Hammer Restoration - Making a Leather Grip

My Premier Project Plans: My Free Plans: Recently I was given this Estwing hammer and thought it would be interesting to try and replace the stacked leather grip. I already own the exact same hammer which also had a couple of the leather rings missing so I did that one too. Although it was an easy enough and enjoyable project I could’ve done a better job of the details. They still look pretty good but the main thing is the grips themselves work well and feel great. I’m expecting some negative response on my choice of varnish and while I know Shellac would be the choice (I didn’t have any to hand, ran out a while back) the water based varnish still worked very well though. The first coat penetrated the leather so it’s not going to peel off and the subsequent coats built up a good coating. This coating is very durable and is more elastic than lacquer so it should work great and not crack easily. The only downside is, it doesn’t have the best feel but an application of beeswax gives it a much better grip. As always I’m happy to answer any questions. If you would like to support this channel you can do so here You can also help me out by purchasing one of my shirts, you can find them here Check out my new website Check out my Instagram to see more of my work Also you can check out my photography at my website (nothing to do with making but you may be interested in what I do) My email can be found in the about section of this channel. For real mail, Pask Makes P.O BOX 768 Yandina Queensland 4561 Australia