Dr. Jacksons Hide rejuvenator ( from Tandy Leather ) was recomended to me by several holster makers & it seems to work better than most anything else I've tried...
with old leather, patience is your best tool... what ever quality leather conditioner you use, you are best off wiping the holster down damp with a lighter coat, & then letting it soak in for a day & reapplying several times, than soaking down the leather really wet... I also like to apply to both inner & outer surfaces, again, just damp, not soaking wet...
don't try to force the stiff leather... once cracked, that can never be repaired... you can rehydrate the leather around the cracking, but can't repair the broken fibers... often times the straps end up cracked because they bend easier... & I've had to replace several of these... one of whichI was able to remove & reapply an embossed Heiser brass snap...
here is one I worked on... the strap was hopelessly cracked, the lacing was dry rotted out & needed replacing, & the bottom of the holster was damaged... the strap was replaced, with the embossed snap reapplied the holster relaced, & the leather conditioned the damage to the bottom of the holster is still there, but won't get any worse, & is really barely noticable with the tooling... I turned this holster from a junker in a box of 8 holsters for $20.00 to a holster I can use for my 38 caliber top breaks...
