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Aging and Distressing Leather
Wear spotsFor my daughter's duster we used sandpaper, stones, dragged it along the asphalt drive and rubbed it against trees! Take notice of areas where you would naturally get wear-like where your sword hangs, end of sleeves, any place where there is a lot of contact. Judicious use of fabric paint to simulate mud, water spots. Or you can live in it day and night like Viggo did! ==Jules ...aided and abetted by judicious use of sandpaper... ==Kayta My girlfriend just tries shoe wax and it works nicely. For leather, I will try sandpaper and mud. I think it will be nice. ==Boris. Sever WearThose little wire brushes used to scrape paint before you even go to sand paper. Are great in general for trashing the ends of stuff. Used hard, when the fabric is held taut, it can make a patch of leather look like you took a motorcycle down on a free way. Used lightly, just like you've rolled down a hill of rocks. Much less painful... unless you catch your cuticles in the bristles. ==Cat I've used sandpaper, wire brushes, drills with wire wheels, rusty chains,
hammers and "kickin' it around the dusty gravel driveway", acetone, varsol,
etc. (all for leather bits), but the "cheese grater" remark had me going ;). Something else I've used on leather and heavy fabrics alike to give a "worn-in" look is "Leather Balm", which is a microcrystalline wax in an alcohol solution. Applied heavily and rapidly with a rag and rubbed / burnished off with a clean rag quickly, it can give the look of heavy/greasy wear very quickly. The heavier the application and burnishing the more aged and worn (especially over high wear points). I did some "Goliath boots" over with this treatment for a docu-drama that made them come out looking like they had been worn for years, even though they had only left my bench a couple of days earlier. It probably won't make the material any softer in the overall scheme of things, but it may make it *look* that way, and isn't that what we're all about? ==Adam My Dad works with leather, and I work with him, so... the best way to age leather quickly is to soak it in water and then use a blowdryer on it. It dries it out, makes it crack, is really horrible for the leather, but it lasts longer than some topical distressing techniques. Alternate this with beating it up, like Jules said. One word of advice when "un-distressing" leather: do _*not!*_ use baby oil to condition it. I made that mistake once. It makes it tacky and the leather dye comes off. Use Lexol. It works. ==Narloth Breaking down leatherTo make it look worn you have to bend, fold, twist and roll
a leather belt...especially if it is new. You can also get some saddle soap
or neatsfoot oil to make it soft....of course, that is if you are making the
== Tammy I've used on leather and heavy fabrics alike to give a "worn-in" look is "Leather Balm", which is a microcrystalline wax in an alcohol solution. Applied heavily and rapidly with a rag and rubbed/burnished off with a clean rag quickly, it can give the look of heavy/greasy wear very quickly. The heavier the application and burnishing the more aged and worn (especially over high wear points). I did some "Goliath boots" over with this treatment for a docu-drama that made them come out looking like they had been worn for years, even though they had only left my bench a couple of days earlier. It probably won't make the material any softer in the overall scheme of things, but it may make it *look* that way == Adam Aging and Distressing VinylSand paper is good. Use different grades... Then again you can still use the same techniques as leather, wire brush, cheese grater. Be careful. Both the last two can completely shred off the top layer that give it that leather look. One advantage on the vinyl.. if you acciddently take off a whole section, you can repair and the shread with a gentler hand. ==Cat ==Jules
This page was last updated 04/22/08 |
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