harness leather sheath question

jnathan

jnathan

Joined
Nov 16, 2007
Messages
45
I've recently acquired two JRE pouch (Loveless) style sheaths which are made of harness leather. Here's an image of one:
jre_gunny_sheath-2.jpg
.

I should preface the rest of this post by saying that, relatively speaking, I know very little about leather. What I'd like to do is to give my sheaths a distressed/antique look using some leather dye. After the antiquing, I'm not sure whether or not I need to use any of the protection products I own to protect the outer leather: Obenauf's LP, Neatsfoot oil and Tandy satin shene. I've used Neatsfoot oil in the past and I'm somewhat familiar with the protection and darkening it provides.

What I'm really hoping to find out is whether I need to treat a finished product made of harness leather with any of the above products to protect it.

I've read about reasons that the inside leather should not be treated (as it may affect the metal of knives held in the sheath). Though I should add that I don't store my knives in my sheaths, I just use them to carry my knives.

-Jeff
 
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Can't help with the distressing.

I am treating all my factory sheaths with Obenhauf's and getting very good results. The better the leather the better. My Helle factory sheaths are very nice leather and took to Obenhauf's like a fish to water. They look like Coach Purse leather (wife likes Coach and I must say they are gorgeous leather). I know JRE does nice work and I think Obenhauf's will look great on that sheath. It does darken a bit but not tremendously...sort of deepens the color. It does need some time to dry and buffs nicely. Doesn't buff to a high gloss like Sno-Seal but a softer sort of appearance. Sno-Seal works great too but it is very sticky and high-gloss.
 
i would reccomend wet forming the leather to the knife first.. let it dry, then get some black and mohagany dye and use it very spasley.. start with the mohogany coat the whole sheath.. work it in (darker darker).. etc.. then go to the black.. use lightly.. then buff the leather with a rag.. after that i would use the sheen or Sno-Seal.. I would get some spare leather and practice first..
 
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