I got the idea for this post from @RedlandMaggie who recently mentioned this type of purse. I’ve got a weakness for vintage, tooled leather purses (anyone surprised?
). Here are 2 of mine (I’ve got more, lol). I’ll share them along-the-way. Most were purchased during vacations. Please share your leather purses!
I love vintage, tooled purses.
Will share one of mine later.
Yours are very nice.
@Fernwood Thank you! I look forward to seeing your leather purse.
Love these, have always thought they’re great. Gorgeous! Great thread idea.
Guess I had a couple more than I thought. the upper right one was so dry when I found it, not sure the leather will ever recover.
Thanks! I’ve actually used all of the purses except one. That one’s a behemoth though beautiful.
Your purses are wonderful. Ooh, luv the turquoise! I haven’t seen a turquoise one before. The purse on the right is beautiful. Kind of looks similar to one of mine that I’ll be posting. I’ve passed on quite a few leather purses ‘cause they were in poor condition.
yeah, that one was a purchase based off a photo - didn’t see that it was so dry until I received it. Didn’t spend enough on it to bother trying to return it - no point. The strap came apart (too dry) so it does need a new one.
the turquoise one is a Que Chula I saw on ShopGoodwill - I knew how much they retailed for, and snapped it up. Gotta love it when they don’t post who made them.
It was so nice to see your handbags, they are beautiful, especially the turquoise. I had one years ago that I wore till it disintegrated and could never find a replacement that felt quite right. Enjoy all of them!
I have one tooled leather purse that is very dry. It is light colored and I am afraid to condition it for fear that the color will darken.
Does anyone know of a leather conditioner that will not darken?
My father used Bickmore Bick 4 and Lexol Neatsfoot on the custom leather straps a friend of his had tooled and crafted for his bass guitars. Neither will alter the color. ![]()
@Ravenscry Thank you for sharing this very helpful information about leather conditioners. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve passed over tooled leather purses in poor condition. Sometimes that meant the edge stitching was broken, or missing, in some places. Or, the shoulder strap was broken. Sometimes the leather overall was just dingy.
I’m sure there are other conditioners that spare the leather’s color, I just wanted to share a couple that I know work well. ![]()
By the way, @Patina, awesome idea for a thread! While there’s no way I could ever pull one off, I love tooled leather and have enjoyed seeing the shared examples from you and other members. ![]()
Thank you for sharing the leatther conditioners you are famaliar with.
Here are 2 more of my tooled leather purses. Usually, the sides are left plain. However, on the acorn purse, the sides are decorated with the leaf design. The other purse has a design, on the back, for the horse people in our forum community
.
Oh, the horse tooling!
@here4turquoise I couldn’t capture it in my photo, but the horse’s pupil looks like a stamp we’d see used on Native American jewelry. It’s cool looking.
Here we go… these are the last of my tooled leather purses. In the 3rd photo, the purse on the left is a behemoth. It measures almost 14” at its widest. Even empty, this purse is so heavy. It’s also the only one that’s monogrammed.
I love these, Patina, thank you for sharing! The color of the one on the right in the last two photos is beautiful. ![]()
@Ravenscry Happy to share them, and thank you for the kind words. The dark leather on that purse really is pretty. It stands out to me because I usually see the more common tan leather purses (like my others).








