Noydini

Hi there, I’m trying to recondition a bag that has some black stains on the leather that have been caused by some sort of reaction to the corrosion of the press studs. Is it possible to remove this? Saddle soap isn’t shifting it…

Hi, For anyone that is still interested, I (finally!) made a start on this project so thought I would put a quick update up with a few photos. Progress so far: - gathered materials: I bought a small can of pure neatsfoot oil and followed @ScottWolf recommendation to get another initial conditioner. I went for a product available in UK called Renapur leather balm (which is beeswax and jojoba oils). I will start with that and work up to the neatsfoot. - removed rusty rivets, studs and hardware. All of these were badly corroded and jagged edges so, rather than risk picking up tetanus, I removed them with a bradawl. Most came out ok without causing any leather splitting. I’ve saved the hardware so I can source replacements. - did a basic surface clean with shoe brush and wiped down with damp cloth. It looks quite a bit better already! To do next: - deep clean with saddle soap using applicator brush. I’ll try and reshape the pockets at this point. - assess straps and leather fixings. As you can see, some of these have split so I will have to get some pieces remade (if the satchel can be restored to a reasonable standard). I’ll probably test the conditioners on the damaged ones to see what works. Then I will move on to the conditioning. I’m feeling a bit more optimistic than I did first time round. Thanks again to everyone- I was very close to putting the bag in the bin!

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think just getting it back into some sort of presentable condition would be a good result. It would have been nice if one of the grandkids could have used it when they start school but I think that is going to be a stretch! We have the shoulder strap and buckles but unfortunately the leather on these parts is extremely brittle. I suspect those would need to be remade. I have some saddle soap so will invest in a small can of oil and will have a shot at cleaning this up. Will post some pics of my progress.

Hi folks, I wondered whether I could seek some advice from users of this forum. My grandfather recently passed and we discovered my father’s old school satchel when we were clearing the garage. The satchel is over 50 years old and, as you will see from the images below, it is in an extremely sorry state; it’s been water damaged at some point and some of the leather panels are very hard and brittle. A lot of the hardware has rusted and some of the rivets and studs are literally disintegrating into rusty dust. The item has some sentimental memories for my father so it seems a shame to just toss it in the rubbish. I said I would take it away and see if anything could be done to restore it. I’m no expert but this satchel seems too far gone - I’m guessing no amount of saddle soap or neatsfoot oil is going to get this back to serviceable condition? I wanted to check with some experts before I make my next step. If it is beyond repair, I was planning on passing it to a leather crafts person to see if they can use the bag as a template to create a replica (or maybe even incorporate some of the salvageable panels into the new bag). I would really appreciate any advice and many thanks in advance! https://ibb.co/64NVyLy https://ibb.co/cQWVHKM https://ibb.co/D4883qq https://ibb.co/BnT6xBn