What to do with damaged leather items

[Aragorn243]

I am pretty confident I could do the repairs, I have done leather work before. It's just a matter of whether I should or not. I'm leaning toward it because In researching these, I've encountered quite a few that had the strap replaced. And it would seem as this is most likely the area most likely to fail they were replaced while in active service. So, in restoring it, not being a military repair, I know it would be an issue for some collectors. At the same time, I don't see a lot of individuals that would really be interested in it without a functional strap. My daughter already has the tools so I wouldn't even have to buy them. She probably has the leather too although I'll have to check. At today's gun show, I only found one, it had been dyed black which I believe was a post war thing and it had it's strap replaced and not even the original type strap. They went from the original straight strap to the angled strap like mine. The original thread holes were still there and pretty obvious. Asking price $325.00.

I have also come to the conclusion (probably not surprisingly to those that know me here) that I now need to find a Luger to put in it. Priced them on Gunbroker and while pretty far out there, if I stop buying the rifles every other month, I could afford one before the year is out. I even discussed that with the wife and encountered no objections, just polite interest which is another positive. Refraining from new purchases is the difficult part. For while there aren't many out there I'm actively seeking, these other "interesting" ones seem to fall into my lap. Already have my eyes on one at the next auction from hell although I rarely win the bidding wars there.