Black leather

[oldbilbo]

I find meself possessed of a square (~2m.) of good quality robust shiny black leather, for which there is no obvious domestic use. I'm musing on using it for boaty bits. I'm aware that grey chromed leather works well/looks good, but I'm stuck with black.

P'rhaps around runner blocks and spreader ends, f'rinstance, or even winch covers (!). Tiller sheath, maybe? Practicable ideas would be welcomed, but I draw the line at fender sox....

It may be that experience suggests this stuff will not wear well in the environment, so any experience of 'dressing' such leather with suitable unguents would be well received. It won't matter much if the stuff fails after a while....

 

[NUTMEG]

I find meself possessed of a square (~2m.) of good quality robust shiny black leather, for which there is no obvious domestic use. I'm musing on using it for boaty bits. I'm aware that grey chromed leather works well/looks good, but I'm stuck with black.

Do you know how it was tanned? If chrome tanned then it will not wet mould at all well but on the plus side it will resist wet and damp better then vegetable tanned hide. How thick is it? Is it full grain or is it split? All affects how it will behave.

Oddly I am about to buy some black leather for a motorcycle saddle bag I have been asked to make.

Steve

 

[LittleSister]

Tool rolls, etc?

I'd steer [sic] clear of the black leather tiller sheath if I were you, unless you're going to go the whole hog: studs, fringes and Village People playing on the cockpit speakers!

;-)

 

[carl170]

Tool rolls, etc?

I'd steer [sic] clear of the black leather tiller sheath if I were you, unless you're going to go the whole hog: studs, fringes and Village People playing on the cockpit speakers!

;-)

Then surely the first thing to make is a black leather cap?

Regards

Carl

PS I can't think of anything on a boat that is made from black leather!

 

[Resolution]

Then surely the first thing to make is a black leather cap?

Regards

Carl

PS I can't think of anything on a boat that is made from black leather!

Surely you don't have a coloured cat o' nine tails???????

 

[oldbilbo]

the lot of you!


I know nuttin' about its provenance. P'rhaps the best idea is to find someone who knows about leather, and ask him ( her? )....

 

[rotrax]

I find meself possessed of a square (~2m.) of good quality robust shiny black leather, for which there is no obvious domestic use. I'm musing on using it for boaty bits. I'm aware that grey chromed leather works well/looks good, but I'm stuck with black.

P'rhaps around runner blocks and spreader ends, f'rinstance, or even winch covers (!). Tiller sheath, maybe? Practicable ideas would be welcomed, but I draw the line at fender sox....

It may be that experience suggests this stuff will not wear well in the environment, so any experience of 'dressing' such leather with suitable unguents would be well received. It won't matter much if the stuff fails after a while....

Posing pouch?

 

[oldbilbo]

Posing pouch?

Even allowing a fair margin for 'hyperbole', I reckon I'd get more than an embarrassment of such pouches out of a couple of sq.m.

Next?

 

[macd]

I'm sure you could get some tips on its use at Littlehampton Yacht Club. Apparently the club "does also offer optional membership...that has facilities not available to straight bertholders." Post #34 at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?380634-Littlehampton-Yacht-Club-Terms-and-Conditions/page2

Mind you, if it's only for a littlehampton posing pouch, you'd have an awful lot left over from two square metres.

 

[sailorgirl]

Bought a hide in Morocco to use on boat eg covering where the guard wire joins the pulpit to prevent sail wear. Usually use grey but could only get brown - nice new sail now has grubby brown patch and leather is much faded after just one passage. Lesson learnt - try a sample out somewhere that won't show first.

 

[Iain C]

I've always thought the Banks nappy harness was almost scary enough to need a big sign on it saying "this is a piece of sailing equipment and if you see me wearing it I'm going racing, and not to some kind of specialist interest club"

Why don't you send them your piece of leather and get them to make you one that has entirely new levels of wrongness?

 

[oldbilbo]

I've always thought the Banks nappy harness was almost scary enough to need a big sign on it saying "this is a piece of sailing equipment and if you see me wearing it I'm going racing, and not to some kind of specialist interest club"

Why don't you send them your piece of leather and get them to make you one that has entirely new levels of wrongness?

Eek - a racing mankini! Eek!

Have you read the New Forum Rules...? Are you trying to get me banned?

 

[parbuckle]

http://zimmerscope.com/Verbisaurus/2011/11/botany-bay/bavarian-lederhosen-costume-xl-87-p/

 

[Iain C]

Oldbilbo...banned...no, not at all...this is a serious suggestion! After some extensive research and a good knowledge of the 49er class, I have irrefutable evidence here that the normal trapeze harness is just not up to the job in hand.

