Cleaning clock hammers with leather inserts

[Bearman]

Evening,

I'm currently cleaning my first Westminster chime Haller clock and I'm now looking at what to do about the hammers. The whole clock is absolutely filthy and the poor thing has had the 3in1 oil treatment by a previous owner.

I'd like to clean the hammers and mechanism but don't want to destroy the ancient leather inserts. What is the accepted approach?

Remove them and hope they don't crumble to dust?

Or will they be fine in the ammoniated cleaning solution? Am I being too cautious?   

Thanks in advance

[transporter]

I remove the hammer heads and clean by hand, if they get wet the leather goes rock solid. I know some people replace the the leather when servicing/restoring.

I'm sure other people have hteir ways of doing this task

[oldhippy]

They will be fine in the cleaning solution. To make the hammer heads soft brush the leather with a little oil. They won't become soft over night it will take a long time but it will sink in and make the leather soft. 

[Bearman]

Thanks both, I'd forgotten I'd asked the question.

Sadly I don't have a before picture of the hammer heads. They were pretty filthy and there was some green substance on them which I thought was possibly a reaction between glue and the brass. Other than that the leather was fine although hard as rock. In the end I removed them and carefully cleaned by hand erring on the side of caution.

I'll certainly try brushing a little oil on them for sure thanks for tip OH. Much appreciated both.