Quote Originally Posted by OC Richard View Post
I had a c1950 EW5 cantle on a Coyote body, and a c1930 Celtic birds knotwork cantle on a seal body.

But the Celtic birds cantle always looked too big on the normal-sized seal body, and looked much better on the slightly oversized Coyote body.

So I swapped the Celtic bird knotwork cantle on to the lovely Coyote body which it looks great on, and put the EW5 cantle on a more rustic-looking Coyote body.

I decided to use the same russet leather for both. I have a lot of that stuff and besides it looks just right to my eye. It's been "weathered" as I always do.

I really like the results.



The liner on the EW5 cantle that I made might look a bit wide, but that's intentional, a small tip of the cap to the old Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders sporrans which had wide liners.

I really like the results, too..!

I have never tried paints on leather, but your results are encouraging. I have known others to use metallic car spray-paint to get a worn-off-guilding effect, with convincing results.

For an aged, patinated and well-handled effect, cold tea does well - wiping surface with a teabag has a similar effect on leather as sepia toning does with photographs. I have done tea-toned photos, too, as the staining remains after the moisture had dried.