Water/rust damaged leather sheath

[KCcactus]

Anyone have a suggestion about how to clean a water damaged leather sheath that had a badly rusted knife inside so that the knife hopefully won't rust again? I found it yesterday in a bag under a pile of rubble in what is left of a friend's house that burned almost 4 months ago. No heat damage, just water. I have the knife cleaned up. It's pitted, but still very usable. I would like to clean up the sheath so my friend can use it. It belonged his son, who died in the fire.

[thxmrgarand]

I have had fair luck in that very situation using soap and water to remove the rust debris and then treating the leather with neatsfoot oil. Pure neatsfoot oil is preferable to neatsfoot oil compound. From a few to several applications will restore the leather. For the final application you can get fancy and melt bees wax into hot neatsfoot oil.

[KCcactus]

Thank you. I'll give that a try. Do you use saddle soap? Or something else?