Mould

[mark]

Afternoon all,

I moved house six months ago. My new block backs onto temperate rainforest.

The mould that now grows on knife sheaths, cartridge belts and slings is becoming a pest.

It doesn't seem to matter if it's leather or synthetic material.

Any advice re methods to prevent, kill, and stop the mould from re-occurring would be much appreciated.

Cheers Mark

[PriseDeFer]

Clean with a solution of 1/4 cup of bleach to one gallon of water, let it dry on the surface. You may want to test this solution on a small patch of the moldy surface, could damage leather I think. Try to control humidity. Learn to love the jungle, let it become your foul and fetid mistress as you writhe in forbidden ecstasy in your wet, green hell.

[Centennial]

Bleach is corrosive to brass, don't put it on leather. The US Army had a practice of scrapping off the verdigris with their knives. If they didn't they would have trouble extracting from the Springfield 50-70 & 45-70's. They went to web gear and that's the cure.

[J Miller]

I had a problem with mold in my basement several years ago. I first killed the mold with white vinegar then used leather treatment. I forget the brand. Then I packed everything in the freezer grade Zip-Lock bags. To date nothing in the bags has molded again. Other things yes.

Other than running around naked like the rain forest residents, I don't know of any way to actually prevent the mold when the humidity and moisture is high.

Joe

[mark]

Joe,

"I first killed the mold with white vinegar then used leather treatment"

I've sprayed the mould with 60% alcohol solution to kill it. Applying boot polish as a follow up, seems to slow the mould down.

I'll try some Sno-Seal on the leather to see how it performs.

With the synthetic material I'll try your idea of the sealed plastic bags.

As for, "running around naked like the rain forest residents", the leeches down here would bleed you dry.

Thanks to you and the other respondents.

Oh!, it's raining again.

Cheers Mark

[J Miller]

Joe,

"I first killed the mold with white vinegar then used leather treatment"

I've sprayed the mould with 60% alcohol solution to kill it. Applying boot polish as a follow up, seems to slow the mould down.

I'll try some Sno-Seal on the leather to see how it performs.

With the synthetic material I'll try your idea of the sealed plastic bags.

As for, "running around naked like the rain forest residents", the leeches down here would bleed you dry.

Thanks to you and the other respondents.

Oh!, it's raining again.

Cheers Mark

Well, it's really no different up here. The leaches (politicians) are bleeding us dry too.

Joe

[BenT]

Mold eats the fats in the leather oil. Mineral oil has no fats for mold and I believe olive oil doesn't either. I know you can use olive oil on leather not sure about mineral oil. Not sure what to kill the mold with.

[mark]

Evening all

A follow up to my original post of two months ago. Initially, the mould was killed with a spray can that contains 60% alcohol.

1. The SnoSeal seems to be keeping the mould at bay on all the leather items that I rubbed it into.

2. The timber stocks had Howard Feed n Wax applied and so far no more mould. All are now in Allen gun socks.

3. The sealed plastic bags are working well both on synthetics and leather treated with SnoSeal.

I have a tub of DampRid in the safe. I pour off about a half inch of liquid each month.

Cheers for now

Mark

[earlmck]

That's very good to know about, mark. If the "global climate-change" crowd is half-right there may be a bunch of us desert rats needing to know how to deal with temporate to tropical rainforest climates.

[mark]

So far so good, I have been working through my collection of knives and am up to my Kabars.

Fortunately, there is no indication of mould on either the sheaths or the knife handles.

I believe the handles of the Kabars are leather. If so, what, if anything do you gentlemen treat them with?.

Cheers Mark