rotten holster on ebay
 

http://cgi.ebay.de/Pistolentasche-P-...item58877013e8

:eek:

starting bid = approx. 125.00 US$

Mein Gott!

One has to wonder in what conditions this was stored..

yikes!

Interesting that the rot spots are around areas where the metal of pistol, magazine and loading tool would have touched the leather.

Makes you wonder how the pistol looked....

It looks charred inside, like it was used to carry hot coals. Maybe an improvised hand warmer from the Eastern Front? Regards

I would suspect some sort of chemical reaction between the metal and the tanning solution in the leather.

Rotten leather is caused by the reaction of leather with gun oil or grease. My question does any one have a cure or repair?

Bryan is absolutely correct. This holster came by these damages from overoiling the pistol/magazine/tool and the oils seeped into the leather..over time it reacts like a burn, turning the leather brittle and black, just like it was burned. This is quite common actually..I have seen many examples over the years.

A cure or repair? A time machine comes to mind.

Jerry Burney

As I am still a novice, and that this topic about oil soiled leather came up; does Balistol spoils leather holsters or not? Because according to its promoters the product preserves leather. I wonder what experienced collectors say.

balistol
 

Balistol is ok for nowadays stuff like belts or modern holsters, but I would not use it for antique or collector's items.

Thanks for your reply Andy. I hope that I haven't done much damage to my newly acquired 1938 holster as I used it once in the hope that the holster would benefit from a spray with Balistol. The main reason I gave it a spray because it was stone dry and was afraid that it might start to crack. Now after reading some of the comments I don't think I will be using it again.