Saying Howdy And A Procedural Question

[BubbaJon]

Hi folks - sure am glad I found this site - an awesome amount of talent and information!

I'm going to be making gun leather and cases. I am at the beginning knowledge wise.

I've been playing with some vegetable tanned leather scraps seeing for myself some of the things I read about but I cannot for the life of me find how some pieces fit together in the order of things.

I want to make some formed cases for stuff like rifle cartridges and I'd like to try my hand at carving and tooling a few. So here are the "topics" I know about and the order that I think they need to be accomplished.

• burnish leather
• case and form (very wet to be shaped to a form)
• let dry to stage where looks natural and yet wet enough to take tooling
• Tool/carve
• dry completely
• die and stain (which first?)
• sew
• finish edges and such

Does this sound about right? Feel free to throw tips and cautions at me - leather is expensive enough without me wasting ti from ignorance!

thanks!

[mlapaglia]

Move Burnish leather, if you mean burnish the edges to after dye and stain. If you mean drag a piece of glass over it then leave it where it is.

Add condition leather (neetsfoot oil, olive oil, or Lexol) after Tool and carve. No need to dry the leather before you condition it. In fact the dampness can help the oil spread through out the leather faster. Let it rest over night after you condition.

Move Dry completely to after Dye and stain and before Burnish. No need to have the leather dry to dye it. Some say the dye goes in better if it is a little damp. Let it Dry over night on the dry step.

Add Buff well after the dry phase. If using a dark or black dye you need to Buff well until the color stops coming off.

[BubbaJon]

Thanks - no the burnish I'm referring to is using a rounded piece of wood to bring out the grain and make it a little shiny. I'm not even sure if it should be done first - Like I said when people discuss a particular something they tend to ignore all the steps up to what they're talking about. Makes it hard for a total newbie to figure what steps go where and when and why. Good to know the dying and such can be done when wet. I would think that for a molded case you would not want to condition with something like Xylol because it would soften the case.

Edited July 23, 2012 by BubbaJon