Distressed Leather

[K-Man]

I've been asked by a friend who is a professional musician to make a guitar strap that will be used primarily on a '47 Gibson Jumbo. We want a distressed look/finish. What's the best way to achieve that on veg-tanned leather?

[mlapaglia]

If you case it you can put in all kinds of marks just by pressing into it. Drag some guitar strings along the neck end. make some marks with a guitar pic. When distressing furniture its common to hit it with a chain to make marks. With cased leather just a few tools dropped on the strap would make all kinds of marks. Try it with a piece of scrap first.

As for the finish Im not sure. Probably do a normal finish and then deglaze it and maybe a little 800 sand paper to really dull it up. I know that a 50/50 mixture of Eco-flo stain and Dye (the old stuff) makes a nice old looking finish. Ive used it on a few holsters and they look much older that way. Since the dye and stain absorb at different rates you can get an old worn look.

Edited December 1, 2011 by mlapaglia

[ramrod]

i've also touched the edges of the item to a grinding wheel - very lightly. this has given a nice worn look to the edge.

try it on some scrap first to get a feel for the technique.

[particle]

Kevin King posted a distressed wrist cuff here a while back. I wasn't able to get much information out of him for how he did it, but check it out. His end product looks fantastic, but the leather looks severely weakened, so you'd probably want to make sure it was lined with a sufficient strength liner to do the heavy lifting of the guitar, or put one of the heavy-duty fabrics that doesn't stretch between the front/back pieces of leather - I forget what that particular fabric is called.

http://www.kevinkingleather.com/#!__distressed