This month’s leather “in the spotlight” is something I launched in 2020. Vintage Black is an ox leather produced by a tannery not very far from my workshop, and since I’ve had it available it’s become one of my most popular leathers.
Vintage Black
This really is something very special. Vintage Black is a tradtionally pit tanned leather produced by the last oak bark tannery in the United Kingdom. The fourteen month (yes, fourteen months. That’s not a typo!) vegetable tanning process takes locally sourced ox calf hides through three different tanning pits, each containing a tanning liquor derived from a different tree bark. Once the leather is tanned, each hide is dyed, printed with the traditional Russian hatch pattern, and dressed. The result is a stunning leather that is strong and durable with a vintage finish.
Russian calf leather has developed almost a mythical reputation for quality over the past 50 years or so, and in my opinion this is a leather that truly lives up to that reputation. The tannery experimented for six years with different tanning recipes in order to produce a product that smells and handles as well as the original Russian leather. Finally they were happy they had perfected the art, and this is the result – I love it.
If anyone is interested to read more about the tannery and the leather I call Vintage Black, you can do so here – https://www.jfjbaker.co.uk/russian-leather
Looking through my order book, by far the most popular choice of thread colour with my customers has been a simple black stitch for the Vintage Black leather. Black stitching against this leather produces a traditional looking strap, but being a black leather it works well with any colour thread. In the past I’ve made Vintage Black straps for myself using pale blue and grey stitching, but on this occasion I’ve paired it with butterscotch thread. This strap was always going to be worn on my Panerai 24, and so the thread colour was chosen to match the colour of the aged tritium lume on the dial. I like the finished look – I think it works very well.
As it is the leather in the spotlight for March 2022, for the whole of the month you can get £20 off the cost of a Vintage Black strap (see below for details of this offer).
A promo for June 2022 and the T’s & C’s
During the entire month of June 2022 you can use the promo code VBLACK20 when ordering to get £20 off the cost of a Vintage Black strap. Simply enter VBLACK20 into the “coupon code” box at the top of the checkout page and click “apply coupon” – doing so will reduce the cost of your Vintage Black strap by £20 (my website will recalculate the total cost automatically).
The coupon code VBLACK20 is active from now until midnight (BST) on Thursday 30th June 2022.
This offer is applicable to online orders placed in June 2022 where the promo code is used at checkout, and applies only to straps ordered to be made from Vintage Black leather.