How do you clean leather sheaths?

Z

ziptrickhead

Joined
Sep 1, 2004
Messages
490
I can see a lot of people like leather sheaths for their fixed blades. I've always avoided leather and gone with kydex. One of my biggest problems is how to wash a leather sheath. I figure that with the outside you could just wipe down with a damp cloth, but what about the inside of a sheath? With kydex I've always just ran water through it and dried it out, but I'm guessing you really shouldn't do that with a leather sheath.
 
I soak them in linseed oil when I get them, then I run water through them as needed, let dry and reapply oil as needed.
 
You could rinse out a leather sheath if you had to. But why would that come up? Do you put your knife away muddy? Boody? Why do you do that? Hmm?????
 
Lexol makes a good leather cleaner (as well as other leather products) that would work for you without damaging the leather.
 
So rinsing it out wouldn't be a problem so long as I let it dry out throughly after?

Sometimes it's not practical to completely clean a blade before putting it away. Say it is muddy and my clothing is muddy as well. Theres no way wiping the blade on my pant leg or whatever is going to clean off the blade completely. And in general, wiping on a pant leg is only going to get it so clean, but not completely.

It's less a question of when but what if. I'm not going to put in a lot of money for a sheath if I can't keep it clean when it does get dirty.
 
Eh, the dirt just adds character and conditions it! :D

I say just scrap out what excess mud or whatever is in there, maybe push a damp t-shirt in there with a coat hanger or something and oil/saddlesoap/mink oil it up!

Maybe you should stick with kydex on your mud outings!
 
ziptrickhead said:
Sometimes it's not practical to completely clean a blade before putting it away. Say it is muddy and my clothing is muddy as well. Theres no way wiping the blade on my pant leg or whatever is going to clean off the blade completely. And in general, wiping on a pant leg is only going to get it so clean, but not completely.
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I can relate to this and it happens often enough with me. You are there working in the muck, knife in hand and completely filthy. Your pants and shirt are full of sediment or grit. Then, perhaps knee deep in the slush, you are all of a sudden done with your knife and need to go hands free. Knife goes back in the sheath.

Actually in the above scenario, leather holds a couple of advantages to kydex. Place your knife with grit on the blade in a tight fitting kydex and you are guarenteed a scratched up blade. With leather, there can be some forgiveness on that one.

Personally, on a few of my leather sheaths - the cure was to rinse out in warm soapy water. Rinse it very well. Let dry a day or two and then oil up the leather over the next couple of days. I used mineral oil for the first couple of applications, just to soften the leather a bit and then switched to boot logic - a boot wax for the last coating.
 
kgd said:
I used mineral oil for the first couple of applications, just to soften the leather a bit and then switched to boot logic - a boot wax for the last coating.
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Mineral oil is good for leather??
 
michdad said:
Mineral oil is good for leather??
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It softens it up, which is one of the side effects of washing in soap and drying it. Ever since I was kid, I used to treat my baseball gloves with mineral oil. Did it for years without harm. It will soften the leather up though. Apply it too often and too liberally and your sheath will start to loose its form.
 
Aqueous Nikwax. Rub all the crud off while the carrier solution is still wet and what is left will do what it is supposed to for the leather without over softening it or attacking the stitching. It is the best product I have used for leather boots .etc. There may be something newer that I don't know of because I've been using this stuff for ages.

http://www.nikwax.co.uk/en-us/products/productdetail.php?productid=259&activity=
 
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