Pilots Survival Knife; protecting leather

B

Burncycle

Joined
Jan 3, 2005
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I picked up an Ontario pilots survival knife, and I really like the color and feel of the leather as it is now, but several people have advised me to treat/protect it.

I'm new to leather... is there any way I can protect this without discoloring/darkening the leather, or is that inevitiable?
 
I used mink oil on the handle and sheath of my Camillus. On initial application it slightly darkened the leather, but after a day it was no longer noticeable.
 
The best thing I've found is Pecard Leather Dressing, available from
http://www.davidmorgan.com/

It does darken the leather a bit, but leaves it feeling very nice, and holds up very well. The small tub (6oz I think) will last you forever. Renaissance wax is better suited for unfinished wood in my experience, but is a great product, and would probably protect well with little discoloration if you're willing to keep up with reapplications. It's also really sticky, which is nice for a handle.
 
I second the Pecard's for treatment of Leather. I purchased some last year and still have alot left over, it does a great job. It's also great for leather Boots and shoes!
 
Generally, the sheath that comes with the old AF Survival Knife is made of thin leather that is notorious for falling apart. But SnowSeal will help. Take it apart, melt in SnowSeal inside and out and stitch it back together with waxed nylon thread and it should hold together a lot longer than the original. Or look around for an aftermarket sheath like the plastic/nylon one that comes with the new 'improved' :barf: AF survival knife.
 
if you want to treat it, you will end up darkening the handle some.

Neats foot oil, pecards, most anything made for leather works well. You can also dip the handle in a can of hot parafin wax.
 
That is treatment for the handle. same thing used for the sheath. I have an old pilot's survival, Ive had for years that I have never treated. I use to work in survival equipment in the AF for 8 years. Ive gone through many of these knives, used them, issued them in surivial kits, etc.

The only time you really need to treat these, that is the handles, sheaths, if it is really going to be used in a damp, or wet enviroment.
 
Knives are expendable items to the military, especially the pilots survival knife. If you really need to, wax is okay, or if you want to get interesting, try polyurethane...

If you don't care about the leather at all, chop it off and make a wooden handle or wrap paracord around the bare metal tang.
 
I use mink oil on my leather to protect it. Give my moccassins a treatment once a month.

I've got an old belt pouch from about 94-95, it's been soaked a few times. Just treated with mink oil. It's soft now, which is why I got a new pouch made last summer, thicker leather and better construction... Should get closer to 20yrs out of this new one as long as the stitching holds up.
 
Actually the mutt, does not have a bad idea.

You could grind off the "peen" and pull the pommel off and make a handle of your own choosing if youl like.
 
I posted a similar question on the Camillus part of the forum when I got a couple of these from Cabela's. Very cheap, but very nice knife.

The only leather treatment that I could find was snow seal, so I used that on the handle and it worked **great**. Heat the handle up to 100 or 120 deg F, it really soaks in!

I'm sure that the other recommendations would work well also. This is a great little knife with a lot of history, I hope you enjoy yours as much as I enjoy mine!
 
rev_jch said:
Actually the mutt, does not have a bad idea.

You could grind off the "peen" and pull the pommel off and make a handle of your own choosing if youl like.
Click to expand...

Well, you don't even have to go that far... I cut the leather washers off and wrapped the handle with paracord...
 
MelancholyMutt said:
If you don't care about the leather at all, chop it off and make a wooden handle or wrap paracord around the bare metal tang.
Click to expand...


I did that to mine. I hated that big heavy pommel so I pulled it apart, made a brass guard and replaced the leather with some dark brown micarta in a Randall model 1 shape. Real nice to use now, (after a good sharpening)


Cabellas has these on sale right now for less than $20


Drew
 
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