Help With Restoring Leather

[Novice32]

Dear all,

I'm very new to leatherwork and would be immensely grateful for some help with my restoration of a beautiful old Pendragon attache case. The case is probably from the 1950's/60's and is made of thick bridle leather. The leather is dirty, cracked, dry and scuffed/scratched. My aim is to restore and protect it, but I am not looking for an 'as new' finished - I'd like it to show its age and patina. So far I have re stitched some of the seams - now I need to tackle the leather itself.

For this I have ordered some Lexol Cleaner, Lexol Conditioner and Skidmore's Beeswax Restoration Cream. Are these products sufficient? Do I need anything else? What order would you use them (I had intended cleaner; beeswax to fill in the cracks; then conditioner - is this correct?). I would like to avoid re-dying the leather but is this the only way to deal with the scuffed edges?

Any and all advice gratefully received.

[Jim]

You have a good thing going with the Lexol. I used it on an 1848 pistol cartridge box and it did wonders.

Jim

[Jim]

Not sure about the beeswax

Edited August 26, 2015 by Jim

[Novice32]

Thanks for the advice - in your experience is it worth using the Lexol on the scuffed edges? I hear it's great for scratches but not sure how it will work where the leather is really worn.

[Jim]

If you intend to leave the bag in its present state, and why not; then it won't hurt it. Lexol is great for giving the old leather some badly needed oils thereby restoring it a bit.

Jim

Edited August 26, 2015 by Jim

[MY63]

I have restored these cases in the past and I am currently restoring one now I remove all of the stitching and add a suede liner which adds strength they are high quality cases from an interesting company.

To answer your question I use Fiebing's mink oil with excellent results.