Examples of restoration done for customers

Home / Examples of restoration done for customers

A major part of our business is remounting customer's own badges onto new leather keyfobs where the original leather keyfob has worn out or become damaged. Here is a selection of some completed recently.

Colliery Miner's Tally Keyring

A customer’s father had been a miner at Arley Colliery – a coal mine near Coventry in the UK

These miners’ tallies would have been issued to his father every time he went underground to work a shift – and would then be collected again as he returned to the surface as a precaution that he was not still down the mine at the end of his shift. These tallies travelled with his father every day of his working life below ground. They have now been made into key rings and travel with the son every day on his journeys above ground.

Russian Reindeer Hide

Customers often request that a particular badge is remounted onto a new keyfob in Vintage Russian Reindeer Hide – a remarkable material recovered from a shipwreck and over 200 years old.

This lovely original art deco style bronze badge was inlaid into a teardrop keyfob in tan leather for a customer to use in his 1954 Jaguar XK120 roadster .

The badge shows the ‘ hands of confidence ‘ grasping a steering wheel which could well be one from an XK

An original 1960s BOAC enamel badge remounted onto a new keyfob in tan pigskin leather for an ex. BOAC pilot .

The pigskin leather which we use is vintage material which we obtained from a closed Midlands factory – it had been used for gentleman’s wallets and for covering hip flasks.

Pigskin leather was sometimes used for keyfobs for prestige motor cars and was prized for it’s appearance and hard wearing qualities.

This Indian Chief ‘warbonnet’ enamel badge was mounted onto a new keyfob in red pigskin leather for a customer to use with his 1952 Indian Chief Motorcycle.

Indian Motorcycle ‘bit the dust’ in 1952 and keyrings were never originally produced for use with Indian Motorcycles.

A British Horse Society keyfob badge remounted onto a new keyfob in oak bark tanned leather for a BHS member.

Oak bark tanned leather is prized throughout the world and is a brave survivor of England’s past before the Industrial Revolution transformed the use of natural materials.

The oak bark is harvested from coppice oakwoods in the Lake District and contains the necessary tannins which convert the Devon cowhide into this leather.

The tanning method has changed very little over the years and is a long gentle process which protects the natural fibres of the hide and takes anywhere from 12 -24 months to produce each hide which is then hand finished by the curriers.

The resulting leather is prized for it’s quality, durability & finish and is a shining beacon standing out in this 21st Century world where uniformity & bland industrially produced plastic materials have replaced almost everything which went before.

There is no other leather which actually smells so richly of ‘leather’.

A rare original Manhattan Windsor Leyland Tiger keyfob badge dating from the 1970s which had travelled for hundreds of thousands of miles in Britain and on the Continent with it’s owner who was a Leyland Coach driver.

Now retired – both driver and keyring are enjoying travelling rather less distances

A bronze medallion dating from the 1950s depicting a racing motorcycle – probably a Norton.

Inlaid into a leather keyfob for a customer in Slovakia.

Examples of restoration done for customers

A major part of our business is remounting customer's own badges onto new leather keyfobs where the original leather keyfob has worn out or become damaged. Here is a selection of some completed recently.

Colliery Miner's Tally Keyring

Russian Reindeer Hide

A selection of leathers which can be specified for your keyfob can be seen here being used for leather keyfobs in our saddlery keyring section