Need tips on turning veg tan into english bridle leather

[GoldArmored]

Hello! English bridle leather is a pre-dyed and oiled/waxed type of leather made from veg tan leather. I have multiple 8-10oz (the thickness of english bridle leather) hides of tooling veg tan leather. Sometimes I only need just a little piece of english bridle leather so I would like to know what products to use and what's the process to make my own english bridle leather. Instead of buying huge hides of this in black, chocolate, london, and havana, and only using 10% of them, I thought it would be a good idea to make my own instead.

 

So far I've tried Fiebing's oil Dye, eco-flow pro, and fiebings normal dye and none of them really penetrates to the center of the thickness. (maybe if I wet the leather first?). After that I finish the leather with resolene, satin sheen or tan-kote (I found tan-kote being the best for this). Lastly I oil the leather with neetsfoot composite. Tho, even if I oil, and oil and oil, the leather is never as smooth and «heavy» as a real english bridle leather. I've tried this on herman oak, Oak leaf and some high quality european imported veg leather.

Any tips would be very appreciated, Thx! -Susie

 

(It's for the making of actual english bridles and reins lol, and my customers are trained english riders and they know if the leather is good or not)

[ConradPark]

The making of real English bridle leather differs from making undyed veg tan - what you call, tooling leather - thus, if you did manage (and I'm not saying it's impossible) to replicate the look by coloring and oiling it by yourself, the end product would still not be the real thing. Why would you even try to do that, it's not far from misleading customers that would trust to buy the real thing. And if you're thinking of saving money, I'm not sure you will have, after buying all the color, oil, wax and putting in the all the time and effort in trying to duplicate something tanneries have done for generations with great skill and traditions. Sorry if you feel I'm stepping on your toes here, but if you're going to sell English bridle, at least be honest to your customers and sell the real thing. Nothing wrong with doing your own coloring and oiling on natural veg tan, but make sure to be transparent about it for your customers. If I build something that would look like a Harley Davidson motorcycle from non Harley parts, it might be a great custom bike but still not a the real thing.

If your intention was not to sell it as English bridle, my apologies, it just seemed like that was your intention in your post. Also, your customers will notice the difference sooner or later and that might seriously harm your reputation.

Edited April 11, 2016 by ConradPark

[ConradPark]

4 minutes ago, ConradPark said:

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Edited April 11, 2016 by ConradPark

[jrny4wrd]

26 minutes ago, ConradPark said:

The making of real English bridle leather differs from making undyed veg tan - what you call, tooling leather - thus, if you did manage (and I'm not saying it's impossible) to replicate the look by coloring and oiling it by yourself, the end product would still not be the real thing. Why would you even try to do that, it's not far from misleading customers that would trust to buy the real thing. And if you're thinking of saving money, I'm not sure you will have, after buying all the color, oil, wax and putting in the all the time and effort in trying to duplicate something tanneries have done for generations with great skill and traditions. Sorry if you feel I'm stepping on your toes here, but if you're going to sell English bridle, at least be honest to your customers and sell the real thing. Nothing wrong with doing your own coloring and oiling on natural veg tan, but make sure to be transparent about it for your customers. If I build something that would look like a Harley Davidson motorcycle from non Harley parts, it might be a great custom bike but still not a the real thing.

If your intention was not to sell it as English bridle, my apologies, it just seemed like that was your intention in your post. Also, your customers will notice the difference sooner or later and that might seriously harm your reputation.

I believe his intentions were not to mislead, but to make. It sounds as if he, like many of us, are not quite sure of the difference in tannery methods only that we know it is filled with oils and waxes. Reasonable question, especially since I have seen tooled motorcycle seats being sold off as briddle leather. If I am not mistaken, you cant tool bridle leather. 

[MY63]

In order to help you understand what you are trying to recreate I thought you might like to see this video from J E Sedgewick's maker of fine English bridle leather

 

 

[Erystawi]

You cant make a vegtan into a bridle leather, but you can use vegtan for english riding equipment. You dye and grease it to colour you want, (dip dye for example). I try not to use resolene, so the leather can take cleaning and fats again when needed. Always think security/safety, and if leather is strong enough for horse equipment uses. Western saddles, headcollars and halters are made of vegtan (herman oak for example) heavy strong leather. I make halters of mixing (norwegian) vegtan (for tooling parts) and norwegian bridle/harness leather for strong parts, (all 3-4mm) double sewn saddlestitch. Customer know what all parts are.