Hi! New here and new to leathercrafting. I recently acquired a huge amount of leather from the '70s and '80s, along with with a Singer 31-20 from 1953 (that needs a bit of work before I can use it). The leather came from an old wallet making business. There about 15 to 20 rolls wrapped in kraft paper, many of them with multiple large hides. Some not wrapped at all. Probably stored in a garage for the past 30 years. I didn't get a chance to unwrap all of them yet! A few of the rolls look like they were wet at some point and smell of mildew, a few have dry, cracked edges because the kraft paper was too short, but a couple of them were tightly wrapped so they're clean and look brand new. I unwrapped one of the ones that got wet and there is only mildew on the outer hide, the inner ones are fine. I'm a dressmaker, so I don't know much about leather, but am open to learning anything and everything I can before using these in sewing projects. I do love vintage stuff, so it's been quite fun unwrapping and finding old tags and receipts tucked into them!
I am wondering what would be the best product to use to "revive" or condition them, and if it was possible to clean and salvage the lightly mildewed ones? I am low on storage space, so I will most likely be rolling these back onto rolls with new kraft paper.
