Christopher’s Leather Care Tips

I get asked from time to time about the best way to care for leather gear. Here are a few things I've picked up over the years: 

Leather items can last for decades if properly cared for. Age and use can bring out leather’s natural patina, making it more beautiful. It should fit you better too, as it will stretch to conform to your shape over time. 

Dry dust with a soft cloth or vacuum in crevices inside and out before cleaning or conditioning. 

No, I don't actually have my own branded suede brush!

The inside of your unlined leather item (with suede-like nap) can be brushed and cleaned with a brass-bristle suede brush. Follow up with a vacuum to suck up the little bits of nap that may brush off. 

Lexol Leather Cleaner: the orange bottle.

Use Lexol PH Leather Cleaner to spot clean if necessary before conditioning.

Lexol Leather Conditioner: the brown one.

Use a conditioner like Lexol Leather Conditioner every 6-12 months. Be sure to test it first on a hidden area first to make sure it doesn’t discolor the leather. I like to apply with a soft cloth, then buff with a clean soft cloth and finish with a horse hair brush. 

Horsehair brushes are great for the final buffed finish.

Don’t over condition! You don’t want to clog the pores of the leather, or make it sticky, which can happen if you apply too much or too frequently. 

Note that a conditioner may darken the appearance of the leather. You may want to test a small inconspicuous area first. 

Protect your leather from direct sunlight, which can dry it out and make it fade over time. 

Wipe up spills immediately as they occur with a clean soft cloth.

If necessary, use a lightly moistened soft cloth with lukewarm water to clean a spill. 

Let any damp leather air dry naturally before putting it away. Don’t put it near a heater to speed up drying, as it may result in hardening the leather. 

Do not use soap or heavily soak the leather with water. This may cause more damage than the stain itself.  

Avoid cleaning supplies or soaps, detergents, solvents or bleach. Don’t use furniture polish, oils, varnish, abrasive cleaners or ammonia water. 

Butter and leather don't go together!

Be careful with butter, oil or grease, which can stain leather. Wipe off with a clean cloth, and leave alone. The spot should dissipate after a short period of time. 

Use a chamois to buff out minor surface scratches. 

Store in a cool, dry well-ventilated place, never in a plastic bag! Leather needs to breathe, and can grow mold if kept in a plastic bag. 

A dust-bag can help keep your gear clean, but make sure it’s breathable, natural fiber. 

Avoid strong perfumes or cologne when wearing your leather, as it is porous and will absorb smells quite easily.

Follow these tips, and your leather should give you many years of enjoyment. 

Incredible Lockable Leather Suit from Overall Bound

I got an email a while ago from a gentleman (nom de perv: Overall Bound) who had an incredible custom-made bondage suit he had made for himself by a leather artisan. It had an integrated heavy hood which attached with a zipper, making it removable from the body, if desired. This bondage suit is fully leather lined, with smooth leather facing the inside throughout, including the hood. 

The blindfold and mouth zip can be locked in place. 

Pretty much every strap you see can be locked. 

As he mentions: "With the padlock in place on the arm strap, with the arms passed through the central hole and two lateral loops, there’s no way to get the arms free".

 The locking harness covers the rear lacing panel, and the collar (of course) locks on as well. 

There is a two-layered pouch at the crotch - one tight fitting with a hole for the penis, and a second lockable layer to cover everything up. 

"With the padlocks in place, even with the arms free you don’t get out of that suit. With everything one, and wearing boots (he has heavy leather lined boots to go with it too), it’s 100% total leather enclosure except for the two nostril holes". A man after my own heart. 

For the leather enclosure enthusiast, I would think this is kind of an ultimate trip! I wonder if he ever got anyone to take his picture while inside the suit?

Red Armbinder and Hood from Restricted Senses

I've been going a bit nuts lately over the work being done by my friend over at Restricted Senses tumblr site. "Mr. X" has been exchanging emails with me about his projects, including some gear he's been making based on the patterns I've posted. 

He did a great job modifying the armbinder pattern to fit his shapely (and quite flexible) slavegirl. He also is taking and posting countless incredible sexy photos of said gear in use  and sharing with us (for free) because frankly he's just awesome.

 

I swear it makes me want to cry... In a good way! She's so pretty!!!

 My weakness for gorgeous tight-fitting leather gear on a willing and stunningly beautiful Asian model has never been so fully exploited. 

He did mention that he enjoys seeing the feedback, and really that isn't asking for much, is it? 

Dear Mr. X, Please keep up the amazing work, and know that you and your slave are making pervs everywhere very happy. We're not worthy...

Drea Morgan photo sketch comparison

Looking back at the initial sketch I did for the Lew Rubens armbinder/collar combo, it's kind of cool to see the rough idea next to the final piece. Drea Morgan looks incredible in the outfit, but I'm already planning to push a bit further with a tighter-fitting version... I think she can handle it!

Karen Hsiao with pony hood

Karen Hsiao sent over this image a few weeks ago... I really love this photo. I'm sure I'm not the only one a bit jealous of her little pony. She has a show coming up in a couple of weeks that I'm really looking forward to. 

 She's been taking photos and making beautiful drawings... Invitation with information below, hope to see you there. 

