Ideas For 'rustic' Finish

[makitmama]

my son-in-law loves the briefcase I made my husband. It is veg tan, custom painted, and finished with beeswax/neatsfoot. It has developed a nice patina.

My SIL wants a finish like you see from expensive retailers like Copper River, Saddleback, etc. It is usually referred to as a rustic or distressed finish, and looks sort of like matte nubuck-ish or oil tanned leather. I have a nice side of HO veg tan, and think that veg tan makes a better attache than oil-tan. To make it stiff enough in oil tan, the leather would have to be too thick for my old consew.

so- how about feiblings with Bick-4, so that I can put on a less even finish? I have NEVER tried to put on uneven color, and use an airbrush usually. But by hand, I think I can vary the amount of dye in the Bick and get a less even finish.

I figure I may need to lightly sand the edges with denim or a dremel to 'distress' them.

my question for the group- how do I get such a matte finish? and does anyone have any advice? I showed him some pix of leather pressed onto concrete or rocks, and that was too distressed for him- what he really wants is: http://www.copperriverbags.com/the-bolinas-17-distressed-tan-voyager-laptop-bag-made-in-the-u-s-a-17-v-dis-lap/

[electrathon]

While veg tan makes a nice stiff as a board case, oil tan looks gorgeous. The feel of it is nicer too and it will look even better as it ages. I would use oil tanned instead of trying to make veg tanned look like oil tanned.

[Erystawi]

I think I once read the Saddleback uses crometanned?

I would use the oiltanned myself, some of those are so beautiful! I've got myself some brown beautifull "plattlær" (kind of oiltanned harnessleather) with beautiful distress and marbelings on, soooo pretty

[alrabat]

Sorry to bring the topic up this long after the initial post- 

For what its worth though, Saddleback does in fact use Chrome tanned leather (I think they make it themselves now, but I could be wrong). However, I think oil-tanned is chrome-tanned leather that has been essentially finished again with oil. Not sure about the process exactly, but yeah. 

I just picked up a side of Springfield Leather's utility side. Its fantastic, and easily comparable to Saddleback's look. I would recommend that if you do order it (and its pretty darn reasonable too, I think I payed 80-100 for the side, off hand), definitely specify a color preference. They'll give you what they have (a downside), but they're pretty good people to work with.