Here we have a young, fit, top of her game GIRLIE crew from the 49er FX (Women's skiff class for Rio 2016...it's a standard 49er with a smaller rig) and the poor thing has split the arse of her harness in a most unladylike place. Perhaps a new, BilbIain Enterprises Inc. "made to measure" tight leather jobbie would be just perfect, and much harder wearing than rubbishy old cordura. Tell you what, you do the making, I'll do the measuring...

 

[oldbilbo]

Perhaps a new, BilbIain Enterprises Inc. "made to measure" tight leather jobbie would be just perfect...... you do the making, I'll do the measuring...

I'm almost tempted to accept your kind offer....but fear my famous physiog. could well find its way onto one or t'other of the 'social websites' and I'd never hear the end of it. Ever.

While we're on the above topic, and if you all permit just a smidgen of FredDrif, around 50 years ago ( cheese, as long ago as that! ) the YoungBilbo was an active and fairly competent rock-climber. While on a visit to the crags of North Wales, was persuaded to lead the then 'rather serious' Cenotaph Corner - a 150' run-out straight up a right angled corner. Hard, unrelenting, with several 'cruxes' and nowhere to hide or rest....

Many of the moves required a technique called 'bridging', which essentially required one to use awkward footholds well out on both the left and right walls, while 'doing the splits'.

I was climbing in rather tattered blue jeans, rolled up to the knees, and a T-shirt. Unfortunately, as I climbed, the material split along the seam 'from noddle to nock' - or from the bottom of the front zip, down and back to my waistbelt at the rear. I was 'bridged' wide on an especially hard and 'gripping' bit, so I was dangling free.....

Along the path at the bottom, just then, came a small group of lady climbers following a well-known lady mountain guide called Gwen Moffat < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwen_Moffat > who took in the situation with one glance, then proceeded - in an almost-ladylike but always charming tone - to describe my considerable predicament to her charges in what would be called 'sledging' in another sport.

I'm afraid my language to her was far from ladylike and, after a good larf, they toddled on their way, leaving me to gather up my fragmented focus and get on with it.

 

[Iain C]

Oh god. What a hideous description. Somebody pass the mind bleach please.

Here, have some more 49erFX sailors to cleanse the mind a little.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Is that a black leather asym? And is that a zip through the middle of it?

 

[FishyInverness]

If you're still looking for sensible suggestions for proofing - May I suggest Baked Wax Leather?
http://www.ebay.com/gds/How-to-Harden-Leather-for-Mediaeval-Armor-/10000000017598289/g.html


Unfortunately you tend to lose any nice finish when you do this, and unless you use good quality wax it can end up looking scruffy (and 'sweats' in hot weather), but it weatherproofs nicely...

I think I may have just made this thread sound even worse, but honest-to-random-deity-of-your-choosing, I was trying to be helpful.

 

[KenMcCulloch]

........

While we're on the above topic, and if you all permit just a smidgen of FredDrif, around 50 years ago ( cheese, as long ago as that! ) the YoungBilbo was an active and fairly competent rock-climber. While on a visit to the crags of North Wales, was persuaded to lead the then 'rather serious' Cenotaph Corner - a 150' run-out straight up a right angled corner. Hard, unrelenting, with several 'cruxes' and nowhere to hide or rest....

Bilbo, my dear, I fear your memory or photographic filing is at fault. CC was only 120' even 50 years ago. It's a good Gwen Moffat story though, whether true in every detail or not.

The photies however are another story and certainly weren't taken fifty years ago or even on the same occasion, I fear. Two different parties, helmets, harnesses, kernmantel ropes, and chalkbags would date those pictures as from no earlier than about the late 80s. I think we should be told the full story.

 

[NUTMEG]

If you're still looking for sensible suggestions for proofing - May I suggest Baked Wax Leather?
http://www.ebay.com/gds/How-to-Harden-Leather-for-Mediaeval-Armor-/10000000017598289/g.html


Unfortunately you tend to lose any nice finish when you do this, and unless you use good quality wax it can end up looking scruffy (and 'sweats' in hot weather), but it weatherproofs nicely...

I think I may have just made this thread sound even worse, but honest-to-random-deity-of-your-choosing, I was trying to be helpful.

Thanks for that tip. Not something I have come across. I'd be a bit concerned about hardness, lack of flexibility and abrasion resistance though. After treating I recommend good old fashioned dubbin (3 or 4 applications) and/or tallow. Sheepskin tallow can be had from any good butcher, lasts for ages and smells like Sunday roast. Contrary to popular belief it does not go rancid or nasty. Plus my dog Inca enjoys licking it off the gaff saddle!