Drea Morgan in Lew Rubens' custom gear

Lew sent over a couple of shots taken of Drea Morgan in the set of custom gear we just created together. What a treat... Photos taken by ImagesByWilliam on FetLife. 

Drea's already one of my favorite all-time fetish models, and here she earns massive respect with the pose above: completely hooded, blindfolded, armbound and standing en pointe in ballet boots. Just wow...

Ballet Boot Deconstruction - Part I

I want to know how these ballet boots are built, and what better way than taking them apart? 

Fortunately, I have a pair of ballet boots that developed a problem with the heel that I don't mind destroying. The vinyl clouded over and tuned white on the heel, and started flaking off near the seams. In trying to fix it, I ended up melting the PVC material with my heat gun (hey now! Not that one, silly.), so I consider these boots expendable, in the name of scientific inquiry. 

These boots, although made of cheap materials in China, have a really nice shape. I particularly like the toe box, and they seemed to fit quite well, both on the foot and calf (before they fell apart, that is). 

These are made by "Devious" and retail on Amazon for around $150 US. I can see similar styles available currently under the "Pleaser" brand name. 

The entire boot is lined in a kind of synthetic nylon material. 

The first part to come off of the boot: the insole. 

About 1/8" thick dense foam with cloth on one side, and an embroidered label sewn in with red thread. 

I start to peel the sole from the bottom of the boot: it seems to be just held in place with glue. 

I can see some phillips screw heads inside the shoe once the insole is removed. 

After the 2 screws are removed (they're about 1" long), the other thing holding the heel in place are some sharp ends of a 4-prong staple and some glue. 

So now we have the heel:

It seems to be a steel shank or rod embedded in a kind of cast resin or plastic. 

For this size 6 (or 36 European sizing), the heel measures 7". 

There is a groove in the inside of the heel which runs through both the metal and plastic/resin part. This groove creates a void into which the leather can be tucked when the heel is wrapped. 

The end of the heel has a little rubber cap on the end of a metal shaft...

...which fits into a hole bored into the end of the heel. 

You can see where the glue pulled the vinyl apart (or left some of the vinyl from the heel behind): 

Here's the staple (a couple of prongs broke off as I pulled it out). 

Now I can peel the outsole away from the upper. 

The outsole is a hard plastic, about 1/8" thick. Lots of glue residue, the only thing that was holding it in place. 

Now we have the bottom of the boot with the sole removed. You can see evidence of tapering of the vinyl where it meets the bottom of the boot. 

Surprisingly, there is some fiberous material, similar to the kind of reinforcement you find in duct-tape. 

At this point, I can pry out the part of the boot that forms the sole. 

It is a sandwich of 3 layers, as far as I can tell, molded and held in shape with some sort of adhesive. You can see the graceful S-curve which follows the contour of the sole, from the heel and around the ball of the foot to the toe. 

You can see this piece is shaped in both directions: horizontally and vertically. 

Note the rivets which hold the shank in place, one at around the middle of the foot...

...and one at the heel. It sits right in the middle of the staple which ran into the heel. 

This structure is composed of 3 layers: the 2 outer layers a kind of dense fiberboard, the inner central layer of what I've seen called bondtex or bag stiffener. 

These shapes are all held in place by what seems like some kind of glue. 

Notice how the fiber board is tapered as it meets the central layer. 

It has a pretty pronounced shape, and has a lot of structure on its own. 

The bottom layer seems to be tapered as it approaches the toe as well. 

I begin to pry the top layer from the middle layer. 

This reveals the steel shank, a structural element that helps give the shoe its shape, and allows it to both flex, and spring back to its original form. 

The shank in this boot measures right around 4.375 inches. 

One curious detail: the metal part reinforcing the top of the shank seems to be cut from some pre-printed piece of metal (possible Chinese recycling in action?)...

Our now heel-less and sole-less boot...

The fiber is still intact. 

It's hard to say whether this fiber was attached to the inner sole parts, or stood alone somehow during the construction of the shoe. 

There is some kind of writing you can make out on the fiber tape, which didn't transfer to the insole. Possibly evidence that this fiber stood on its own at some point during assembly. 

Next part to come out: this piece of fibrous material that creates the shape of the toe box. 

It fits in between the lining and the outer patent layer of the upper. This is definitely the part that gives the toebox its shape. 

At this stage in the deconstruction, I'm a bit stuck. Usually it's easy to tell what comes next based on the stitches...

...but it seems the toe box should come away completely. Kind of strange, as I assumed the entire outer part of the boot would be made independent of the inner lining. This suggests that the toe and upper part of the boot were sub assembled, then joined, making a weird seam (look how the vinyl outer material wraps around the zipper). 

That leaves us with the upper, which has the tongue integrated. 

It's the next seam to come apart: the one holding the tongue in place.

Once that seam is removed, we have the tongue and two separate upper parts. 

The tongue itself has a few details to take note of:

Only the top four inches or so are edge-finished. The rest are rough. 

The edge-stitching is insanely close to the edge. It seems like 1/16" or less! 

Once pried apart, the tongue yields 3 layers: outer vinyl, cloth inner layer (glued to outer layer), and the same inner synthetic lining found throughout the rest of the boot. 

I'm done deconstructing for now, it's time for dinner...