Leather Guncase restoration

cube

Active Member
Afternoon all, I have been gifted a lovely old leather Guncase. It is however in need of some TLC. Could anyone recommend where I may be able to have it brought back to life? Many thanks in advance for your assistance.
 

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Griot's Garage Leather Restoring Balm.

It is like honey... you have to rub it in gently and let the case sit up or hang where it can get air for two weeks, to dry. Then do a second coat. After that dries, you can treat it with Lexol, which does not turn slick when wet in the rain.

I have treated saddles and scabbards from the American War Between the States, rolled up slings for Mausers from 1918, USGI 1911 holsters from WWI, and brought them back to where i can use them.

I am getting ready to restore a leather case and bellows on a 1937 Zeiss Ikon camera. I will take photos before and after.

If the leather is very dry or molded, you may need to treat it first with a thin solution used by libraries to kill microbes on leather books. Then you treat it with a gentle restorer. I have some of both, but the labels are stained, so I will have to read them and where to buy it.
 
If you want to pay to have it done, IF the person is still there, there was a young woman at Westley Richards in Birmingham who was very, very good. Which is about the only reason i'd ever recommend doing business with that company based on my personal experience of every other aspect of their "customer service" skills...bar this one young lady.
 
That was Helen Ledham (I could have spelt the surname incorrectly), but I think she left sometime ago to go solo. I have used Allan Gillespie in Gloucestershire to restore a few old leather gun cases for me; both the outside (including repairs, new handles and straps) and inside (new wool cloth and re-fitting etc.). Good work is never cheap but the quality of the work means it will be good for another hundred years. He's got a website so is only a quick search away.

As a starter you can kill the mould that grows on leather using nothing more complicated than sunlight. The best restoration treatment is 'Flebing's 4-way care'.
 
NEVER use Connelly's as this goes through the leather and then attacks the glue beneath it fixing it to the carcass of the case. A friend, and myself, have used Kao-Cho-Line with success in a very limited application. It is good on straps as it is really for harness on horses.

Thank you, DrJohn. It was indeed this young woman, Helen Ledham, the work she did on my father's 1919 guncase was excellent. Superb. And as it has now re-aged over the last five plus years even better.

Saddlery competition showcase’s new talent | Horse Countryside

Here is a link with contact details.

HELEN LEEDHAM MASTER SADDLER | The Equestrian Index
 
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