So any way to get the plastic coating off a windlass scabbard?

Thanks,
Mark

On the leather? All of the windlass scabbards I had were kinda plasticy-coated leather - however, they were all leather, with no wooden core, so I ditched them and kept the chapes. in my experience, plastic-coated leather stays that way - I have, however, carefully skived the outer layer off for a suede-like look on modern knife sheaths.

I peeled the throat and chape off on of their dagger scabbards and put it on the belt sander. Then smeared some glue around and covered it with another piece of leather, and seamed it up the back. I dyed it and rubbed beeswax into it.

I used fingernail polish remover to strip a windless scabbard

I've used acetone to strip a Windlass scabbard. They might look plastic-y but it's just a shiny finish, they are not patent (plastic-coated) leather.

Hope that helps,
Alan

I tend to have a few of these lying around, and there's not much historical good to be wrung from them. As an experiment, I cut the stitching on one, soaked it until it was pliable and rolled it up into a small package for storage. There's some good, thick leather in these scabbards. They're not great as sword scabbards, but they might be just the thing for some other historical projects, including knife scabbards, shoe soles, straps, etc. Storing them in a fist-size roll helps justify keeping them around "just in case."