Spring Field Leather Review

[8thsinner]

As some of you have seen I just finished a new whip.

I am here now to give my experiences of working with SLC

Initially I emailed kevin directly first.

Asked him about 10 questions and he responded quickly answering most of them, At least enough to satisfy me

Kevin doesn't have any personal experience in braid work so some thing could not be answered. Where this was the case he promptly told me but related relevant info concerning the topic and his previous customers.

Now, I will point out that my customer was the one who was ordering everything, So things got a little complicated, at one point as it was a rush order, I was on the phone with my customer, msn-ing my partner and emailing kevin all at the same time.

In total I ordered

50 yards shiny Grape - purple

25 yards pink

100 yards black

50 yards natural

kydex

belt clip

saddle soap feibings

snow proof

belt clip for kydex

ron edwards book on how to make whips

There was a lot of frustration working out details like shipping, like I said this was a rush order.

In the end everything was posted out with USPS 5-7 days priority shipping.

Never before have I recieved anything within this time frame with USPS. But it was on this one ocassion, Possibly because kevin added copies of his wild life and fish import/ export license.

To complicate things more The stuff had to arrive at my partners business address, not the customers home address.

This was a let down however, as who ever was in charge of posting on the day it was sent, didn't add this detail. It went to the customers address while she was out of the country. I am fairly sure who ever it was that did this got a warning for it.

One more let down also proved not really a bother

The book which arrived was in fact David Morgans how to make whips.

Kevin was extremely let down by this fact himself. And was extremely generous and prompt at rectifying this issue.

I must say this impressed me very much.

Overall I have about 20 back and forward emails from kevin during this process, and he actually thanked me for being such a good customer.

Summary

I have ZERO issue recommending kevin as a supplier for international ROO or probably any other product on his site. He genuinely cares about getting the customer whats right for them, not more about money like so many people these days. I will be using him often.

Product review

Fiebings saddle soap.

I will not be using this again as a braiding soap, the chemicals seem to be more aggressive than home made saddle soap, it took a little colour out during the prep stage of using lace.

I have used it on several other things so far and would say it's good enough for coats, bags etc. Anything that has been finished.

Snowproof

Leather waterproofing as recommended by kevin works pretty well, I actually used it on top of the shellac finish I applied, the shellac gave me the gloss and the waterproof gave me additional mositure resistance more suited to a bar atmosphere where there was a risk of alcohol spills. Dries grippy, but not sticky and remains smooth and shiny in it's own right.

Kydex

This arrived much thicker than I thought it would be, but it made a pretty good job of wrapping the whip tightly, I had to use the oven method, 200degrees Centigrade, for about 60 seconds.

It came out like rubber, hot but not too hot that socks could not be used as mittens.

Hair dryer works but much more slowly. I don't have a heat gun. I ordered the 4'x2' sheet and asked for this to be cut smaller for transport. this was done perfectly neatly and not problematic in anyway.

Belt Clip

I never used it in the end, but was well coated but a little rough around the edges on points.

Roo lace

Black

Thick, strong and lost little colour in soaping, lost about 10 percent in width during stretching phase. Zero splice points found

Grape

Thick and strong like the black, lost a little more in strecthy spots on width. and a little more colour but not too much two splice points

Pink

Lost a fair bit in stretch, perhaps 20=24 percent throughout in stretchy spots. One splice point

Natural

Lost a bit in width, more like the black but you can easily see some stretchy spots. It's looks kinda dirty in finish though, as the grain shows up much more distinctly. For this reason the overall whip finish was dirtier looking than I had hoped for. I would probably not use it again. Two splice points

The Ron edwards book.

Well it's because of this book that I am now challenging more complicated designs in handle work. Not as good for basic knots, I would still recommend grants book for this.

Grant and edwards combined and theres probably not much you couldn't make in reality.

It covers well some fall hitches, and cracker hitches for whips, shows some excellent examples of leather work and differences in handles and styles in general. Theres enough info to start making any whip in it's basic form, including some very good handy tips that will save you eons of frustration and learning curves.

Very worth the 25 bucks it costs.

Lessons for next time.

Pre stretch the lace then cut to width, if I had a decent strander I would anyway. Or buy wider than wanted and do the same.

There was very little stretch in thickness but the pink is thinner than the natural, which is thinner than the grape, but grape and black were quite thick. I would split these a little if I was using them again.

I didn't bother to skive the strands as I have no tool for it and they were 2-2.8 mm or so overall. I didn't have the ability to take risk as I had only enough to do what I needed.

Hope this review helps some people out.

Edited August 26, 2010 by 8thsinner