Cleaning/Restoring Leather Sheath

[Legendary_Jarl]

Hello!

I bought a couple of cheap knives on fleebay as potential restoration projects. They both came with leather sheaths. One of the sheaths has a nasty mold/humidity smell and the other has worn out paint and the lash feels thin and dry. It feels as if it could be cracked if nothing done about it.

I have renaissance wax, I wonder if that would help the sheath that seems worn. As for the other with the smell, I don't imagine soap and water would be a good idea, is there another substance/solution you'd recommend?

Thanks for any ideas/help.

 

[BitingSarcasm]

Once mold is in a sheath, it's not an easy fix. If you do a search restricted to the Sheaths and Such subforum, I know I've seen this pop up before. Sometimes a blast of WD40 does amazing things with killing biologicals where you don't want them, but then it smells like WD40 for a few days so you can't tell if it worked right away. Dry leather won't be helped by wax, but a few applications of Neatsfoot Oil will rehydrate the leather. If it's close to cracking it may not restore the flexibility, but the oil can restore a lot of functionality.

If those are project knives, then maybe the best thing is to make project sheathes, too. Leatherworking isn't hard to get into, there's just a learning curve where the final product looks like NeoCaveman until you get better tools and more skill using them.

 

[SwissHeritageCo]

Saddle soap, dry. Neatsfoot oil, dry. Then you can use a wax based leather balm of your choice but I'm not sure renaissance wax is it.

 

[cudgee]

Saddle soap first to clean the leather as much as possible, then some good leather oil, and as you already have the renaissance wax use it. I use it on my leather products and have never has an issue, just remember light coats, and you may need a few with the oil. As these are cheap project knives and sheaths use them to learn. Hell if you bugger them up put it down to experience. Keep us updated how it all goes.

 

[BJE]

Clean liberally with saddle soap, if unsure how, there are tutorials online for boot care and other leather goods, saddle soap used with a horse hair or nylon bristle brush (toothbrush) alone will work wonders, keep repeating the process until you aren’t wiping dirt off anymore.

After it’s completely dry from the saddle soap cleaning, I would apply a leather conditioner such as mink oil, bear grease, hubberds shoe grease, bick no. 4, or similar quality boot conditioner.
It might take more than one application if severely dried out, but don’t overdue it or the leather will get too soft.

You could then apply a wax if you so desired, I like sno seal myself, it’s not really necessary for a knife sheath, but helps with moisture and might help with mold do to sealing the leather pores and keeping it dry.