Deerskin rifle bag.

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

hOWDY fORTY

          I just leave my leather in the coffee dye for 24 hours, but there is no rule to this, I just liked the color I got after 24 hours, and when it was dried, I didn't get any rub off, I conditioned my leather afterwords with Lexoil Conditioner, but I'm not sure you would need it on deer skin, if your skin dries and is real stiff you might want to consider it. But make sure it won't mess up the hide first, try it on a piece of scrap that was dyed too, IMHO

        Regards

     tEN wOLVES  

[Mogorilla]

I have done both sueded leather and deer skin in coffee.  On the sued, I left it in the coffee about 48 let it dry and rubbed it over a beam to return the nape and softness.   Didn't do anything after.  Colour has held, but it hasn't gotten extremely wet since either.  The deer skin I did (check for a leather post by me called-My botas had to get a job) I soaked for ~36 hours but had isopropyl alcohol in the coffee, and a tablespoon of brown alcohol based dye.  (total volume was in the two gallon range as I soaked an entire deer hide.)  I later rubbed a little neatsfoot oil on it.  it seems to be set.

[Forty Rod]

Okay, I pulled it out of the coffee and it's almost perfect.....except where I got rubber cement on it and didn't find it until too late.  Any secrets here for getting the white off?  If I can get it off, what are the chances that I can spot stain the places where it was?

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

Okay, I pulled it out of the coffee and it's almost perfect.....except where I got rubber cement on it and didn't find it until too late.  Any secrets here for getting the white off?  If I can get it off, what are the chances that I can spot stain the places where it was?

   Forty, I use one of my wife's emery boards or a little sand paper, and carefully sand it off, when you get it off just dab some more coffee dye on it and let it dry, be careful not to sand too hard, you don't want to get it too thin, I've even used my finger nail to scrape excess cement off.

                   Hope this helped

                   tEN wOLVES 

[Forty Rod]

It's still awful wet.  When it dries I'll give it a try.  I can't believe how well it turned out just following what I learned on this board. Very old and used looking without being too old or too used. 

I'm going to take a crack at some beading, too.  Not loomed but free hand directly on the side of the bag using what I've heard called 'lazy stitch'.  A lady who is 3/4 Indian says she refuses to call anything that take sixty to eighty hours of detailed finger and eye work "lazy" anything.  She called it 'lean stitching'.

I also have some hair pipe / pony bead /  crow bead /  tin cone work I'll add to it when I'm ready.

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

   That sounds great Forty, be sure to post pictures when you're done, can't wait to see it, I like these natural dyes too, and just about use them for everything these days.

        Regards

       tEN wOLVES 

[Forty Rod]

A comment on something I have discovered:

I have been searching the net for ideas on decorations for this scabbard.  I have gone to bead sites, leather working sites, Native American sites, history sites, craftsman sites, etc.

First, there is precious little out there.

Second, most of what is out there, even on Native American sites, is what I would call 'tourist trap garbage'.  Cheap Chinese loomed beadwork, rabbit fur, machine sewn, poorly designed and made, phony-looking crud.  It seems in many cases if it is assembled by Native Americans, even though the individual pieces come from whatever source they can find, it is advertised as 'Native American made'.   The prices on this stuff is exorbitant for what it is.

Third, there is a small amount of very fine-looking, quality merchandise out there for very little more money than the garbage.  Much of it is genuine Native made, but some is made by people whose claim to fame is that they have studied what tiny amount is available and made top notch items.

In comparison to the work I see on this site, most of what is for sale in the rest of the world isn't worth the time and effort required to find it, save those few glittering examples I mentioned above.  I don't know how many of you have done such a search, but I can tell you we have some top of the line craftsmen and women in our hobby / sport.

I'm proud to know many of you personally, still more from this wire, and still others by reputation.

Thanks to you all, I have decided on the final work to be done on the scabbard.  It will never measure up with what I see here, but it will beat hell out of the majority of junk I've found on my searches, and it will be MINE!

[Professor Marvel]

A comment on something I have discovered:

I have been searching the net for ideas on decorations for this scabbard.  I have gone to bead sites, leather working sites, Native American sites, history sites, craftsman sites, etc.

First, there is precious little out there.

Greetings FortyRod

for ideas you might start here:
http://www.nebraskahistory.org/sites/mnh/bandolier_bags/ojibwe-late.htm
http://www.native-languages.org/beadwork.htm
http://www.thunderbaymuseum.com/beadwork.htm

http://www.prairieedge.com/  (I know some of the folks that sell their stuff there)

http://www.matoska.com/ciha_sioux_beadwork.htm
http://www.matoska.com/siouxlazystitch.htm

this book is pretty good
http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9780486420899

Muzzleloader magazine has a series of books (collections) that have quite a few
great photos of beadwork, but I don't have access to all my books just now...
http://www.muzzleloadermag.com/index.html

hopes this helps get you started
yhs
prof marvel

[Forty Rod]

Lots of good stuff there, Prof.  Thanks. 

I don't know how I forgot Prairie Edge, because I've done business with them before.  They had a link to the Sioux trading Post and there I found the beads I've been looking for.  Lots of brain candy there, and on the other sites, to keep me occupied for a long time.

[ChuckBurrows]

You can find pics of lots of original beadwork here...........
http://www.splendidheritage.com/nindex.html

http://anthro.amnh.org/anthropology/databases/north_public/north_public.htm

http://www.bbhc.org/collections/bbhc/index_pim.cfm?CFID=28900323&CFTOKEN=20285933