Lexol & Pecards

[Chuck Shoun]

There is an article in the "General Information" about preserving old holsters using Lexol or Pecards. Where might I obtain these products? I live in a town where nobody wears shoes, so we don't have a shoe repair business I could ask. TIA

Try this link www.pecard.com

Lexol is sold by the Tandy Leather people. Tom h

[Orv Reichert]

Read this first....


http://web.uccs.edu/dmclain/conservation/hn/


click on 'caring for antique leather'..then don't put anything on it!


Orv

[Herb]

I have used both of these products and have found them to be pretty good. Both of them will darken the leather somewhat, but they do a good job of preserving and keeping the leather soft. I use one or the other on my deer skin riding gloves (ATV riding) and have found that they will extend the life of the gloves by quite a bit. It has been about four years since I bought the last pair of gloves. If the leather is aready hard from age nothing that I am aware of will restore it to any degree of satisfaction. I tried both of them and also Neatsfoot oil on a old C96 holster rig that had dried and also shrunk and nothing did any good, it's still old and shrinken, just darker now. The Neatsfoot oil works well but the leather really soakes it up.

[Johnny Peppers]

Take a look at the holster on page 29 of Kenyon's Multi-National book. A friend owns a Luger rig identical to the one pictured only my friend's has the matching numbered stock. The rig my friend now owns had been in a bank safety deposit box since 1970, and the holster was turning to dust, just as the holster pictured in the book. My friend kept the holster wrapped in a towel in his gunsafe, and each time the towel was unwrapped, more of the holster had turned loose on the towel. Something had to be done, and the holster was treated with Pecards. The holster is no longer shedding leather, and whether he shortened it's life we will never know but at least it can now be displayed with the pistol and stock without disintergrating before his eyes. This was possibly a bad batch of leather or as the text indicates may have gone to South America, as the holsters appear to be in the same state of decay. The holster pictured also appears to have had something applied to stop the disintergration of the leather. A blanket statement that nothing should be done does not fit every holster. The holsters are probably among the rarest Luger holsters ever made, and to simply have done nothing considering what was happening to my friend's holster was not an option.

[Herb]

Avoid anything that has silicone in it. Silicone makes for a great shine, but it also tends to dry out the material it is used on and eventually it will split and fall apart. Some swear by Armor All, but it is mostly silicone and will eventually destroy the item,IMHO.

[David Jackson]

What would happen if leather were kept in a vacuum?


I know there are various food processing vacuum items for sale these days. I occaisionally wonder how vacuum sealing would work for preserving guns and leather (assuming that the leather object would not be distorted by the air removal process).


David Jackson