Hello all, what a wonderful forum. I floated over from the Fedora Lounge, where we have a couple of threads investigating how to treat and care for vintage leather sweatbands on hats.

Our problem: Some vintage sweatbands arrive and look soft and in good condition, then after one wear they stiffen, crack, and sometimes disintegrate. Some conditioner products seem to hasten this process rather than help.

So far our threads are working on trial and error, but maybe the experts on this forum can offer some advice or recommendations? I just had a beautiful Stetson 7X Clear Beaver sweatband from the 40s go bad on me. I had treated it generously with Pecards leather conditioner, but the first day I sweat in it it went to pieces.

Thanks for the help!

Here is a pic of a typical damaged sweat:

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