Restoring Leather

[greg2935]

Hi All

Does anyone know how to preserve/restore old cracked leather? I have an ancient bag that has leather straps and I don't really want to have to replace them as they are riveted on. Or am I flogging a dead horse?

Greg

 

[leon-1]

Greg to be honest I do not know, but if they have a farriers in the Exeter area you may want to ask in there.

 

[Ed]

I found mars leather oil great for restoring an old cracked camel hide. Its only a couple of quid for a small bottle, but it goes a long way.
Mars leather oil and loads of other compounds you may be interested in are available here
http://www.countrysupplies.com/dept.asp?dept_id=391&portal=eques-net


Ed

 

[jakunen]

Saddle cream from any good cobblers also works well, you just need to apply it several times but it makes the leather nice and supple.

 

[ChrisKavanaugh]

Greg, Go to page 4 of this very column for my posting. This will get things cleaned up so you know what your dealing with. In my experience once leather is badly dried and cracked it will always be structurally weakened. The various cremes are wonderfull at restoring the vitality to the leather, but it's no different than applying a skin moisturiser to a severe skin wound. Leather sadly no longer has self healing powers that living skin does. If this was a true antique or collectable, ie say a U.P. Napoleonic saddle then cremes will be appropriate for curation. But if you intend to throw it on a household cavalry mount any weakened leathers should be replaced. It all depends on how badly cracked the straps are for use. You may very well wind up having them tear in the field at a bad time. Rivets really arent all that difficult to replace.

 

[greg2935]

Thanks for all the help all, I had already tried saddle/leather soap which helped but the damage is pretty extensive, looks like it is going to be a replacement job. If anyone is interested, it is a really old A-Frame Ruck sack I got on evilbay, over paid but I love these things, the only problem is that there is a fair amount of leatherwork in them. :roll: There is a pic of it here

Greg

 

[leon-1]

What bits are damaged Greg, you may be able to get bits to replace it from leprevo

 

[Neil1]

Greg,
Ed's right, go with Mars Oil, I have used it on old leather and it works a treat.
Neil

 

[Tack]

Greg,
Nice ruck sack but the E-bay description left a little to be desired. Something we should all look out for.
Regards
Tack

 

[hootchi]

But it says...

... with no damage the high quality leather work... is in wonderful condition

:roll:

 

[Squidders]

Restoring leather... at first I took this to be reattaching it to the cow :yikes:

 

[maddave]

Restoring leather... at first I took this to be reattaching it to the cow :yikes:

:Crazy_071 :rolmao:

Mars oil is probably best, but if it's too far gone you've stuffed it I'm afraid. Look to Leprevo opr hit the charity shops looking for leather belts and you may be abl;e to replace the straps with a little patience

 

[greg2935]

In all fairness to the seller, the majority of the leather work is fine, however the leather strapping around the pockets has powdered. At the end of the day, the seller is trying to make a buck, and other than what is minor damage, the leather work is in okay condition. I was actually only really worried about the large leather loop at the top of the bag, it is this that gets the most direct sunlight, takes the load and holds the whole bag together and is a pig to replace: and this is fine. It is also quite hard to find the good quality leather hoops (which this bag has): the vast majority of these have a single leather disk that started to replace the more solid leather covered metal disc when this style of bag started to become too expensive to make.

 

[greg2935]

I spent the weekend looking at the Leprevo catalogue, hhhhmmmm, they do lots of nice stuff and I am now thinking I might have a go at replacing parts of my kit with leather. Think my bank balance is going to take another hit.