Best way to remove excess oil from leather sheath?

[coolhand68]

I purchased a fixed blade and the previous owner saturated the leather sheath with what appears to be gun oil. It's a black leather sheath so it stains anything you put in it and the sheath has a tacky/sticky feel to it. Is there anyway to remove the excess oil? I thought about leaving it out in the sun for a bit but I'm not sure that would help. Tried stuffing some paper towels inside to get some of the oil out but I'm not sure if there is a better method or if the sheath is just going to remain this way.

 

[Ebbtide]

While I've never tried it, I've had a MS knifemaker to leave the sheath in a bag of kitty litter in a warm, not hot, place.

 

[sheathmaker]

Ebbtide's advice is probably the best approach, be advised it will take a VERY long time for the litter to absorb the excess oil.

In addition if it was gun oil, that type oil is not good for leather. You don't want any petroleum distillates in the oil for leather.

Neatsfoot compound does contain petroleum distillate so I never recommend using it, only PURE Neatsfoot Oil, and in your case you already have too much.

A quicker fix and also a gamble would be to scrub the sheath inside and out with Dawn (or similar) dish soap and very warm , not scorching hot water, rinse thoroughly and let dry completely. We used to clean really dirty saddles this way to recondition them.

 

[Horsewright]

With the tacky sticky feel to your sheath I'd probably try Paul's second aprroach with the Dawn. What do you have to lose? Or we could just start over.