Yukonrookie

Yup, sounds logical. These spots look “embedded” into the leather. The supplier, who is also the tannery, are actually going to do some tests at the warehouse. Spot testing this whole batch that my double butts came from. At least thats how I understood them. All this makes me feel pretty good about them. It sounds like they’re doing due diligence and don’t want to replace my leather with still contaminated stuff. Or send it to anyone else. I will reveal their name after they finished things on their end. This is my first time ordering from them and I don’t want to give them a bad rep. Especially not until they did their thing with this. Also they claim this has never happened to them before and I believe them, as I don’t know of anything to think otherwise. My first complaint with this leather, before I noticed the first spots, was how dry it was and how difficult it carved. It felt almost like my swivel knife was going through tough rubber. And yeah, it was super dry. Needed more water than anything I had used before. Which, to be fair, isn’t a lot. But I have tried stuff from Tandy stuff through a few Italian tanneries to Hermann oak and nothing carved or stamped even nearly this bad. Plus it deforms horribly. A couple layers of blue masking tape and a layer of good packing tape and it still deformed quite a bit. This is 9/10oz mins you

Yup, for sure. I think a good company is willing to make things right if they know about it. These days I feel people sometimes give a bad review without giving the business a chance to make things right. Mistakes or accidents happen and to me a good business is the one that is willing to fix it. All that within reason, of course. Also, not always a bad review is warranted. I remember reading a bad review where the fault lies with the customer not using the product correctly, for example. Obviously oftentimes a bad review was definitely the way to go, in order to warn other potential customers. Anyway, thanks for your replies. I will follow up with how this turned out with the supplier. I was able to rule that out. After I used tap water I the then ended up using distilled water.

Yeah, I like his stamps. I only got one of his Stainless stamps and the rest are brass though. Better price tag. Will hopefully last me a while anyway. The Hi-Liter only comes in dark brown as far as I know. I wish it came in different colours. Which is why I want to try out some of Fiebings Antique stains. I find the Hi-Liter is harder to resist than the paste though.

Yeah, I like his stamps. Although I only got his Stainless stamps and the rest are brass. The Hi-Liter only comes in dark brown as far as I know. I wish it came in different colours. Which is why I want to try out some of Fiebings Antique stains. I find the Hi-Liter is harder to resist than the paste though.

Well, in that case….. So I got a few Sergey Neskromniy Stamps just recently and just to check out that look of one of them I stamped up a little test piece. Just for the heck of it I threw some Hi-Liter Antique on it. I didn’t do the edges or anything else mind you. Just the Hi-Liter. Here it is…..

Looks awesome! I’ve used the paste too and after experimenting I eventually got decent enough results. I tend to get better results with the highlighter antique. My stamping and carving isn’t up to snuff enough yet for posting pictures though

Thanks for the reply. I guess I’m the opposite a bit. I tend to overuse antiques lately. I’m still fairly green mind you, but I like to stamp and carve and chase that antique look. Well it doesn’t always look the way I had hoped and I wish I had used less antique lol. I’ve used the paste and Fiebings Hi-Liter and like both. I actually prefer Hi-Liter a bimore but after some experimenting been getting decent enough results with the paste too. Gonna try the gel and stains next, I think. This acrylic antique from Angelus sounds intriguing too, though.

So far I have only used the paste and Fiebings Hi-Liter. I like both actually. I’m thinking of ordering some of the Fiebings vintage gel and or antique stain. Do you use the stains or the vintage gel? I have been wanting to try the gel for a while now but what kept me from doing that was that I thought it was more for giving a vintage look and not so much for highlighting carving and stamping. Was I wrong to think that?

By the looks of it not many people used theirs Antique finish.

I heard back from the supplier and they said they’d send me a new piece. So it seems that, I’ll be able to report back on a company that takes care of their customers and I will very happily do so. Thanks for your reply.

@chuck123wapati @TonyV @AlZilla @Northmount Thanks for all the replies, guys. This means a lot! Yeah, those spots are all over the whole piece of double butts. They seem to be imbedded right into it. I’ll give the supplier a call in the morning. Let’s see what they gotta say. As it is I can’t use it. If it was the odd spot here and there, I wouldn’t mind much, but all over the place isn’t a good look. Not even for hobby work, imo. @DieselTech I dyed a little piece with pro dye saddle tan and once it dried those spots were still visible some. Was worth a try though. Thank you. Btw was there any particular reason you asked to try dyeing it? Just curious. Anyway, thanks again everyone. Greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the reply. Hmm, no I keep my leather area free from any iron/metal work. I also just got the leather that same day and got to work on a test piece right away. What you say sounds plausible though. Do you think there’s any way it got contaminated during or after the tanning process? There’s a very strange smell to it as well. Not sure if this warrants me contacting the supplier and ask some questions? The last thing I want to do is complain about something that’s my own fault, but I just can’t see what I did wrong. As I had mentioned before this leather is different in other ways as well. Would sure love to get to the bottom of this. Even if just so I understand.

