I bought this leather NATO strap from Crown & Buckle for my Luch one hander:
Luch Leather NATO by J.W.C., on Flickr
Luch Leather NATO by J.W.C., on Flickr
Looks okay, but it was more red than I liked and thought it might look better if the leather wasn't so shiny.
These are the steps I took to "age" the leather:
1. Remove strap from watch!
2. Applied rubbing alcohol to the entire shiny side of the strap and waited a few minutes... The reddish colour starts to come off when you rub it with a cloth, but that was taking too long so I started using 220 grit sand paper. I got most of the red off.. Eventually.
3. Rinsed stap with water and washed it with some powdered dish soap, scratching and rubbing it in.. Rinsed with water again and let it dry off on top of my toaster oven.
4. Now the strap was kind of dull and lighter brown, so I got some brown liquid shoe polish and worked that into the entire strap including the back side and let it sit for an hour or so.
5. Rinsed with water again and started to bend and fold the leather every which way as it dried again. This made the strap even softer than new.
6. Then I used some more sand paper and a dull knife to scrape and scratch the leather some more until I was happy with the wear patterns.
7. Then I let it dry again and applied some mineral oil to the surface and wiped it off, making sure no more colour was coming off (I didn't want a brown ring around my wrist after wearing it). Then a final application of colourless shoe polish.
Luch Leather NATO by J.W.C., on Flickr
Luch Leather NATO by J.W.C., on Flickr
Luch Leather NATO by J.W.C., on Flickr
Really happy with the look now, and it feels nice and soft too.
Distressing Leather NATO
- Konketsu
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Distressing Leather NATO
"It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time." - Sir Winston Churchill
- Kip
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Re: Distressing Leather NATO
Excellent job. It looks like a whole new (old) strap.
Kip
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Visit the CWArchives for everything CW. Historical, specs, manuals and resale. It is all there.
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Re: Distressing Leather NATO
Excellent job ; will you do one for me?
In small proportions, we just beautie see:
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And in short measures, life may perfect bee. - Ben Jonson (1572 – 1637)
Inscription on the Longitude Dial
Hatfield House, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL9 5NB, England
Re: Distressing Leather NATO
That does look really good, it must be quite satisfying to have achieved such a great result.
- Konketsu
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Re: Distressing Leather NATO
No plans to make more lol, it took a few hours on and off to get it to where I was happy. I can understand why handmade bespoke leather straps are so expensive!
"It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time." - Sir Winston Churchill
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