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shooting bag care & treatment
- Thread starter gasgbs
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paulvallandigham
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Give it a good coating ( soaking?) of Neatsfoot Oil. You can usually find it for sale at she repair shops. Ask the shoe repairman if he knows any tricks to restoring the leather any better. If no local shoe repair shop, find a harness shop that services the horse owners in your area( look up stables in the yellow pages, and call one to get a referral to a local harness shop.)
Obviously, take the bag with you to the shop when you go to buy the oil. Its also available by mail order from sites like Tandy Leather, and Leathercraft, as well as others. :thumbsup:
Obviously, take the bag with you to the shop when you go to buy the oil. Its also available by mail order from sites like Tandy Leather, and Leathercraft, as well as others. :thumbsup:
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Get the pure neatsfoots oil. NOT the compound.
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If we're talking heirloom stuff and preserving it for future generations, I think the rules change. Just the simple act of manipulating it to get the neatsfoot oil on it might add to the cracking.
I'd sure get hold of the nearest museum and talk to the curator personally. There are pretty standard techniques and products for preservation that probably have little to do with how you'd treat a bag you were just restoring for use.
I'd sure get hold of the nearest museum and talk to the curator personally. There are pretty standard techniques and products for preservation that probably have little to do with how you'd treat a bag you were just restoring for use.
What Brown Bear said.....FWIW I am a professional leather craftsman and have studied the subject for almost 50 years and the following is my advice based on those years of experience both building leather and repairing it.
I'm always hesitant to approach this subject since leather restoration of old and especially damaged leather is a complicated issue and when it comes to doing it right I defer to the experts - museum conservators. This is especially so when leather is an heirloom piece as this piece may be.
So in a case like yours, my first suggestion is to contact a professional leather conservator (I worked with one for a while and their methods can be very different than the common ones used by leather crafters -shoe repairmen and harness shops generally do not have the experience or methods to conserve leather - the methods used by conservators are based on tests done to the leather), but if that isn't possible or not your choice, than please read this very good article written by a conservator: http://www.garciaaviation.com/conserve.html
With all due respect to the others who have answered, there is old dried out leather and then there is old DAMAGED leather and of the latter I've seen far too many pieces that have been ruined by folks (even experienced leather crafters who are generally not trained in conservation/repair techniques) using the wrong "tool" for the job.
For instance washing with saddle soap and/or adding a conditioner, which might work well on new leather or older dried out leather, can in fact cause damage i.e. old oil will acidify over time and adding more can exacerbate the problem and causes irreversible damage. Often times in old damged leather the cell walls have broken down and the integrity of the leather is lost - adding a conditioner in this case will often just increase the damage - I've seen it happen, what was once a prized possesion becomes a soggy, shapeless mess - no matter what the condition the leather is one should NEVER soak it in oil, that leads to destruction. In a case like that the piece needs to be stabilized rather than conditioned (or a combo of both with the conditoning if need be coming after the stabilization) and then stored properly (keep it out of the sun for one)
Personally - without examining the piece first hand I won't offer any suggestions other than those I've listed above...and FWIW even then I would still recommend a professional conservator.
I'm always hesitant to approach this subject since leather restoration of old and especially damaged leather is a complicated issue and when it comes to doing it right I defer to the experts - museum conservators. This is especially so when leather is an heirloom piece as this piece may be.
So in a case like yours, my first suggestion is to contact a professional leather conservator (I worked with one for a while and their methods can be very different than the common ones used by leather crafters -shoe repairmen and harness shops generally do not have the experience or methods to conserve leather - the methods used by conservators are based on tests done to the leather), but if that isn't possible or not your choice, than please read this very good article written by a conservator: http://www.garciaaviation.com/conserve.html
With all due respect to the others who have answered, there is old dried out leather and then there is old DAMAGED leather and of the latter I've seen far too many pieces that have been ruined by folks (even experienced leather crafters who are generally not trained in conservation/repair techniques) using the wrong "tool" for the job.
For instance washing with saddle soap and/or adding a conditioner, which might work well on new leather or older dried out leather, can in fact cause damage i.e. old oil will acidify over time and adding more can exacerbate the problem and causes irreversible damage. Often times in old damged leather the cell walls have broken down and the integrity of the leather is lost - adding a conditioner in this case will often just increase the damage - I've seen it happen, what was once a prized possesion becomes a soggy, shapeless mess - no matter what the condition the leather is one should NEVER soak it in oil, that leads to destruction. In a case like that the piece needs to be stabilized rather than conditioned (or a combo of both with the conditoning if need be coming after the stabilization) and then stored properly (keep it out of the sun for one)
Personally - without examining the piece first hand I won't offer any suggestions other than those I've listed above...and FWIW even then I would still recommend a professional conservator.
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i'm gonna defer to the other posts for how to oil/treat the bag, but i would strongly recommend that you not seal it up in a box, unless you have museum quality equipment. boxing it up could make it rot away even faster. i'd treat it like any other antique. keep it in a nice climate controlled environment.
Thank you for your very informational input. I am inclined to agree with you. This particular bag is 233 years old. Yes it is dated. It is a double bag. Dated June 17 1777 Saratoga NY. This is why I am worried what to do to preserve the bag. Thanks again, Gary
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Hello GBS - What a find! I will second/third LaBonte. You need to seek professional help. Perhaps closer to you is the University of Delaware which has a very strong art conservation program. Art conservation in this case not just meaning fine art. The Army Heritage & Education Center in Carlisle does not do much conservation but should be able (as any of the really good museums/historical centers) to refer you to one or more experts in the field.
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Wow is right! Looks like I might have to rethink my aversion to starting tooling. That's really tasteful.
Am I "reading" the photo right, in that it's not sewn and reversed, rather the bag is built "right side out" with the gusset installed outside and the seams showing? I like it that very much.
In the first photo it looks almost as though the horn stopper is a leather cap, but not so in the second. Correct? How is it stoppered?
And yeah, get some experts to work on this one!
Am I "reading" the photo right, in that it's not sewn and reversed, rather the bag is built "right side out" with the gusset installed outside and the seams showing? I like it that very much.
In the first photo it looks almost as though the horn stopper is a leather cap, but not so in the second. Correct? How is it stoppered?
And yeah, get some experts to work on this one!
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