New member from Oregon

[Max1860]

Hello all. Long ago I received several items of US Civil War militaria and have always had some questions about these; I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. One item in particular is a US cartridge case for rifle, I believe model of 1855. The case is in quite good condition, but it's pretty dried out & cracked and I would like to conserve this before it starts to crumble.

 

I'll take a shot at uploading some pics here, just to get started

[Max1860]

I just noticed that the first pic I posted is kind of blurry...could not find an 'edit' option, so here's a better one.

[ScottG]

  Hello and welcome. You will find many topics on this forum about preserving leather. Let me start by saying that you have a nice cartridge box and some dryness is to be expected at 160 plus years. With that said, I would leave it as is as anything you add to it will alter it and will also eventually dry out and leave residue.

    Scott

[Max1860]

Thanks for your reply, Scott. I'm inclined to agree with you that any tampering might be very bad for this. Many years ago however, I was involved in restoring antique Louis Vuitton steamer trunks; these had leather trim on the edges that looked like this and even worse. I was able to bring them back to life using gentle heat and rubbing in beeswax with bronze wool; actually got nice polish that way, without disturbing the original leather, even though they were so dried out that they wanted to crumble.

 

Anyone ever do anything like this?

[skautdog]

Very nice box. Thanks for sharing.

[M24 Chaffee]

That’s a really nice cartridge box! I agree with ScottG and really think it’ll be best left untreated. 
 

Frank

[Max1860]

Thanks for the replies. I tend to agree with the consensus, that I should just leave it alone. I wonder what, if anything, a museum would do with something like this, just to arrest any further aging issues. In any case, these look nice in my little display cabinet, which also includes a Confederate canteen, documented to have been "Taken from the body of a dead rebel at Antietam" and a couple of old Colts; 1849 New Pocket 6" bbl and an 1860 Colt Army.