neat’s-foot oil

neat’s-foot oil, pale yellow fatty oil made by boiling the feet (excluding hooves), skin, and shinbones of cattle and used chiefly for dressing and waterproofing leather and as a lubricant. After the slaughterhouse scraps are rendered in water, the oil is skimmed off, filtered through cloth, and subjected to two pressings, the first yielding pure neat’s-foot oil, used to lubricate fine machinery, the second, a lower grade, used in the textile and leather industries. The solid stearin obtained in the second pressing is used in soap manufacture. The term neat, derived from Old English, means cattle.