Off topic : BLACK LEATHER?

[Rusty]

Sorry about the lead-in tickler.

But some of you ought to have good advice for me on taking care of a leather jacket ( BROWN ) I'm trying to fix up. Found a light tan jacket in a second-hand place that amazingly had no wear on it except for a few stains at collar and elbow. Oh, and the liner was shot. Weighs a ton. $25 bucks.
Plus $45 bucks for the saddlemaker to give it two coats it with a quart ( or was it a pint ) of brown oil stain. Color is pretty even but not perfect. Good enough for me though. Saddlemaker said more oil would drive the stain deeper, lightening the color?

Anyway would like to seal the finish, maybe shine it up a bit. It is NOT suede. Then have a new liner put in.

Looks so good already I had to retire my 20 year old Indiana Jones hat for (incipient) decrepitude. Poor western store owner nearly had conniptions when I had him cut a nice 4X Resistol with 4" brim in a purty brown color down to 2 3/4" brim. Would have had him steam and reshape the crown too, but he looked like he'd had all he could take for a day.

Resistols supposedly come with an open crown - this one had been set with a cattleman crown. Can they be steamed back from a cattleman to the open crown and still look good?.

Anyway, to put a little khuk content in in, maybe I'll ask Sandi if she can sew in a jacketliner with a special pocket for Audrey ( my bloodthirsty 12 sirupati ).

 

[Yvsa]

Bro don't know much about hats, but our Bro Finn does I bet.
He can probably answer your questions if he makes it in. Finn's been pretty busy lately though so you might need to drop him an e-mail ifen he doesn't show up here. I know he won't mind.

As to the dye Bro, oil will actually darken the leather. You're just forgetting for a moment what neats foot oil does to boots or other leather goods such as khukuri scabbards. Khuk scabbards don't count with the oil neccesarily making them darker as they're made from more of an in between tanned and untanned leather IMO.
Perhaps the double tanned buff hide that's like what's on my Hanuman Sp. may be is different, but I don't know for sure.
Oh yea!!!!
And oil not very evenly applied will add to the slightly uneven tint the dye has. Personally I wouldn't use any oil on it.

"Anyway would like to seal the finish, maybe shine it up a bit. It is NOT suede. Then have a new liner put in."

Bro I have used Tandy's Carnuba Cream for softening and slicking up an old horsehide case that was almost beyond repair. I have also used it on cowboy boots to soften the extra stiff tops to make them wearable.
The CC seems to put a nice sorta glow on the leather without being a really glareing shine.
It may be worth a try. I think you can still get it from Tandy's online and it's not terribly expensive, or at least it war'nt.

There's no doubt better advice than that to be had from the other curmudgeons that hang out here.
A good suggestion would be to ask on the sheath forum I *think* Knifeforums has?
Haven't looked lately, but wasn't Bladeforums also talking about having a sheath forum a while back?

 

[Rusty]

Just repeating what the saddlemaker told me. I tool a little mink oil as a test inside the neck and it did a good job, but turned it a little darker still. Carnuba Cream, huh? Hmmmn.

Will wait and see bout other advice.

PS: Though not an Indy type, I picked up a black open crown Bailey and had it trimmed to 2 5/8 flat brim. Looks very nice.

 

[pmcelrath]

Rusty,
I have a HUGE leather Car-Coat and I have had good results using Sno-Seal to protect it. It won't change the color and provides excellent protection from the elements. You should be able to find it at hardware stores. Generally it is used to waterproof boots, thus the name. If you can't find Sno-Seal use any similiar product that has at least 10% silicone. Hope this helps.

Patrick Mc

 

[Bill Martino]

Way out of my league here, too. I just keep wearing my 20 year old leather jacket, stains, scuffs and all and never do anything to it. I think the dust bunnies try to keep it in shape but they are not very good at leather maintenance.