Please, Take it Off!

A brief discussion of leather care is probably overdue.
This has been brought to my attention lately by several people expressing fondness for their leather wristbands or necklaces with words to the effect that they, "Never take it off!"
They sleep, eat, bathe and live with their favorite accessory 24/7.
Lovely sentiment, bad idea.
Wear it a lot. Wear it most of the time. But please, when you bathe, shower, swim or sauna, take it off!
Most soaps are drying to leather, as is chlorine or salt.
Heat bakes.
Repeated soaking, especially with warm or hot water, will remove many of the tanning chemicals that keep your leather from becoming brittle. This leads to a breakdown of the grain (which can destroy the appearance of a fine leather accessory) and hastens the weakening and death of that favorite item.
With a small amount of proper care, leather goods can and should last for many years.
Methods of care and cleaning are determined by the type of leather.
Smooth-grained vegetable-tanned cowhide is what most people think of when they think of belt leather. This is the type of leather that's used for tooled items; we'll cover that today and save suede and deerhide for another post.
Cleaning: This is not something you'll normally need to do with belts or wristbands - the patina that comes with age is generally considered desirable.
However, should you encounter a mud-bog or other serious dirt issue, or for smooth-grain footwear, a conditioning cleaner such as saddle soap or Lexol PH is strongly recommended. Apply as directed with a soft cloth and tepid water, rinsing thoroughly. A soft brush, such as a toothbrush, can be used for stubborn dirt. You should wash the entire surface - spot cleaning can lead to just that; spots!
Allow the item to dry completely in an airy location away from heat sources or direct sun.
Of course, there are some types of stains that will permanently mar your leather; no amount of cleaning will remove grease or ink, for example. Try to avoid staining your leather with those things!
Conditioning/Protecting: This should be done occasionally, particularly after cleaning or for items that get a lot of wear, such as an everyday belt or favorite wristband. My first rule for this is shoe polish is for shoes!! Do not use it on belts, wristbands, purses or wallets - you will not be pleased with the results! My second rule is leave the back alone! No conditioners or sealants should be applied to the backside of full-grain cowhide - leather needs to breathe!
There are many great leather conditioners on the market.
Some, such as Neatsfoot oil, are for oiled leathers only. If you use it on waxed leather you'll get blotching and clouding. Some, such as paste-type or beeswax finishes, are for waxed leather only. If used on oiled leather, the same nastiness will ensue.
Unsure if your item is oiled or waxed?
Happily, there are products out there that will work with either. Lexol conditioner is an oil-based product that will penetrate wax; Leather Balm is a wax-based product that will emulsify with oil. It should be noted that some conditioners may permanently darken light-colored leather, so it's a good idea to test a small hidden area when using any product for the first time.
Once the product has been selected, apply with a soft cloth according to the instructions. After allowing ample penetration time, wipe off any excess and buff with a soft shoe brush or lint-free cloth.
Do not buy into the myth that you need to place the item near a heat source to open the pores so the conditioner can soak in: I've heard this many times, and it is bunk! Remember, heat is bad for leather!
A good conditioner will offer a fair amount of protection against the elements. If you feel the need for a more waterproof finish, there are many excellent silicone spray treatments available anywhere that sells camping supplies. Check the label carefully to see if it is for full-grain or suede (some work for both) and use accordingly, with lots of ventilation!
If you clean your leather when necessary and condition it occasionally, I promise you can love wearing it most of the time for years to come!

A Friend, His Treasures and Something Weird

**from 2020 - As I tidy up my blog & delete obsolete posts, I am so heart-warmed to come across this gem from more than a decade ago. My friend Dennis, aka Griz, passed on a few years back. I miss him still and will miss him forever - one of the truly excellent humans I have been blessed to know. So, though this post is outdated and the photographic Q was answered long ago, I will leave this up in honor of this departed mountain-man.**

(from 2009)
On a recent autumn afternoon I took my camera and journeyed out to the backwoods home of a dear friend.
Called Griz by all who know him, he is a man of many talents and wonderful collections. His basement, which is cleverly disguised as a cluttered mess, holds an array of marvels and oddities. This first picture gives a small notion of the initial visual impact of this treasure trove; I call your attention particularly to the unremarkable blue tub in the lower right - it will figure largely in my story as it takes a turn for the weird.

Griz is first and foremost a knapper. He chips magnificent blades and arrowheads out of stones and bits of colored glass. Some he sets into knife handles, many he sells loose to artisans who use them in their own work.
He also makes drums for the Powwow community; everything from small hand-held drums to the large drums used in the center of the circle. All of his drums are made with wood he harvests and skins he tans. There really isn't much that this self-sufficient man cannot do without any assistance from factories or manufacturers.
One of my favorite pictures from that day is this shot of Griz showing off his two-meter wooden feather. He tells a captivating story of watching a lightning bolt strike a tree and splinter it into rubble, leaving behind this incredible work of nature's art. It's one of the few things in his basement that will never be for sale.
So many treasures - too many to show in this post...
He has a penchant for beads and has a fabulous collection of glass chevron beads, both contemporary and antique.
He has a vintage Fender Bass guitar and yes, he can play it!
But in my title I promised you something weird, and here it comes...
When i first began snapping pictures I did not realize that I had my digital camera set to Landscape. Not the right setting for indoor pictures and I shot a few pictures before I realized my mistake and changed to a more appropriate indoor setting.
I didn't think much of it until I got home and downloaded the pictures to my computer.
Remember that blue tub? That perfectly opaque blue tub?
Well, look at this shot... I could not believe what I seemed to be seeing - it seemed I could see through to the contents, though that is surely impossible. Unwilling to believe what my eyes were telling me, I called Griz and asked him what was in that tub. That question confused him and I had to explain why I wanted to know. "A couple of folded blankets," was his answer.
Well holy crap! That certainly seems to be what I am seeing. Griz even made the trip to my house to see for himself and he was as amazed as I was/am.
So, to sum it up in question form, indoor pictures taken on the landscape setting allow the camera to see through heavy opaque plastic? I don't know, but my eyes certainly tell me that, as impossible as it seems, that is somehow exactly what has happened.
Of course, if any of you have a logical explanation, both Griz and I would love to hear it!

