Restoring A Vintage, Original Ruitertassen Scholar Pro II Bag

I received this old bag from a friend and immediately thought it was beautiful, well crafted and made with a nice leather. The bag was made by a company called Ruitertassen and would be referred to as the Scholar Pro II but this one must be from many years ago, vintage in their line of bags but still holding true to the quality. This bag has some great character to it with some distinctive markings from use and was also very dry, in need of some good conditioning.

Some before pictures

We can see some scratches and also semi-determine the dryness from the color variations. This could have also been been due to contact with water/moister at some point in time.

Through the edges, the inner liner material is able to be seen.

The bag was missing a rivet. 

Before I began the cleaning process, I first removed a few parts, the handle included as I will replace all of the rivets for new ones.

Now restored, the bag is looking great again, full of the natural fats & oils it was missing. The process was not a quick one. First, the bag received a light cleaning with soft brush and aniline safe leather cleaner along with being completely dusty out from the inside as well. Once the bag & parts dried I treated the inside, flesh side with a leather softener before beginning the exterior conditioning.

Working on the bag a little bit each day, repeating the conditioning steps and working on the edges, the bag was staring to come together. 

The primary focus was to replenish the leather, helping it to regain its natural abilities. Now that the bag is well treated, it has a great pull-up effect and is still prone to scratches very easy. Owning a bag like this means that you're going to be okay with surface damage. The leather itself is very okay with this and will not become heavily damaged even with a few surface scratches. They will need some attention at times but daily-use or use of any kind will continue to develop this bag in a great way.

This leather was born in a Belgium tannery, tastefully made for rugged, unique and lifelong use. A single, multi day treatment and this bag is ready to go.

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