Hello everyone!
After a death in my family, I recieved my family's very old draft team harnesses.
Initally, I know they were stored in a basement in a darker area in a plastic tote. And honestly I don't know if they have ever been cleaned in their entire lifetime.
Upon examination, it looks like they have white spots all over. After many hours of research and gathering my materials I started with 2 tests to get the white off, only on a very tiny spot.
1st: Using a hair dryer on low heat and far away from the leather I was trying to see if the white was fat spores coming up. Some did go away while other parts of the white stayed.
2nd: I used a vinegar and water mix and let it dry on it's own, then used saddle soap.
After the cleaning step, my next step was to use pure Neatsfoot oil to condition then a neutral leather shoe polish with a horse hair brush and canvas. BUT during the process of cleaning I noticed the leather was almost "molding" and moving itself very slightly( as i touched it with my finger, my finger left a very slight indention.)
Also, when I was dapping up some of the moisture from the saddle soap test, the rag had brought up brown. Again I don't know if its dirt or leather.
On the test part, where I had originally seen very faint stitching had disappeared. I don't believe the stitching is gone but I did not want to go any further and risk the chance of
So so sorry for a long explanation I just wanna make sure I explained it correctly. Is there other methods I should try? Or should I only condition them and leave them be? THANK YOU!
