When I received the standard Webley holster from Todd's I must admit I was a bit taken aback; I wasn't too pleased with the lump of black leather and my first thought was how to get rid of it. Guess I forgot about the whole judging books by their covers bit because that ugly duckling is now a beauty!
First thing I did was let it soak in hot water to see if I could give the leather character and take some of the dye out. It really soaked through and took a couple days to completely dry but developed nice texture and looked better. It was still mostly a black lump, however, so last night I decided to see what sandpaper would do. As soon as I started gently rubbing a wonderful rich, brown color began to show through! After a while I gave it an alcohol rub and let it sit overnight. This morning I thought there were a couple places needing more wear so I continued with the sandpaper and alcohol. Finally, I gave it a coat of Pecards and the results are below. (The photos are less subtle than it looks to the eye.)
I'm thrilled! It went from something I wanted to throw away to one of my coolest looking pieces of gear. This is a well-made item and worth a bit of effort; it really looks like something with some mileage on it now. Thanks for making these available Todd.
wow!
I just might have to do this to mine....
It definantly could use some work....
Very FAKE looking when i got it. however i have to give Todd Credit, these are actually pretty dang well made holsters even if you wanted to put a real gun in it.
I was impressed in that manner.
also mine was EXTREMELY dry when i first got it, i have already coated it with pecards, but might try your soaking method.
btw, what grit sandpaper did you use? Im thinking something really fine like 800+ would be good?
The sandpaper was 220 grit, but it was sandpaper that had already been used and nearly ready for the trash. I often keep "broken-in" sandpaper around because it has less of a tendency to simply scratch. This worked well due to it being nice and soft and tended to remove dye more than dig at the leather. After a bit of rubbing that paper would be black with tons of dye. I went over the entire holster and simply worked on some spots longer where I thought it should age more.
Certainly give it a try! At least your holster will soften up a bit.
By the way, the photos were right after the Pecards so it had that gloss finish. Nicer now after a couple days.
Yeah, I've distressed some of Todds holsters before. They are a tank! Their dye goes deeper into the leather than ANY I've ever seen! It's difficult to get to bare leather.
Your's looks great! Great idea on the water method!
Very good, nice distressing! I would love to get me one of those.... Even so, thats quite a proces to go through to get something that nice - but worth it I imagine...
Honestly guys, it was simple and would take you less than two hours. I think the soaking was the crucial part becasue it gave some wrinkles that really made the sanding give the variation in colors. And when I sanded I was sing a light touch with the idea of removing dye rather than exposing bare leather.
