Leather jacket accident

[snarky]

Apologies, this question has nothing to do with fashion as such. It's more of a damage-control question...

A few years ago, I left Hawaii for 6 months on a deployment. Knowing that the humid environment meant that everything would be covered with mold, I left a few jars of CaCl pellets around to absorb the moisture. Unfortunately, I severely underestimated either the humidity or the CaCl, with predictable results. I returned to find several puddles of saltwater all over the apartment. One of the jars had been left on a top shelf in the closet, and had dripped saltwater down the back of my old biker jacket. The salt sucked the moisture out of it, leaving a tough, shrunken, puckered streak along the collar and some of the back. The leather is extremely tough and dense there, and as it shrank it wrinkled some of the surrounding leather.

I know that full restoration is probably impossible, and not really necessary anyhow. It's a pretty worn, scarred jacket in the first place, so I don't worry too much if it's aesthetically imperfect. What I'm trying to find is some method of re-hydrating the leather where it was damaged, to soften it and make it wearable again. Again, I don't mind a scar there, but does anyone know how to at least restore the damaged leather?

TIA

Side note: everything ended up covered in mold anyhow. I just decided to think of it as free penecillin

 

[j]

Bummer.

Vanson Leather has leather cream stuff in a bottle that you can use to condition leather. You'd have to order it or find a Vanson dealer. You could also use Lexol, which can be bought at a shoe repair shop or auto supply. Or possibly Meltonian cream (also shoe repair).

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Arethusa]

Your other option would be to find a leatherworker or a good cobbler; either should be able to help repair parched leather, and you might get better results than you would from a bottle of conditioner.

 

[stach]

Mink oil. Really rub it in.