Friday, May 31, 2013

Mini-Briefcase Project

This smaller briefcase was made in the 1970s and became my first restoration project.  I was looking for something I could carry to work that would fit my iPad along with the stuff I usually carry.  When I received it, the piping on two corners was damaged and the leather was very dried out.

Here are a couple of before pictures:



I honestly had no clue what to do with the piping.  I took a needle and thread to it, which may not have been the best idea.  I then gave the bag a bath to get it clean.  After several days of applying Leather Therapy, followed by Blackrock, followed by Obenauf's, with lots of brushing and buffing in between, the leather turned into this:


It is now a beautiful, dark chocolate brown leather.  I put several coats of EdgeKote over the piping.  It is passable, but not great.  I'll try something else next time.  For my purposes, it is fine.  


I absolutely love my "new" old bag. 

Welcome to my blog!

If you don't understand the title of my blog, you clearly don't read nearly as much Deadspin as I do.  I don't intend to blog about Chris Berman all that often, though when he annoys me during home run derby or when they trot him out for the US Open, I may throw in a reference or two.  I have a little bit of a Coach addition, and I've recently started rehabbing Coach bags.  My intention is to use this space to blog about my rehab projects.  My first project turned out much better than expected, and my second one is going very well, too. I'm hoping this space will turn into something fun to showcase my leather projects.