Is this a lost cause?

[Randle P McMurphy]

 

Hello All

Just wondering if this Cool Vintage Braided Black Jack,  total 8in long.... a flea market find,....got it for 5 bucks,   Is a lost cause?? I don't know anything about braiding, all a mystery to me. Was very dried out when I got it, The leather on this side has dried out and cracked in half at the bend of the jack,  I put a coat of Fiebings Aussie. Im going to keep it cool piece anyways,   Is it repairable?  

 

[fredk]

If only for a display piece; the only way I see of making that good is to cut away the ripped/broken bits and glue into the spaces freshly cut [& dyed[ sections of leather

[bucksnort]

Without knowing the condition of the leather, this may be chancy. Pull out the broken strands one cross at a time & follow, replace it with a new piece. When you reach a point where the lesther is sound, bury the end of the old strand under a couple of crosses, go over it with the new strand & then bury the end of it as well. Hope this helps. Buck.

[Squirrelly66]

It is a nice piece. your going to want to keep it conditioned well from now on. It could be repaired but why. If you were going to use it I would say repair it, but if its going to be displayed I would do a light clean up on the piece just so you there is no debri that can be snagged and possibly cause further damage if handled in the future. I you try to repair it you are going to run in to problems. even though you are conditioning the leather some of the other strands most likely have damage that cannot be seen and when you start trying to remove the damaged strands you may snap others. it looks to be very tightly braided so trying remove the selected strands by simply sliding the damaged one out and a new one in is not going to be simple , easy, or advisable in my opinion. I have repaired item like this in the past. I usually have to dismantle most of it to repair it properly and at that point its easier to just plait a new one and clean the old one up for display only. Hope this helps

[oltoot]

if for display, it has character the way it is so just clean it up a little, IMHO