly darkened the leather.

A Brooks saddle isnt cheap - the $8 proofide tin is minimal comparatively. If you know of another product that is basically the same, fine, but I wouldn't just go putting any leather treatment on my saddle. A saddle isn't a shoe or a purse. You dont want something that softens the leather.

+1 - I do the exact same thing. 1x per year, and keep hotel issue shower cap in the tool bag for parking in the rain.

When it was new I lathered up the bottom with a thicker layer of proofhide. I replenished that a bit once about 4 years later. The saddle is holding up like a champ

The (motor) oil soaking is technique borrowed from ultradistance legend Lon Haldeman, who would break-in his saddle before RAAM with a 10W30 bath. Can't say that I recommend it, unless your commute is 3000 miles in the course of a week and you need that sort of pliability.
For year-round riding on a Brooks B17 in the PNW, I've done nothing more than Proofide the top and underside when it's new, use a fitted rain cover when it rains, and re-treat with Proofide once a year.