Is it safe to use moden leather polish on WW2 leather items?

[Fariz]

Hello,

Is it safe to use modern leather/shoe polish on leather items such as flying boots, ammo pouches, map cases, etc, that are drying and cracking due to humidity? The reason I'm asking is because I may have read somewhere that modern polish contains chemicals that are damaging to old leather items. Thank you.

Regards,
Fariz

[Stahlhelm]

Hi, Fariz,

For reasons including what you mentioned above, I would not put any type of lotions, cremes, polishes, etc. on any type of old and valuable leather. I have heard of cases in which old leather initially looks better after such treatments, and then begins to deteriorate at a more rapid rate afterwards. That's one of the worst case scenarios, of course, but I don't take chances myself. The consensus here on the conservation forum has also been against such treatments in past discussions. Just do a search for leather preservation here, and you'll see what I mean.

Chris

[Scott A. Hess]

I also exercise caution, but I've put alight coating of very good polish on flight boots when I get them to clean them up a bit, and a bit of saddle soap, they after 20 years show no signs whatsoever of any detoriation or other damage, mind you, these were on pieces that were largely unissued and taken very very well care of even before I received them. I think it also depends on the quality of the leather/material in question. I would exercise caution, read up on it, however, I can say at least in my collection Ive had no problems, however I would not mess with helmet liners especially the late war stuff that almost turns to a stiff paper over years. I also store my collection in very good conditions, we have no humidity here, I keep the temp constant around 67 degrees, and they are kept out of sunlight, dust and pollution, so that obviously will help preservation over time. If I had a million dollars I'd build a big room and encase all my mannequins (I dont even have any displayed now) in nice cases, temp/cllimate/humidty controlled, also shielded from dust and pollution, with special uv film over the windows and glass on the cases to protect form sun damage, but i dont have a million dollars to build a museum at the moment!