How to restore a piece of milsurp leather gear
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So you want to restore leather?
Once you have gone beyond the usual realms of milsurp faggotry there is a whole new area to explore. You have the K-31 and you decide to get one of those nifty high quality bayonets to go along with it. Then you need the bayonet frog. Then you need the belt to hold the frog to hold the bayonet. Then you need the Y-strap to hold the belt, etc... You get the picture. Collecting milsurp gear is an adventure of it's own and I will be making a rather large post about Swiss milsurp with lots of pics and info next month sometime when the rest of my kit arrives.
Anyways, the problem with a lot of the leather goods is that they have been sitting neglected in various armories or in grandpa's closet for a very long time. This causes the leather to crack and dry out over time. Some of it was used very hard during it's service life, neglected and then tossed into crates for storage. Then it was sold by the various government to fund new purchases and makes it's way into the loving hands of the milsurp faggot.
Materials
Once you have the piece of gear in question, you will need a few things to get started:
Water
Saddlesoap or your favorite leather cleaner
soft cotton rags
picks
optional:
weights and boards to straighten straps
steel wool to clean any tarnish off of the metal
You may question the need for the dental picks, but they are very useful for getting into the nooks and crannies of the gear. Sometimes the gear has been coated with wax and you may find the wax remaining around the buttons or snaps on the gear.
OK, once you have your tools and your gear you can get started. The piece of gear I have choosen is a swiss ammo bandoleer that was used by the calvary, bike riders, and vehicle drivers.
Here is a pic of the piece to be done and one that is already completed.
It is pretty easy to see the difference. The one that was already done looked worse than the fresh one in this picture to start. Here are some closeups.
The Process
OK, the process itself is rather easy, but it is labor intensive. Lots of elbow grease involved in putting one of these back to rights. You dampen your rag, get a good coat of saddlesoap on it and rub it into the leather.
You can see the dirt on the rag and you will have to change out your rag many times on the first cleaning. Once the piece is covered, let it rest for a while to let the saddlesoap soak in. The saddlesoap cleans and restores the oils in the leather and makes it supple and usable again. Here is a pic of the first go around with the end straps under weight to help make them straight again. They were rather bent and twisted and this helps to get them back into their original shape again.
Once it has rested for a bit, take a clean cloth and polish the leather. You will end up with something like this:
Repeat the above steps until you are happy with how the leather looks and feels. Most pieces I have done only require 2 applications of saddlesoap to put them to rights.
Here is the piece after 2 coats:
Next, I loaded up some stripper clips and filled the bandoleer. This actually has a purpose as most milsurp gear has been squashed and bent out of shape. Loading up the bandoleer will stretch it back into it's original shape.
Here is the pair of bandoleers again. Quite a difference eh? Not bad for a 75 year old piece of leather. I have about 3 hours work into each of those.
There are some close ups of the stamps and the Swiss used. The Swiss date stamped a lot of their gear which makes it a little easier to get the right era of gear.
Capnbeeb ended up with the bandoleer that I used in this post. I am pretty sure he is doing illegal things with it involving a goat and that pioneer stabby he has.
This concludes today's lesson in milsurp faggotry.
