Author Topic: My first hunting pouch.  (Read 4272 times)

Offline Frozen Run

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My first hunting pouch.
« on: November 03, 2023, 09:16:39 AM »
Here is the hunting pouch I made at Maryellen Pratt's 2 day class hosted by the Log Cabin Shop recently, for scale I included a Mike Brooks painted Lehigh:



Maryellen is an outstanding teacher, I couldn't possibly be more pleased with the class, it really covered everything soup to nuts. Coming into this class I had zero experience with anything related to this. I made a sheath once a while back that was completely unusable as sheath, probably would have made an ok cricket bat, but recently got dismantled for repurposing. Much of leather crafting, after the measuring and the stitching, is highlighting different areas and just beating the breaks off the item until it looks interesting. I think I achieved that here? It turned out a bit glossier than I had anticipated, much of what you see is the flash from my phone and shop lights, but it is pretty glossy.

I think I was supposed to prep the veg tan with something prior to dye and I forgot to, I'll have to double check my class notes, or maybe it was that blown out old bottle of eco flow leather dye I had hanging around my shop since I made that bad sheath a bunch of years ago? I thought about trying to knock the gloss down a bit with something but then decided that I liked the look of things so to just quit while I was ahead. Plus I have an enormous amount of the Miller's leather dressing that I need to start using, I hope it doesn't smell like salmon. 

You'll see a couple of lighter areas on the bag and that is where I got some heavily diluted rit dye on the bag and it immediately started removing the eco-flow leather dye like paint thinner on enamel. Not sure why that happened but I kind of liked the look so I didn't mess with it. The color of the eco flow is acorn brown, I like how it turns out, but the consensus seemed to favor Angelus products so I'll try some of that for my next project.


Here's the inside, linen lined with an inner pocket:

     

It looks considerably less tragic in person. So I'm pretty sure I was advised to not dye the inner pocket as they were hardly ever dyed traditionally, I'm not sure so I'll have to check my notes. But you get your different brushes and doodads and colors and you're just going to town and sometimes you end up dying an inner pocket. Well, that's what happened to me, except I got a little sloppy with the eco flow and some of it ended up on the linen lining. So my plan was to just slap eco flow across and cover the entire lining, but I soon discovered that I had seriously misjudged how little of it I had left so decided to just pull it off and up for effect. But that looked out of place with the perfectly clean linen surrounding it so I got a disposable cup full of hot water and added a couple drops of cocoa brown rit dye and just started applying it across the linen with a sponge brush. I think it looks neat, I'm happy with it. I then saved the remaining diluted rit dye in an empty water bottle and created one more category for my shelf of products.       


Here's the other side if anyone is interested in seeing that:



I'm really happy with how it turned out, and it was a lot of fun, so it won't be my last bag.

You should really consider taking a class with Maryellen or any of the instructors at the Southern Ohio Artisan Workshops, they are absolutely some of the best teachers one could hope for, if it's too far to drive then it is certainly worth a taking a flight in for an opportunity like this:


https://www.southernohioartisanworkshops.com/


Also, check out this youtube channel:


https://www.youtube.com/@JHLeather


I'd be happy to hear what you guys have to say.
 

Offline DougS

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #1 on: November 03, 2023, 11:03:07 AM »
Hello,

Looks like a nice bag to me.

I like the color and how you aged it.

Well done and thank you for sharing.

Regards,

Doug

Offline Stoner creek

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2023, 04:13:10 PM »
Really nice work Don!
Stop Marxism in America

Offline Frozen Run

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #3 on: November 03, 2023, 06:46:48 PM »
Thank you for the compliments fellas! Incidentally I wasn't going for an aged bag originally for my first attempt here, I was going for something very simple and straight forward as a confidence booster, and then try something a bit more artsy down the road. Well, lack of experience, or forgetting a step or two, or that's just how leather crafting is, the bag was fighting me from the first drop of dye I applied so the only thing to do was fight it back. Bag making seems more like wrestling a greased pig than anything else. So you just keep beating it and applying colors until it looks interesting.

My favorite effect is if you look at the back of the bag towards the bottom you will see a couple of very dark splotches, the one most notably center bottom. What happened there was Maryellen had picked up my bag to show me something and in the process of transporting it had accidentally dipped it on a color palette and got a couple of really dark, possibly black, splotches of dye on it. She apologized and offered to clean them off, but I said I like it better now because it's bespoke and decided to keep them. The bespoke part I believe went over everyone's head because it's an inside joke at Mike and Wayne's class. So anyway, I think one of the most important parts to aging a hunting pouch is to include not just the idea that it's old but also that it's been used for hunting which means blood stains. Now most of them would have been cleaned off so you don't want the bag to look like a horror movie, but it is the 1700s so it's used all the time and you're probably not going to tear the whole bag apart getting every last tenacious stain...So when I applied the dye over the already existing splotches and looked at it I said by golly that looks an awful lot like blood stains that were too deep to fully get rid of! That's another tool in the tool box and is definitely something I will be subtly and tastefully incorporating into every aged pouch I make from here on out.     

