Aging deerhide leggings

[newlife829aol.com]

Is there a good way to break-in (age) newly made deerhide leggings. I made a pair last year and don't much like the new look of them.

 

[Black Hand]

Wear them around the house, the yard and in the woods. They will age very quickly.

 

[crockett]

And it's fun :grin:

 

[Little Wattsy]

Is there a good way to break-in (age) newly made deerhide leggings. I made a pair last year and don't much like the new look of them.

Dirt....

 

[Ranger1759]

Next time you clean your front stuffer, get your hands all black from the fouling and wipe them down the front.....repeat until desired color is achieved....fouling does wonders for new clean buckskin!

 

[omarick1948]

Old Indian trick: Give them to a white man to wear and have him fall into a deep mud hole and wear till dry..three times!

Your welcome! :wink:

 

[necchi]

Wear them around the house, the yard and in the woods. They will age very quickly.

Yeah, just wear'm and don't be so darn carefull about not getting them dirty.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Wear them, get them dirty and clean by rubbing with sand or dry dirt. Properly abused they will last you decades.

 

[Birdman]

hahaha Posts like this give me a chuckle, remember that back when folks also made and had new stuff to wear on occasion.If something wore out, they made new, it looked new for a spell.
It all got worn in looking after they wore it for awhile. Just put them on n wear them in camp, take a hile in the woods, maybe around the yard, they will soon enough be the way you want, just remember people heading for the high n uncut bought all new stuff before they headed out if they could afford it, haveing something new on is just being accurate at its best point.

 

[FishDFly]

What happened to "Sunday's Best", who wanted to be ugly and stinky on Sunday, especially on Easter.

I have to ask, when the spring gathering happened, did folks shave when they came to town after months in the woods, did they take a bath coming into town, or stand around in dirty clothes with a blue tooth in their ear, going am I cool or what?

Think town women wanted some one who was clean or look at me, I am a mountain man and have not had a bath in 6 months?

 

200yrs ago, how long did buckskin clothing stay new looking? Probably not very long, as they wore the stuff every day and did not bathe with soap every day like we do today. Back then, it took only a matter of a few weeks for the stuff to look well-used. I seriously doubt that very many people are living as full-time mountain men. We have to take our time in the woods as we are able to. It may take several seasons to get new clothing looking like it's been used. We don't typically live with and use the stuff every day and so it takes much, much longer to gain the same effect. Same for guns and leather. Personally, I'd rather go to the extra effort to make new leather look old and would by FAR prefer to use a rig like those Chuck Burrows (LaBonte) creates than to take the several years making plastic looking new stuff look used. Sorry but the well-used stuff just looks more authentic to a lot of people.

IMHO, this is just a further extension of why we hunt with traditional muzzleloaders and in traditional clothing with traditional accessories instead of a stainless/synthetic modern inline monstrosity and a bunch of camo junk from Walmart.

 

[Black Hand]

What happened to "Sunday's Best", who wanted to be ugly and stinky on Sunday, especially on Easter.

I have to ask, when the spring gathering happened, did folks shave when they came to town after months in the woods, did they take a bath coming into town, or stand around in dirty clothes with a blue tooth in their ear, going am I cool or what?

Think town women wanted some one who was clean or look at me, I am a mountain man and have not had a bath in 6 months?

In all reality, leggings were hunting/traveling clothes. With very few exceptions, it is unlikely that they would be worn as "Sunday go to meetin'" clothes.

Men coming back from the mountains would have bathed, shaved and put on that shirt they had been saving for town, making themselves "presentable" before getting there. And even then, their leggings were most likely filthy from having been worn every day....

 

[Loyalist Dave]

did folks shave when they came to town after months in the woods, did they take a bath coming into town

Actually, Mark Baker in his book Sons of a Trackless Forest details one expedition coming home after almost a year (iirc) that stopped and cleaned up and put on clothing reserved among their gear for their return.

LD

 

[newlife829aol.com]

Thanks for all your ideas. I am ,as I stated earlier,learning, so please bear with me.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Eat BBQ ribs a lot and don't use a napkin!! :haha:

 

[dlpowell]

Antique restoration wax.

 

[Woods Dweller]

Is there a good way to break-in (age) newly made deerhide leggings. I made a pair last year and don't much like the new look of them.

Have any kids or grandkids[especially boys]. Give them to the kids and let them play with them outside.
We would buy our boys & {gransons}new pants and in a few days you would think they were a year old.

 

[tenngun]

I remeber John Wayne in the Alamo telling his boys "Put on your foforwa" on seeing town.Not the most hc movie although I think that Idea of dressing up when comming to town was right.You might just try putting them in smoke it will color them and in an uneven way.Keep in mind however that people did wear new clouths back then,I always let them age naturaly

 

[Claude Mathis]

Is there a good way to break-in (age) newly made deerhide leggings. I made a pair last year and don't much like the new look of them.

Even "back in the day" everyone's stuff was new at some point.

Wear your leggings to a couple of camps. Wipe your hands on them when cooking or doing anything and they'll look the way they should. When something is actually used, it will look much different than when it's artificially "aged". (Unless you're really good at it, and to do that, you have to know what it would look like if actually used) :wink:

 

[mtcurman]

+1 to everyone who said to just wear them around. I always wipe my grimy hands on them when I'm shooting or cleaning my muzzleloader.