Aging leather

[aprayinbear]

Just Curious :hmm:

How do you folks age the leather on your bags, pouches and knife sheaths?

All ideas welcome! :thumbsup:

 

[Ken Cormier]

In the book by Mr. Albert one of his methords is easy off oven cleaner. Try it on a small piece first. Buy his book it tells how he does it.

 

[BrownBear]

It may not be the kind of leather you want in terms of tanning method, but I really like Tandy's cheap imported leather for a built in "aged" look. They forewarn that it may have insect bites, brands and other scars, which would certainly be an issue in tooling leather. But dang, it sure looks nice in a bag once you dye it.

I don't know if I'd order it and take pot luck though. If you've got a Tandy store anywhere near you, it's worth dropping in to hand-pick a side or shoulder. The shop I frequent loves me, because I cherry pick the scarred stuff none of the toolers want, so it tends to be a dog on their shelf. Heck, they even call me if they get a particularly scarred one! :rotf:

This is the stuff I'm talking about. At $2.50 a foot you can't beat the price, but not everyone will like the scarring, much less the tanning.

 

[aprayinbear]

Brownbear,

Thanks for the heads up on the craftsman leather. I'm like you, I look for scars and irregularities in my projects. To me that's authentic, knowing that any self respecting farmer/hunter would never let leather go to waste just because of a few marks and blemishes.

Thanks for the suggestion! :hatsoff:

 

[BrownBear]

You bet! I really like that 3-4 oz for bags, though it's a little lighter than other folks use, and certainly lighter than usual for straps. TC Albert wrote recently on the site that he likes 6 oz for straps (and I value his experience greatly), but I don't build enough to justify buying a side just for straps. I make mine from 3-4 oz and about 1/4" wider on average. Works for me!

 

[T.C.Albert]

Hello the camp...I would like to add a word of caution about chemically aging some of the inexpensive import leathers...recently some of these imported "craftsman" grade sides are quite dry in the hand, and they can really react badly to harsh caustics like oven cleaner,and even to standard home made iron/vinegar or commercial spirit dyes...by this I mean that after chemically ageing it,or on some of the sides even after coloring it,the leather often dries and shrinks up so much that when its flexed it cracks so badly and uncontrolably that the bag is actually ruined...and some of the thinner strapping can actually dry so badly that its prone to tearing.

If you opt to use these imported economy leather grades, please experiment with any artifical aging process first to see how that particular side will react...age a swatch of it like you intend to age the bag, set it aside for a few days to dry etc...and see how it has reacted.(note: each side may react differently, so this test needs to be done with each new side.)

Since a bag is usually antiqued "after" its made, it would really be a sad thing to ruin it at that point. Again, some initial experimentation may be needed to get the results you want.
TC

 

[BrownBear]

Words of wisdom drawn from experience! Thanks TC.

In talking about the economy leather, I should have passed on my experience with vinegaroon. Thanks to a prior cautionary post from TC, I kept an eye on it, and in short order it started to "age" in the form of cracks. I applied a generous coat of TOW mink oil grease (yeah, AKA patch lube) and let that soak in overnight. About a month later I rubbed it down again because it started looking dry.

Now, a year later, it's still fine. But without the healthy dose to restore the oils, it would be long since ruined.

 

[Eric/WV]

I use oven cleaner on all of my bags. I leave it on for a few minutes and rinse it out. It gives the leather a nice mottled/aged look. :thumbsup:

Here is a before and after example. The bag on the left has been aged with oven cleaner.