Offline hawkeye

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #4 on: November 03, 2023, 09:32:34 PM »
Your first bag turnef out nice, I also like how the color of the bag turned out.
Thx for sharing Hawkeye

Offline Frozen Run

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #5 on: November 04, 2023, 01:36:32 PM »
Thank you hawkeye, I've been a huge fan of your bead and quill work for quite a while so a compliment from you is a really nice thing indeed!

Offline jcmcclure

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #6 on: November 04, 2023, 05:19:25 PM »
That turned out mighty fine!

Offline thecapgunkid

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #7 on: November 04, 2023, 08:35:54 PM »
Very well done

Offline Frozen Run

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #8 on: November 05, 2023, 01:47:28 AM »
Thank you, Casey, you had one sweet hawk if I recall correctly? I hope to see more of them in the future.

Thank you, capgunkid, I can't give enough credit to Maryellen and here outstanding talent for teaching! We each cut out different designs and took different approaches and we all had great success with our finished bags, it just goes to show when you have a great teacher you get great results. 

Offline Hatchet-Jack

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #9 on: November 05, 2023, 05:21:26 PM »
I like it! It should serve you well.

Offline Frozen Run

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #10 on: November 06, 2023, 04:44:29 AM »
Thank you Jack.

Offline Gaeckle

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #11 on: November 08, 2023, 04:50:59 AM »
Don, that is really a nice pouch, you did really well, lots to be proud about on that one. Keep up the good work 👏

Offline Frozen Run

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #12 on: November 14, 2023, 08:22:09 PM »
I had a chance to try out Steve and Sarah Miller's leather dressing the other day on a number of items and it was an absolute joy to work with, great stuff! Also, I can report that it is incredibly shelf stable as it has been sitting on my shelf of products for a number of years and still looks like the day I bought it. And it doesn't smell like salmon which is a relief, it just smells faintly of lard.

http://bvcolonialcrafts.com/category/3-leather-dressing/leather-dressing-3-leather-dressing/


 

Offline TDM

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #13 on: November 18, 2023, 04:51:45 AM »
Your bag looks great! Your Lehigh is mighty nice too!

Offline Frozen Run

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #14 on: November 18, 2023, 07:07:48 AM »
Thank you, I am very pleased with how it came out. I tried purchasing some angelus dyes the other day but they require a phone number to do so, it's a required field on the order form! Well that's not happening. So I go through the back and forth with them on my computer seeing if there was any other way of ordering that didn't require my phone number but they said no, they need my phone number in case they need to call me! Call me for what I say? They said in case there is a problem with the carrier or the order, I told them to just email me at the address they already had, and they said they couldn't do that.

I am honored to own the Lehigh, sold to me by a very good friend of mine.

Offline Frank Barker

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #15 on: November 24, 2023, 08:47:54 AM »
I am sure this is the first of many more. I made my first hunting bag about 50 years ago and since then there has been well over a hundred. It is kinda habit forming. You did a nice job on that one.

Offline Frozen Run

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #16 on: November 25, 2023, 11:05:26 PM »
Thank you for the kind words, Frank, it will be the first of many. I've been tooling up for leather work for a while now so I'm all prepared to get after it.

Offline B.Barker

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #17 on: December 02, 2023, 01:58:37 AM »
I really like the grungy look on the inside liner. Nice bag all around.

Offline Frozen Run

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #18 on: December 09, 2023, 12:20:42 AM »
Thank you, Brian.

Offline Tony N

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #19 on: December 11, 2023, 04:49:41 PM »
Very nice work, really like the patina

Tony

Offline thecapgunkid

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #20 on: December 16, 2023, 04:07:30 PM »
You're gonna make sure it is not your last...right?

Offline Frozen Run

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #21 on: December 16, 2023, 07:46:47 PM »
Thank you Tony and Capgunkid.

No, this will certainly not be my last. Weaver Leather had a black friday sale going on and I was able to use that in combination with a bundle deal they had where I got 6 bottles of Fiebing pro dye, a container of Fiebing antiquing gel, some sort of beeswax leather treatment, a package of daubers, and and applicator sponge all for $50 shipped.

Offline aaronc

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #22 on: December 18, 2023, 05:50:45 PM »
That's a great looking bag, you nailed the color/patina
- Aaron C
At the work bench.

Offline Blacksmoke

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #23 on: December 18, 2023, 07:01:16 PM »
Hey Don:  Your project turned out excellent!  You are on the right trail!! Good luck,  Hugh Toenjes
H.T.

Offline Frozen Run

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Re: My first hunting pouch.
« Reply #24 on: December 19, 2023, 07:46:36 AM »
Thank you Hugh and Aaron!