Words Worth Contemplating

The following quote was attached to an email I received from a customer.
It is a quote that should be shared.

"I do not see a delegation for the Four Footed. I see no seat for the Eagles. We forget and we consider ourselves superior. But we are after all a mere part of Creation. And we must consider to understand where we are. And we stand somewhere between the mountain and the Ant. Somewhere and only there as part and parcel of the Creation."
Chief Oren Lyons, Oneida
in an address to the Non-Governmental Organizations of the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, 1977

Setting Snaps Can Make You Cuss

Snap placement is one of those necessary chores many leather-crafters have come to dread. Bent posts, misaligned caps, squished parts - the list of ways a snap can go wrong is extensive.
I've received a few requests to do a tutorial video on snap-setting, so I did one with my methods for the two most-used snaps in leather-crafting, the heavy-duty Line 24 snaps and the lighter-duty Segma snaps.
At 3 1/2 minutes, the download was too big for the Blogger system, but I've posted it to YouTube. Here's the link -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N6ieWtuMa8
Here is a summary of what it covers:
Part of the difficulty arises from the tools that many of us use.
The mallet-driven setters are economical but often not worth the savings, particularly when setting the Line 24 snaps.
If you set a lot of these snaps, or wish you could, I strongly recommend an investment in a snap-setting tool. There are a few on the market, but my favorite is the Pres-n-Snap.
Insanely, this tool is not available through the normal Leather-Crafting suppliers. You can, however, find it online if you do a search with the name spelled as above or through upholstery-tool outlets. Mine came with the parts for setting snaps and grommets for about $150.00. It works well with the Tandy Line 24 snaps and, in my opinion, was worth every penny.
For the Segma snaps, the drive-tools are adequate. They can be tricky nonetheless. My two main bits of advice are:
1) Focus your attention on the tool rather than the mallet, the project or your hand. Keeping this tool aligned vertically is critical.
2) Do not over-set the snap. Two or three firm strikes of the mallet should be sufficient. Over-setting will ruin the snap.
I hope this information is helpful!

Home-Made Stamping Tools

Like anyone whose been plying their craft for multiple decades, I've built up an impressive set of tools.
In the way of most working-class artisans, it was put together one tool at a time. My most lusted-after items in those long-ago early years were the stamping tools that are so critical to what I do. The half-dozen that I started with were enough, but only barely!
It was Dad that suggested that I could make my own with heavy nails and his bench grinder. An afternoon in his workshop more than doubled my stamp supply; better still, they were unique and kind of funky, different from anything commercially available.
The first step, of course, is to remove the point from the tip to fashion a strike-end.
Then work at the edges and the surface of the nail-head to create your desired imprint shape.
I did a couple with the large spikes, but they really chewed up Dad's grinding wheel. So I went to a smaller size, which worked well. I also did one with a cement nail - that one is a favorite because I can reverse it and use the strike-end to make a diamond mark.
With just a few cents worth of nails (and another few dollars to replace the grinding wheel that I pretty much wore away) I created a handful of stamping tools that I still use to this day.
All of these tooling examples were made with at least one of these stamps. The black wristband design at the bottom is entirely made of homemade tools.


The message, of course, is that you needn't be limited by convention. I consider this just further proof that the old adage about necessity and invention holds true!

Mystery Braid

One of the coolest things I learned early in my leather-crafting history was the three-part inside trick braid, known far and wide as the Mystery Braid. The mystery of this braid, and the fun, lies in the fact that it's braided with both ends closed.
People often surmise that there are cleverly hidden slices and splices involved. Not so. As the name implies, there's a trick to it... an inside trick that I've put into a short tutorial video for you. In less than two minutes you can see how it's done -- in no time at all you can master this trick braid yourself! You'll find the video box at the bottom of this post or, if you prefer a larger view-window, you can see it on You Tube by clicking here.
A few points to remember: Braiding will shorten what you're working on, so measuring can be tricky. The amount of shortening depends on how thick your material is, how long the item is and how tightly you braid.
You'll want to experiment with this, but a good beginning rule of thumb for making full-grain leather belts or wristbands is to cut the plaits longer than the area you want braided by about 1/2 inch for every ten inches of braid.
In other words, if you want a twenty-inch section of a belt braided, cut your slices twenty-one inches long. I punch a hole at the end of each slice for tidiness and to help the ends of the braid to lie smooth.
All dyes and finishes should be applied before you braid, including your edge-coating. Vegetable-tanned tooling leather should be wet before braiding -- this won't hurt the leather finishes I normally use; if you are unsure of your products, you'll want to do a test-braid first. I always retreat the finished braid after it dries with a spray silicon for added protection.
With just a bit of practice you'll be weaving mysteries of your own!