The leather of an 1837 Elgin cutlass pistol scabbard was dry and friable with tears in several places. Bottom edge stitching had disintegrated, and black library tape used to reinforce edges. This tape had also removed significant areas of grain surface which was in any case flaking off. The tape residues were removed with solvents and the tears mended using PVA emulsion as adhesive and polyester fabric as reinforcement. A warm liquid mixture of beeswax and carnuba wax, tinted with dry pigments, was used, over a backing of polyester fabric, to infill an area of loss and lost grain. Rather than restitch, it was decided to adhere small pieces of mylar inside the scabbard, so that the weapon could be inserted or removed easily. These can be removed simply by pulling the mylar away. The discussion centred on the problem of sampling such a small item for pH and on other measurements, such as how much dressing is required on a leather of a certain degree of degradation.