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Christopher Lee
Location: Sunshine Coast, Australia Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 160
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Posted: Sat 18 Jul, 2009 4:39 am Post subject: MRL/Windlass scabbards |
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Could anyone tell me just what is it that MRL uses to colour their scabbards? I was cleaning the chape of a MRL scabbard with some metho to get some old light oil and dust off. I accidently spilt a drop of metho on the "leather" part of the scabbard and immediately wiped it off and was horrified to see that it took the black colouring with it revealing the neutral coloured leather below. I now have a bare patch on an otherwise black scabbard. Can anyone tell me just what that stuff is and how i can restore the scabbard's appearance?
Christopher
"One sword keeps another in the sheath. "
George Herbert
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Julien M
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Posted: Sat 18 Jul, 2009 5:00 am Post subject: Re: MRL/Windlass scabbards |
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Christopher Lee wrote: | I was cleaning the chape of a MRL scabbard with some metho"
George Herbert |
What is it you call metho?
Windlass uses very cheap dye to color their scabbards. Rubbing with a wet scoth brite sponge is enough to take it off in most cases.
If what you called metho was strong enough to reveal the neutral color beneath, then it's no brainer. Clean off all the old dye with it or with a scotch brite sponge, buy some proper leather dye (fieblings for instance), and re dye the all scabbard with it. You can complement the color with matching shoe polish after to finish and give some depth. You can even change from black to any other color you may like that way, those windlass scabbard take color quiet well. I've done it here:
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=16127
cheers,
J
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JE Sarge
Industry Professional
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Posted: Sat 18 Jul, 2009 5:14 am Post subject: |
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Windlass does not really dye their scabbards. They just use a black wax-based polishing paste that does not penetrate the leather, it just colors the surface like a paint. Most of the time, you can just scrape/wipe it off. The advice given for redying it is sound, that is what I'd recommend as well.
J.E. Sarge
Crusader Monk Sword Scabbards and Customizations
www.crusadermonk.com
"But lack of documentation, especially for such early times, is not to be considered as evidence of non-existance." - Ewart Oakeshott
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Richard Eskite
Location: Northern California Joined: 27 Jun 2006
Posts: 37
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Posted: Sat 18 Jul, 2009 7:37 am Post subject: Re: MRL/Windlass scabbards |
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Julien M wrote: | Christopher Lee wrote: | I was cleaning the chape of a MRL scabbard with some metho"
George Herbert |
What is it you call metho? .....
cheers,
J |
It appears to be methylated spirits in Australia. Sounds a lot like what I would call denatured alcohol.
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Kevin S
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Posted: Sat 18 Jul, 2009 1:58 pm Post subject: |
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I think I've heard that you can use shoe polish for this, so if you just have a small patch to fix I would try that first.
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Christopher Lee
Location: Sunshine Coast, Australia Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 160
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Posted: Sat 18 Jul, 2009 4:12 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for that guys, very helpful. Ok, so my options appear to be either stripping back the whole scabbard and re-colouring it or attempting to patch it with some boot polish? Well, i'll start with the minimalist approach first and see how that turns out. If that doesn't do the trick then i'll strip the whole thing back. Sorry about the colloquialism about metho; didn't even occur to me that it wouldn't be called metho everywhere else. I've got a very old bottle of "raven's oil" leather stain that might be worth a try?
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