As I live in the ever so moist principality of Wales I have a constant battle against dampness. Ordinary leather can be treated reasonably well but my buff leather just seems to suck up moisture and retain it, to the detriment of everything around it.

Anyone else have a similar issue and how do you treat it? The buff gets damp and smelly and stays like it....then rusts and stains everything it touches.

Central AC or a humidor for storage. I live in florida, which is nothing but 98% humidity and heat that'd let you heat a cup of coffee on the sidewalk, and all of my harness (mostly mild steel but lots of leather in the soft kit) is fine just piled up in my home.

A room temperature area to store your buff coat with low humidity "should" let it dry out correctly,

Mark,

If the leather is picking up moisture, it is too dry. Damp environments demand oily leather. What you choose to treat it with depends on what supplies are readily available. True buff would have some combination of fish oil and tallow stuffed during the breaking process. Its a bit smelly but widely used in currying top quality modern glove leather. Blend a bottle of cod liver oil with pure neatsfoot oil and daub that all over the coat. Don't use the Nf compound as its mostly mineral oil.

Alternatively, any saddlery shop will have a multitude of leather dressings. Avoid pastes for this job as they tend to have a lot of wax. Most of the liquid "conditioners" are based on sulfinated neatsfoot oil which penetrates better than pure neatsfoot oil. They are much easier to apply though.

Good luck!

thanks for the help and info, much appreciated.