Posts: 164 Location: Bournemouth, UK
Sat 05 Apr, 2014 1:06 am
Well here she is, I guess.
I think I'm done. I know there are mistakes and it's not exactly the neatest work, but I'm super happy with it, and grateful for the experience - both practically from working on this, and through you guys who have been so generous and forthcoming with your help and advice.
As an aside - it turns out that making something brand new look like it's been used for many years is HARD work! When I first applied the leather wrap it looked clean, shiny and fresh which is exactly what I was trying to avoid. I had to get right up in there with dirty fingers, rubbing my hands over the wet leather as I re-applied it, denting with fingernails, scuffing as I stretched it over the risers and so on. Pretty pleased with the end result.
It's not been stained - as I applied it the natural veg tan did odd things as a result of the warm water and on a whim I coated the whole grip in white wood glue and it brought out the ridges left by the cord wrap quite nicely. It's had one coat of beeswax polish so far, which has deepened the colour slightly and it's looking (to my inexperienced eyes anyway) like a well-loved, but well-used tool.
I'm looking forward to the scabbard next - my goal is to end up with the same overall colour as I have on the grip as I think that will tie together nicely.