JDFred

Sometimes it takes over night for the dye to finish moving through the leather. Oiling it after you dye it also helps the dye to even out , also let the oil sit over night before you judge it. I use Angelus alcohol based dyes and apply with a wool dauber. Do you apply the dye in lines or in random circles? I’ve had better luck getting down into things and mor even coverage using circles. Leather quality dose make a difference also. I’m not to the point where I think I’m ready to buy good leather yet so I get some of those spot that don’t take dye real well it’s part of it. Just keep after it and it will get better.

I hate it when I cut thread too short. I’ve found measuring about two inches longer than the piece I need to sew then times that by four.

Looks nice, your lines in your diamonds are super straight. The only thing I see is where you finished you stiching try to hide where you burned the thread where it is not so noticeable. I try to put it in the corner on the inside. Keep up the good work.

I have the same question so I asked a friend that builds a lot of leggin’s and she said that one should be enough but for me because I have a 38” inseam it might be close. She buys her leather from Panhandle Leather she said to call them they could help with some bigger sides for longer legs. I have bought some stuff from them before and they are good people to deal with. I still haven’t got around to building mine yet so I can’t speak from experience but I hope this helps.

Very cool nice work

I’m pretty heavy handed when writing so I like a 12b pencil.

The shadow around the snowflakes matches your edge which looks really good. I think your struggling with that problem a lot of us have, looking to close at our work.

Turned out beautifully! Even the shop looks good after you got done with it.

Well done

Looks awesome. I can’t wait to see it with knives in it and the lights on!

Turned out really nice. The diamonds in the middle panel really tied the other two together well. Your letters turned out awesome as did the bass. The splotches in the dye look good, they make it look like shadows on a lake close to the bank. Good work.

I have used a steam iron with success smoothing out chap leather. I didn’t have any shrinkage but I was flattening some hand sized pieces out of the scrap box not larger pieces. I used high steam setting and don’t let the iron sit in any one place. Also check how hot the leather is getting pretty often if it gets too hot that is where the shrinkage will come from.

I meant to post this long ago but forgot… I bought the stylus type hair blade form Tandy and when I got it home and out of the box I noticed there are set screws that hold the blades in the stylus so they can be removed and put into a swivel knife if you want to. It also comes with the allen wrench to loosen the screws. I don’t know if other brands will do that but it might be useful info for someone else who had my original conundrum.

Those are pretty cool I really like that floral corner.

Nicely done.

When you get around to it.

They turned out really nice good job.

They look good. I like the red background on your floral.

Thanks for the tip on oil sprayers I didn’t know they existed . I’ll have to try one I really liked the way the cooking spray went on. This was more of an idea of opportunity I needed to oil it and I saw the can. Then my thoughts went to maybe this would work with an airbrush. I wasn’t thinking about other ingredients in cooking spray so yeah maybe not the best idea but the keychain was for me so if it failed no big deal. Once again this forum has pointed me toward a better way to go with and idea thanks.

I had a wild hair and tried cooking spray on a key chain I made. I was curious if anybody else has tried this? I got nice even coverage and it got down into the tooling really well. This was a canola spray because it’s what I had but I know there is olive oil cooking sprays. I know that this is not the most cost effective way of oiling; however it didn’t leave a darker spot where you apply the oil that you have to let even out so it may be a good idea for the first coat. Then I got to thinking maybe a guy could spray oil through an air brush? But maybe oil is too heavy to flow through an airbrush. I don’t have one so I can’t try it. The other thing I’m not sure about with cooking spray is will the propellant in it cause any problems with dyes or antiques or finishes. Any thoughts or comments on the subject would be appreciated.

They look good. You’ll have to post a picture when you’re done.

As long as what you are using isn’t damaging your work or causing injury to you and it is doing the job it’s probably just fine. But always look to improve your process with better tools don’t fall into the I’ve always done it this way rut.

I got to thinking about rounding the edges of the tool so it is more like a regular beveler then it would not be so tedious to use on longer lines.

Very nice work. Was there a reason for not having 6 cartridge loops?

Until you said it I didn’t think about the edges of the tool being square and not rounded. That would account for the marks. You may be on to something it being a figure carving or floral tool instead of a beveler for a long straight line. I was going to try some quilted patterning and I thought this would save some time in the beveling but perhaps it’s the wrong tool and I should look at a push beveler.