Five Star Leather Jackets

[ton312]

I also have some mahagonie alcohol leather dye. I can remove some of the russet top coat/grain with very very fine sandpaper and overdye the light brown/tanned leather colour .That could make a nice effect if you do the sanding irregular so you have more or less burgundy coming through .

Do you use like a 1200 grit to sand? Just enough to remove the wax/paint?

I don't know if Shawn was serious or if I misunderstood it or if it was a joke ... but if it was serious, the CXL HH would have been 3 mm thick

That's 7-8oz! LOL. Sorry @Hh121 I'm about to make your jacket look light weight! . In all seriousness, if he gets a nice 3-3.5oz hide that would be perfect. My Spongebob strange pocket is easily 3.5oz and that's more than enough. I think my days of wrestling with 4oz and up are well behind me.

 

[PilotJens]

@ton312 might be your lucky day. I use these sanding sponge's

 

[PilotJens]

My order history said very fine grid without the number

 

[PilotJens]

Shawn just send me new pictures. I just asked for one front picture now .What a relief.

 

[PilotJens]

I will shorten it a bit and then good to go .
The model could not button it up lol.

So next project for today is the burgundy dye test for Tony

 

[Hh121]

Looks good, I like it.

 

[Kubatu]

The leather choices from Five Star have typically been the factor holding me back. Really excited to see what this new stuff looks like.

This is probably an overly optimistic question, but in terms of jacket making "ability", do you think a design like the Leathertogs B is a bit out of reach right now? I think the style looks really neat, but I'm not at the point of wanting to shell out for a brand new LW or something like that, haha.

 

[Hh121]

Sounds excited, but it depends on the temper of the hide, I have tried some pull up leather from other tannery who try to copy Horween's CXL, but I got two problems first is the color just not as rich as Horween(often looks pale), second is the leather is just too stiff and will not soften over the time.

If Shawn can make the leather soft that will be amazing.

 

[ton312]

The leather choices from Five Star have typically been the factor holding me back. Really excited to see what this new stuff looks like.

This is probably an overly optimistic question, but in terms of jacket making "ability", do you think a design like the Leathertogs B is a bit out of reach right now? I think the style looks really neat, but I'm not at the point of wanting to shell out for a brand new LW or something like that, haha.

If you are willing to painstakingly highlight every single detail, then I believe they can. A large part of how something like that turns out will depend on the information and level of detail you provide. You can never provide too much.

 

[red devil]

The leather choices from Five Star have typically been the factor holding me back. Really excited to see what this new stuff looks like.

This is probably an overly optimistic question, but in terms of jacket making "ability", do you think a design like the Leathertogs B is a bit out of reach right now? I think the style looks really neat, but I'm not at the point of wanting to shell out for a brand new LW or something like that, haha.

The leathertog pattern have a lot of details that are easy to miss, I wouldn't attempt it myself even though I own the LW model and can examine it at leisure.

Edit: you can certainly get a jacket with 2 rows of snaps, but it will be difficult for it to look close to a leathertogs...

 

[PilotJens]

@ton312

I think you have the jackpot. The angelus dye seems to look exactly as you want

 

[red devil]

@ton312

I think you have the jackpot. The angelus dye seems to look exactly as you want View attachment 327628

That would look great on your jacket @ton312 !

I would actually go for a more louder colour such as purple, but that's just me

 

[PilotJens]

I can add a acrylic high gloss or a nitro cellulose semi gloss finish on top .

 

[ton312]

I can add a acrylic high gloss or a nitro cellulose semi gloss finish on top .

So you hit the leather with your sanding blocks (wet?) and just paint that on with a brush? I found the maroon on Amazon but they only have 4oz bottles. Would probably take at least 6 to do the jacket?
That is EXACTLY the color I was hoping for.

 

[PilotJens]

These are sanding sponges and not hard like a sharpening stone.I wash the hide first with a very diluted saddle soap to remove the surface oil and wax because they clog up the sanding pad .I sand dry until the light brown comes through .After sanding shake the piece and brush it to remove surface dust.

After that use some acetone on a rag and degrease the surface to prep it for the dye process .

I apply the dye on a dense sponge and wipe it on .The dye/solvents soak in and leave the acrylic on top .Go with thin even coats without using a heat dryer to accelerate drying because that destroys the paint .Let it dry 24 hours and apply again a thin coat .
Only thin coats! Do not cake it on .

Acrylic dye cannot flake .It is very sturdy and you can still condition the hide .

I throw the pieces on the low heat setting in the dryer .That removes the oili slik feel and seems to really set the dye

 

[PilotJens]

You only need one paint coat .Max 3 .The paint goes very far .I can do the dye job again on the goat and make a video .

The steer piece has to dry for now and I will check the adhesion tomorrow

 

[PilotJens]

I used a bit more than 4 oz about 6
for a complete Irvin but size 32-36.

 

[navetsea]

I'd love to see the results! I wonder though...would that flake?

you can pretty much clean and prepare the surface to re dye with lighter fluid unless there's a trace of silicone on it then you probably need acetone which will remove the original dye

 

[navetsea]

Shawn just send me new pictures. I just asked for one front picture now .What a relief.

that's a lot better, perhaps before he took picture with the jacket on table from low angle perspective

 

[PilotJens]

So adhesion is pretty good with the paint it flexes with the leather and doesn't start flaking.But you can scratch it off when you try and it will always be a little bit fragile in comparison with the factory finish.It would be like a teacore finish . The second opinion I could try would be to remove the acrylic paint again and remove more of the top grain so I have a fresh light brown layer to dye over with soluble dyes .