100 year old chaps

[ScoobyNewbie]

Okay, so I’ve worked at Tandy for all of 2 1/2 months. I’ve made 2 belts, and almost 3 hats, a flat cap, and tam’o’shanter ( which is now the lining of the flat cap, and I’m almost done with a pretty good tri-corn. Oh! And a card pocket thingy. Before that my leatherworking experience consisted of a set of coasters in the third grade.

Today, a gentleman came in and plopped a plastic bag on my table an asked me how much I would charge him to renovate a pair of 100 year old chaps.

I explained my inexperience and gave him the name of 2 companies that I know do chaps all the time. Too far away, too much lag time, he needs them this Saturday. He is doing a reinactment at a county fair. So it doesn’t need to be really sturdy or reinforced. I explain that I think a strip on the outside to widen it and lengthen it will be better weight wise than a full sheet. 3” inside and 4” on the outside and down to 42” at the bottom.

So we get a piece of oil tanned utility hide that matches his old chaps color wise. With wiggling and shifting we get an acceptable drawing on the leather. (He helped measure and mark). 

He left after paying for the leather and signing an IOU for the finished chaps.

I cut them out. 

One of them is 2” shorter than the other. 

There is plenty of leather left. So here are my questions. 

Can I bevel or skive the back of the oil tanned so that I can glue a section to the missing part? Trying to put it together in such a way that it looks, at a distance, to be one piece. I am a fairly crafty devil, and think a distance of 2-3’ can be done reliably. 

How thick should the glued/skived part be?

Will that be strong enough if I use Leather Weld or Barge? Or would it just be better to cut them even and call it good?

Will machine sewing the strip on the edge and 3” inside the original chaps be secure enough, or should I glue them as well? The chaps are not flat or regular by any means, but they are still flexible and softish. 

How can he preserve the original leather so that it isn’t stained by the oil tanned hide?

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

The only thing I have to say is, if the chaps are truly 100 years old, anyone that alters them in this way should have both their arms broken.  I would have refused to take the job.  Any historical or collectible value is completely destroyed by an alteration such as this.  Sewing through 100 year old leather is a crapshoot at best.   If they are really 25 or 30 year old chaps, then I would cut a new piece.  That will drive home the rule "measure twice, cut once". 

[ScoobyNewbie]

While I was sewing the new piece on, the old chaps started to disintegrate. I’ve been told they have “red rot” in some places. I put rubber cement on under the new pieces and, if I have time tomorrow, I will use some hide rejuvenator that we have in the classroom to see whether it helps, and how much.

A coworker and I have developed 3 rules to working with old chaps.

Rule #1 - Don’t.

Rule #2 - Keep the needles out of your mouth.

Rule #3 - Don’t stick yourself with the needles that aren’t in your mouth.

Thank goodness my tetanus shot is up to date.

lol

I did get the first seams on both chaps done and LeatherWelded the bits that shattered back onto the new pieces. Then I used rubber cement to give some more support for the second seam that will be 3” inside the edge of the old chaps. Then they sat with weights on for about 3-4 hours. Then I got about 2/3rds of the way through the inner seam on one of the chaps. So I may actually get this done by 10:30 tomorrow morning! 

Just so you know, I’m not the first person to patch these devils. Someone, maybe about in the 70s or 80s, patched and glued some of the cracked and torn bits with what looks like pleather on the inside where it wouldn’t show. Then they just folded them up and put them in a box somewhere. The pleather really helped me. The leather in some places is so brittle that the thread I am using pulled right through to the pleather. It would have been hopeless otherwise.

I wish I could have had a week or more to try and strengthen it up before sewing, but I hadn’t seen it before Wednesday afternoon,  I didn’t start working on it until 6pm Thursday, and he wants it Saturday at 10:30am, so he can be in a reinactment at a fair in the area.

Oh, and the owner chose to shorten the longer chap. So, YAY! No skiving or fudging necessary!

Maybe some heavy denim on the rest of the bits for future support without added weight...

I’ll try and get a picture of them uploaded tomorrow. They won’t be even, straight or particularly pretty, but better on somebody’s legs then rotting in a box. 

Literally.

[YinTx]

2 hours ago, ScoobyNewbie said:

Rule #1 - Don’t.

 

Rule number 2:  Refer to Rule #1.

  Best of luck.  I'd have opted for rule #1 myself.  Look forward to the photos, tho!

YinTx

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

The problems you have encountered are exactly what I referred to when I stated that "sewing 100 year old leather is a crapshoot".  Once it is rotten, there is no conditioner or oil or hide rejuvenator in the world that will strengthen it.  In fact, rotten leather often becomes even more likely to break apart into little bits when anything is applied to it. But best of luck to you.

[DV8DUG]

I too, would love to see photos of this journey you are taking...

[ScoobyNewbie]

10:45 this morning! 

Just finished sewing them when he walked in the door!

He’s going to cut them down because even the short one is a little long. I have other pics, but these are the only two I sent to this tablet. Finished and on the guy. Unstraped, because he was in a hurry to get going. I told him everything I was told about possible care options. Who knows if I’ll see them again, but I kind of got attached in the 13 hours I had them.

[ScoobyNewbie]

Darn. It won’t let me upload the one of them on the table finished and flat. It keeps saying it is more then 1.46MB.

You can see the original chaps as a lighter brown, and he’s got to hold them up. But he was very happy. Or he seemed to be.

 

[YinTx]

Yep, chap seems happy alright.  Brave job, I must say!

YinTx

[DV8DUG]

Try posting other pic by itself.

Edited July 30, 2018 by DV8DUG

[ScoobyNewbie]

There they are, on the table and flat. 

Turns out they were hanging in a barn for thirty years.

I think we got the colors pretty close.

He’s going to cut the longer bit to match both pieces. The jagged bit was from the hide, we couldn’t wiggle it around enough to miss it and have the length we needed. 

I told him to make up a story about a bear. Lol!

[ScoobyNewbie]

I’m glad I did it now. It’s not like it was difficult. I’ve been sewing (fabric) since I was 13. Many, MANY moons ago. Lol

But I learn quite a few things. 

Charge by the hour. Not the piece. I always under estimate how much of a bother things are going to be, and end up puffing at the finish line.

Keep LeatherWeld handy with old pieces. 

If possible,  use rubber cement and back the older piece first. Gads! It made the second seam on both of them SO much easier! I didn’t have to worry about where the chisel holes had wandered off to. They stayed right there! And the bits that were crumbly stayed in place instead of falling off so that I had to hunt for them on the floor, and glue them back on. 

I had never heard of red rot and I’ll have to investigate it a bit more. I wonder if it’s fungal and contagious. Spores and such, or if it’s just damage. 

The Janome wasn’t strong enough to sew through the oil tanned utility hide. Even one layer. I tested it on a scrap before I tried to sew the old to the new piece. Thank goodness! I can’t imagine the crumbly mess... yes I can. Ick. 

And finally, all the money you make, goes back into more leather stuff.