Restoring an M56 Belt

[Lonesome]

Hello folks, it's my first time starting some gear restoration, so I figure I seek some advice before messing up the belt further. The belt was heavily oxidised when it came to me hard, stiff and basically unusable and I've done a fair good amount of stripping the eyelets down to its brass state using q-tips. The blue oxidisation removed the blackened brass along with it though. So far so good, however the remnant blue oxidisation has left stains on the surrounding duck canvas. I'm thinking a good cold handwash in laundry detergent should do the trick. Would this mess the belt up further?

 

To add to this, I'm also thinking of restoring the eyelets using some birchwood casey brass black, taping off surrounding canvas in the process . What do you all think of my work so far? 

[Justin]

I think all your hardware is fine as is. As to removing staining from the canvas some regular ole dawn dish soup does wonders. 

[Lonesome]

Thanks for the reply, I would agree it’s intact and as it should be, but there was initially an blackened colour to the eyelets which I’d like to restore, on removal of the “blue”. Given the fact theres probably thousands of m56 belts still out there, but untouchable due to price, I think I’ll have a hand at restoring this and see how it goes. 

[USMC_COLLECTOR]

I don't know a way to restore the blackening, but it looks good how it is! Of course it is your belt and you can do whatever you think will work.

[Spike]

I would leave it just the way it is.

[gap]

Is this a rare item? Why?

[Gomerpyle]

No, it is not a rare item. They are a very common piece of Vietnam era equipment. 

[Ronnie]

It looks good as is.....very sharp.