Kicking Mule Workshop Hand-Crafted English Saddle Leather Belts with Hand-Forged Brass Buckles
Back in spring of 2009, KMW released these incredible belts and they are finally being made again. These belts will not be available until the arrival of spring collections in February of 2011, but due to the numerous requests we receive for these belts, we wanted to officially announce that they will be back very soon!
Direct from the owner of KMW about all KMW leather goods:
"For us we feel that leather has many of the characteristics of good denim. When we can find simple materials handled in a superior way we always want to make something out of them. After two years searching to find a tannery that was still doing the old hand dipped, sun dried and fish oiled method of dressing skins to make the finest bridle leather. Once we found it we knew we had to make a few things.
The fist part of the process is to dress the hides to make rawhide. The skins are from the USA and are hand selected and brought to Japan in the raw state with hair, dirt, fat and some flesh still attached. The fist step is to wash the hides for 24 hours to remove the impurities and to add some moisture back into the skin.
Then the hides are cut in half along the backbone, this process is called Sewari in Japanese. Splitting the hide in two makes them smaller and easier to work with. The skins are then put into a "milk of lime" bath to loosen the hair and dissolve any remaining fat and help to spread the protein fibers which adds elasticity to the hides. After a suitable time in this bath the hair and remaining fat is scraped off over a beam with a dull knife by hand. The skins are then tied and stretched on frames to dry in the sun making rawhide.
Once dried, the skins are tanned. The tanning process permanently alters the protein structure of the skin so that it cannot ever return to rawhide. A tanning solution is made and the leather is repeatedly dipped and dried in the sun. During the tanning process for KMW leather we introduce fish oil. Fish oil is a very old Japanese technique for finishing leather. We think it makes the most supple, resilient and long lasting leather. If you hold our KMW leather products up close to your nose and breath deep you can smell the fish oil. In the case of KMW leather this process is all done by hand, most commonly this is done by automated machines that remove all scars, blemishes and presses the skin flat and even. The hand processing for KMW leather makes each hide uniquely marked with the life of the animal and the hand of the craftsman. After tanning the hides are dried naturally for 10 days.
Most of our leather products are made from leather that is un-dyed. But for some of the belts and bags we proceed to dying which is a straight forward process of dipping the hides in baths of dye and drying until the required color is achieved. We use vegetable dyes on all KMW leathers. We love the un-dyed state and think that with wear the leather gets an amazing patina that is far more beautiful than any dyed leather. But sometimes you just need a brown belt.
We then cut and sew the leather into very simple wallets, belts and bags in a tiny factory in Osaka, Japan. On some of the styles we have added a leather cording knot at certain wear spots. Over time this knot will compress together to form a single mass that is shinny and hard. The knot feels great between your fingers and almost resembles a glass bead."
Natural. Available in sizes 32, 34, 36. Made in Japan.
Brown. Available in sizes 32, 34, 36. Made in Japan.
Dark Brown. Available in sizes 32, 34, 36. Made in Japan.
We will begin accepting pre-orders for all colors immediately. Blue Owl will stock natural only and pre-orders for natural will be accepted until the delivery date in February 2011. Brown and Dark Brown is available only by pre-order with a deadline of September 1st. Please e-mail for further details. More information on below link.
http://blueowl.us/scripts/psp/VB_Bri...il&SKU=7999894
More information can be seen in the above links or our latest blogpost at
http://blueowlworkshop.blogspot.com/...ring-2011.html
