Repair of heritage piece

[DwightT]

50+ years ago my grandfather made this bag for my mother.

My sister now owns the bag and she asked me to clean and condition the leather.  In the process of looking it over though I found that a lot of the lacing is deteriorating,  so I offered to redo it.  However when I was pulling out the old lacing I found that some of the leather had split at the holes:

There is about a 3" section on the bottom of one side of the bag that is split like this.  The rest of the leather looks OK,  and the liner on the inside looks fine.

Any thoughts as to how to go about repairing this? Obviously for sentimental reasons we want to try to keep the bag in as good a condition as we can.

    /dwight

[fredk]

I would dye to match and glue in a piece of 1mm thick leather, skived at the edges, to a feather edge, so it hardly shows. Then, lace through that new piece

[DwightT]

25 minutes ago, fredk said:

I would dye to match and glue in a piece of 1mm thick leather, skived at the edges, to a feather edge, so it hardly shows. Then, lace through that new piece

I think you are right.  That might be the best way to go.  The problem will be in the "dye to match" part.  The original leather wasn't dyed to begin with.  It's just 50+ years old. That aged leather color might be hard to match.  Plus I would be worried that the dyed leather wouldn't age the same as the old leather and it wouldn't take long before it didn't match at all. I'm thinking it might be better to go with an intentionally contrasting color.

.   /dwight

[Grumpymann]

I use high count(number thus more colors to choose from ) permanent markers making it easier to (color ) match. Then I use either a finish,  thoronol or bees wax. And bonding another piece behind the torn piece binding both sides (big and small piece)   should work. And just wondering have you thought about hiding the repair behind a "lining"? 

[Handstitched]

@DwightT

Not sure if this is of any help, just a suggestion, but  the dye I would be using is ' whisky' antique or similar , like what I used  on the tool bag.  I've had to repair or restore  a few old hand bags in similar condition before. 

As for the holes, pretty much what @fredk suggested. Some reinforcing on the inside. 

HS

 

 

[DwightT]

13 hours ago, Grumpymann said:

I use high count(number thus more colors to choose from ) permanent markers making it easier to (color ) match. Then I use either a finish,  thoronol or bees wax. And bonding another piece behind the torn piece binding both sides (big and small piece)   should work. And just wondering have you thought about hiding the repair behind a "lining"? 

I like the idea of bonding a piece behind the torn part. That way I won't really need to worry about matching the current color. There is already I lining on the inside of the bag,  so I can position the "patch"in the middle to hide it.  I'll just need to skive the patch as fredk mentioned to minimize how much it shows.

  

13 hours ago, Handstitched said:

@DwightT

Not sure if this is of any help, just a suggestion, but  the dye I would be using is ' whisky' antique or similar , like what I used  on the tool bag.  I've had to repair or restore  a few old hand bags in similar condition before.

 Thanks. I may not need to worry another color matching here,  but I'm doing some other projects where I occasionally combine old and new leather.  I'll look for that dye color to make them match.

/dwight

[Handstitched]

8 hours ago, DwightT said:

I'll look for that dye color to make them match

Whatever you decide, hope all goes well,  as this certanly very special   

HS