I was given a Austro-Hungarian Cavalry Officer's Sabre, a bring-back from a WW1 battle in 1918. I'm all for a light cleaning, but this one still has the leather with the original painted red stripe on about the top third of the scabbard. It is cracked along the seam in back but the original glue holds it on. I'm afraid to even touch the leather, much less clean or moisturize it. Can anyone recommend a preservation expert who might be willing to discuss how or if to treat this scabbard to keep the leather from further drying and falling off? https://photos.app.goo.gl/wPZXSW5xW6hEjUyU8
I am assuming the scabbard is leather on steel. Seeping liquid super-glue under the ragged edges is not a bad idea. Try vitamin E, or fish oil on the grip but a leather compound would likely work as well. Many swear to using only lanolin or lanolin products. I would avoid neetsfoot or shoe silicon compounds. I swear by Pecards leather treatment, which is mostly a white spirit and beeswax compound. Some like Renaissance wax. All will darken the leather, the lanolin the least so.
My preference for Pecards has been from conserving a number of leather items, as the antique formula will penetrate the leather and stiffen/strengthen the object. One 200+ year old scabbard here was turning into dry and cracked dust. A couple of similar instances arrived with a deep paste wax treatment, which has also preserved them but I feel the commercial floor waxes a bit heavy and lack as much penetration.
Experimenting with the loss patch in matching colors can be tough but I like stuff like shoe polish, ground coffee, all mixed together with superglue for some cracks but in this case you need something thin as fill. I have use polystyrene beads for ray skin patches. experiment before filling the hole and the patch and blend/feather the joins. An alternative would be entirely redoing the leather but just stabilizing, tacking down edges and a treatment such as Pecards would be the way to go.
Evaporust has been getting good marks on blades but I've not tried it yet.
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