Recondition and Protect Vintage Sweatbands

[justdaniel]

Hello all, what a wonderful forum. I floated over from the Fedora Lounge, where we have a couple of threads investigating how to treat and care for vintage leather sweatbands on hats, but we don’t really have any leather experts.  I conducted a few searches of this forum and read through the first 20 pages of threads but did not find answers before posting here.

Our problem: Some vintage sweatbands arrive and look soft and in good condition, then after one wear they stiffen, crack, and sometimes disintegrate. Some conditioner products seem to hasten this process rather than help. 

So far our threads are working on trial and error, but maybe the experts on this forum can offer some advice or recommendations? I just had a beautiful Stetson 7X Clear Beaver sweatband from the 40s go bad on me. I had treated it generously with Pecards leather conditioner (that I am a big fan of), but the first day I sweat in it it went to pieces.

Here is another testimonial:
“Dry rot is a real bugger because the leather sweat can look just fine; the damage isn't seen until sweat, water based leather dressings or other moisture is added to the mix and then the sweat goes from seemingly perfect to crap in minutes.”

Our big question has to be: is there a product that will renew or protect the leather that is dried or cracked inside (but may or may not show it externally), before moisture causes it to shrink or disintegrate? It is probably a shot in the dark, but we keep trying.
 

Thanks for the help!

Here is a pic of a typical damaged sweat:

 

 

 

Edited January 9, 2020 by justdaniel

[justdaniel]

If it helps there is a general consensus that this leather problem affects late 40s-50s Stetson leather.  It is an unscientific conclusion, but we think we get crushed more on those sweats.  The leathers up to the 30s that have lasted one way or another don’t seem to disintegrate the same way. That at least is our observation.

Daniel

Edited January 9, 2020 by justdaniel

[Rockoboy]

I have no idea, but in the interest of spit-balling, maybe the leather was being made thinner In the 40 - 50's, so it breaks down more than the older better quality leather.

As for the leather falling apart after applying a sealer or leather balm, maybe the leather is past its use-by date, just hanging together until the moisture causes total failure.

Disclaimer: I have no idea, maybe somebody with some real knowledge will be along soon.

[TargetRockLeather]

In my experience, when leather has dried out to the point where dry rot has set in, the best you can hope for is to prevent further progression of the dry rot. Once the integrity of the leather fibers has been compromised, no amount of conditioner will repair that. Your best bet is to condition the leather before using the item. It sounds like that's what you've been doing yet the sweatband falls apart anyway. That tells me that the leather was already dry rotted beyond repair.

[cardinal leather]

From your photo it looks like the band is about 1 inch or a little wider with the fold of the brim at the bottom behind the hat band. Could you take a thin strap the same width as the band, of leather like kangaroo skin insert it around the hat and run pva glue between the strips? It would be a fairly delicate restoration as you would not want glue to soak down into the brim area and soak thru but if a guy was careful it should work out, When the glue is dried for a day then you could condition the existing hatband, it should take, and the glued backing would add valued support to an otherwise lost cause. not sure that this would be considered a period restoration but it would salvage the band.

[justdaniel]

Great answers!  We are also pretty sure once these bands are gone, they are gone and are really too thin to save. There is just not enough depth there.

Putting another band behind it and reconditioning the original is a very interesting idea.  One guy over at the Fedora Lounge was considering cutting off the portions of the headband with a seal or brand mark and gluing it on to a new band. Placing the whole thing on a separate strip of leather sounds like a better option.

This guy Roger Koh over with his blog for The Leather Doctor products says the leather comes apart after use because of a pH imbalance.  The apparent burning reaction of the leather seems to support this possibility.  I wonder if any of you guys have seen these low pH Leather Doctor products?  They seem to get decent play over on the auto restoration forums.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Daniel

[justdaniel]

A related question, would anyone have an idea why awe seem to have greater problems with late-40s, 50s leather sweatbands?  I searched, but I didn’t find anything that would indicate a change in leather processing in that time.  
 

I have noticed that the pre-40s sweats drink up mink oil or conditioner, while the 50s sweats just let the oil sit on the surface.  Working it in just seems to push it along.  If I oil the back of the leather I do get better results, but still not the same.  
 

Maybe leathers from more recent decades underwent a different treatment, or have a different surface type?

Thank you!

Daniel