monkeyatakeyboard

Thank You Greg, I'll definatly skip the Neatsfoot oil. How long would you wait between coats of dye, and coats of shoe polish? Dave

Hello, I've been making wristbands guitar straps and belts for myself and friends (mostly my self, it's so hard to part with it some things) for just over a year. Recently I've been thinking about selling my creations to others. My problem is that I have no idea what I would charge. The bulk of what I make is wristbands, so that is what I am going to consider selling, at least to start with. I have done a little research into what other people are selling them for and it always seems way high or a little low to me. Can anyone suggest a pricing sceme? Initially I figured I could charge retail prices for supplies and then a flat hourly fee for how long that peticular project took. Of course that begs the question, "just how much is my time worth?"... But that process will lead to wrist bands having varying prices which just doesn't seem right to me. I don't know, I guess my best bet is to just start putting things up and watching what happens. Thanks for your time, Dave

Hello, I've been doing leather work for about a year now; I've stuck mostly to finishing projects with a coat of Tandy All-In-One stain. My current project however must be black. So for a while I've been playing around with some scraps and Tandy Pro Dye. My problem (and now from what I've read - most peoples problem) is that the Dye seems to come off of the leather onto everything. What I'm making now is a wrist cuff and It is crucial that it does not ruin any clothes, or the like, because it isn't for me. Based on my little experience and what i've read here, the follwoing is what im planning to do to finish my band: 1) All the tooling/stamping/ect 2) One coat of black Tandy Pro Dye 3) After drying, rub with a cotton rag until I don't get black colour on the rag anymore. 4) A coat (or two?) of Satin Shene and a quick buff 5) I am going to stitch some black pig skin on the inside. On of my scraps has been dyed black and after a few minutes of rubbing the leather doesn't give up much black anymore. However, it seems that no amount of rubbing stops the 1/8 of an inch on the sides (that is, the edges) of my scrap from leaving a thick black band on my rag. Am I just being impatient? Should I continue or is there something that needs to be done first? Or, will a coat or two of Satin Shene seal it in there? I purchased some %100 Pure Neatsfoot Oil yesterday, and haven't had much of a chance to play with it yet. The pieces I applied it to are considerable softer now. If I wanted to include a coat of this stuff on my wristband, at which stage should I do so? How long should I let it sit (I assume overnight would be sufficient?) Where should I apply it, the grain side, flesh side, or both? Thank you very much for your help! I'm off to do some more experiments, Dave