steveb leatherworks: the blather

Leather looks best when it gets a beating.. kinda like the crackly look of a bar brawlers face after 40 yrs. of boozing….(like that huh?)…it just gets better and more dramatic – it toughens up.

In my experience, Veg Tan leather tends to break in to a specific point pretty quickly – and then it tends to stay  at that point for awhile…like…years, as long as you show it some respect and take care of it. Dont ever over oil it or soak it through and through repeatedly or dry it with a hair dryer or lay it near a fire. Remember leather is skin, treat it like skin and you’ll be good. Keep it clean, a little moisturizer when it gets dry…keep it sealed with a little clear shoe polish to keep dirt out of the pores….common sense…use your bean.  Don’t do stupid shit like smearing mink oil and bacon fat on your stuff, youll clog the pores and all that shit attracts dirt and grit

Ya know,  I’ve been wearing my old prototype scrapper for years, there is just no killing that damn belt, ive sweated thorough it numerous times on road trips (a sure way to kill a piece of leather is to soak it in saline …) and it still rocks and gets compliments aplenty. I still wear  (years later) the very first thing  i made, a black belt, hand stitched, unlined, a little rough to say the least, but i like it, keeps me humble every time i pick it up….as rough as it is…lol..as a matter of fact I have my Decker All Seeing Eye buckle on the very first thing i attempted, i think its kind of fitting.

I was working on the dining room table in those days.  Only took spilling Black dye on the nice satin finish birch table once, to get me and my leather stuff banished into my bike shop…anyway, as usual I digress, part of the fun of letting me drive or lead….ask those that have followed me on a bike…

so anyway – Mike got this belt almost a year ago. Looks  to me like he wears  it every  day – very cool. It has that look of a piece of leather that has reached it stasis point for a while – take care of it Mark and it will last forever. Thanks for sending in the pics Mark.