c4ck4

Thanks for the perspectives and warnings and the results especially. I had actually forgotten all about this after I posted it. Mixing it with the sealant actually makes a lot of sense. I suppose if you really got into it you could mix little blocks of the wax+oil ahead of time and keep them labeled by scent. I've been away from leather for a few months, working on other stuff instead. I'll keep this info in the back of my head, as I'm sure at some point in the future I'll want to try this again.

I also greatly appreciate the straight smell of leather very much but I can see a buyer perhaps being interested in this.

I've been pondering this for a while but haven't tried it. Because leather is very porous and in many cases we're soaking some form of oil into the leather anyway, I was wondering if anybody has tried to give the leather a lasting scent. I've been considering adding scent to a piece using essential oils but I know some of them are fairly strong and I'm not sure how they might effect the leather. Also I'm curious if the smell would last long enough to be worth it anyway. I'd like to hear any comments if anybody has tried it. If not I think I'll give it a shot.

Thanks I'll give that a try. I was planning on experimenting with it a bit and trying some different things. I've been really busy with other things lately so this hasn't been a priority.

I'm basically flying by the seat of my pants here. What I did so far was guided by reading little bits about it here and there online and putting it all together. I documented what I did in case it works as well for others. I heard that the acidity of the vinegaroon could damage the leather so after a quick soak in the 'roon I just mixed up some backing soda and water and swished it around in there for a few seconds until it stopped bubbling. The idea being just to limit the contact of acidity on the leather to as short of a time as necessary to complete the blacking. I only dunked the leather in the 'roon for probably 30 seconds, and I swirled it around a bit to be sure that there were no air bubbles blocking the surface. Lots of air bubbles out of the leather because its very porous, so after a quick dunk and swirl it was as black as it would get. Then basically repeat in the baking soda solution, wash off the soda in tap water and call it good. Visually my results look good to me, I haven't tested for longevity and strength though. Here is the final cuff from the same piece of leather shown in my previous post. The full grain part is as black as my Fiebing's black dye. The edges and under side are a bit more blue/grey looking though.

Yeah I used one pad of the #0 sized wool. I just tried it today after one month and my leather came out dark rich black. I'm guessing for me at two weeks I had less iron dissolved because I started with #0 instead of #0000. I actually just posted a more complete article on my process over in another thread here. http://leatherworker...pic=14946&st=30 Have you read the other posts that talk about pre-soaking the leather in tea before the 'roon to increase the tannin levels for a stronger reaction? I haven't tried it yet but it's next on my list.

I just wanted to add on my results and notes. I bought some really cheap steel wool from the dollar store, x12 pads for only $1 is a steal! They didn't have any oil on them and dissolved wonderfully. My first batch completely failed because I got some stainless steel wool pot scrubbers that were practically impervious to the vinegar. I have a complete tutorial posted on my site at http://outlandforge....ing-vinegaroon/ This kind didn't work AT ALL: This stuff worked really really well and dissolved quickly: Filtering very little metal out: Results after neutralizing pH in baking soda and quick rinse in tap water:

I think it depends on how much oil is on the steel wool to begin with. I got some ultra cheap steel wool from the 99 Cents Only store that came in three sizes #2, #1 and #0. None of them had any detectable oil present on them and they dissolved almost completely within 1 month. After only 1 week or 2 the vinegar was already dark red/black but wasn't strong enough to do more than a charcoal grey dye so I let it sit longer.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll look up some of that stuff. Inspiration always makes me want to start a new project!

I transferred all my photos to photobucket for inline linking reasons since I couldn't link to any of them directly in my previous post. Here are some of the types of things I've been working on. Critique, opinions, or advice would be welcome. I'm trying to figure out what kind of leatherwork is my favorite, and what to improve on as I'm just sort of stumbling my way into it.

Nice work Reza. I checked out your blog and I liked the bit you did on your 007 friend. Patina is of particular interest to me and something I'd like to learn more about. I sewed a 3/4" band around my wrist about 3 months ago and have never taken it off. It has been scraped and scuffed and through a shower ever day with soap and water contact. I'm continually impressed by the remarkable durability and almost self healing action of leather. Many days I'll see scratches on it and after a few days they'll fade away. It is very dark and has a waxy sheen to it now. Good luck on you work, thanks for showing us!

Hello, my name is John and I am a new leatherworker. I don't know when I started, I suppose the first thing I made was around August 2009. I've been messing with leather on and off since then. Recently in early March I decided to get more serious about my work and I opened an Etsy store to sell a few of my items. Since I am rather tech savvy I set up a blog, a brand, twitter, facebook fan page, etc to drive traffic to the Etsy store. I had so much fun doing that, that I forgot my work for a bit, but now I've been starting to get back to creating some items and really push my creative boundaries. Flickr doesn't allow direct image linking anymore so I'd need to switch all my content to photobucket to display it here but haven't done that yet, sorry about having the links go offsite. I would love critique of some of my early work, some of it can be found in the following locations: http://www.flickr.com/photos/c4ck4/ http://outlandforge.com http://outlandforge.etsy.com I've been lurking on these forums for probably 2 years or more, but this is my first post, glad to be here