Thanks. I’ll try that out.

@Mulesaw I will give that a try. It almost looks like some sort of oxidation but not sure how that’s possible though. This leather sure dries out super fast too. I’ll give a back piece a try. Thanks again

Well, thank you kindly sir. Still heck of a lot of practice needed though. The spots disappear a little when dry but not fully. The only times they’re not there is before I start casing for the first time. Now, this is only my second practice piece and the first one was even smaller so I’m not sure if all of it will have those spots but it sure is a disappointment. It’s not the leather from laederiet btw. That stuff looks great and is a joy to carve and stamp too. So thank you for the recommendation!

So I just got a piece of 9/10oz double butt veg tan leather and after casing the leather and starting stamping a practice piece I end up seeing these strange grey-ish spots. Anyone know what they are? I didn’t see them before casing but as I’m adding water and keep stamping they show more and more. I attached a picture of my partially stamped practice piece (I’m still practicing and getting a hang on things so it don’t look like much) . You’ll be able to see those spots on there. I also attached a pic of a half piece. You can’t see anything on it, until you put water on it. This leather is kinda strange anyway. It feels “sticky” when cutting with my swivel, like there is a lot of drag and some of the cuts look gray too. It’s dries out super fast and needs water more often than any other leather I worked with before. It even has a funny chemically smell to it. The supplier claims it’s all natural Italian Veg tan. No bleaching or such. Although it does looks pretty light, it doesn’t look as white to me as some of the bleached stuff. For what it’s worth, the flesh side LOOKS super clean. Unfortunately I’m not yet experienced enough to “read” leather so I’m hoping someone here might have an idea on what I’m dealing with here. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks kindly folks.

@Pan5N3 Thanks for the Tip. As soon as I’m back in Canada I will be placing an order with them. The free shipping option is great, especially since being from the Yukon can sometimes be a bit pricey. I think they’re located in Alberta too, right? Looks like they got HO and Wickett and Craig, too. I just checked out some of their videos and I totally agree, those videos are really nice when ordering leather online. Have you tried some of their imported stuff? Thanks again for the info. Much appreciated!

Hi everyone, I’m in the process of ordering some Angelus Dye and see that Angela’s also makes an Antique finish, which they call “Acryl Antique Finish”. Has anyone tried it before? I’m wondering if it works similar to, for example, Fiebings Hi-Liter, paste or Antique Gel? Does it highlight carving or stamping? Or is it just an Acrylic finish that gives the leather a vintage look, without making carving/stamping stand out? It being Acrylic, can the leather be oiled through it? Is it more glossy after it dried, or more on the matte side? I know, that’s a lot of questions…. If anyone has any experience with it, I’d be grateful to your opinion. Thanks in advance

@Mulesaw Thanks for the offer! I might just do that. I’ll let ya know if the leather from Buyleatheronline seem good to me. I can’t see it being as good as Laederiet, see as it’s quite a bit cheaper, but I hope it’ll be decent enough. If I end up ordering from Leaderiet again, I’ll first give them a call for advice. Thanks again

Yup, I totally agree. I’m hoping to find a place like that for leather and sounds like they might just be that place. I have one like that for welding supplies back home in the Yukon as well as a feed and horse tack store. I always know I get the right stuff for my needs and it’s a great feeling when they know the customer and his/her needs. What make things a bit more difficult is that I haven’t lived in Europe for 24+ years. I moved to Canada when I was 19 and only came back here for the odd visit. So much has changed. I don’t even know a lot of the German words what leatherwork is concerned. All good. I’m learning. This forum and the great folks here sure helps though. im looking forward to the double butts though. I mainly just decided to check out the other place because the prices are hard to beat. As a matter of fact I actually stayed away from buyleatheronline.com simply because the prices were too good to be true. I didn’t think the leather could be any good but when I saw all the comments about them on here I figured it couldn’t hurt to try a square meter and find out myself. I’m sure it won’t be as good of quality as laederiet though. What does riet mean btw? Anyway, thanks for your help. If you don’t mind could I hit you up if I end up more questions about stuff concerning leather? Like when I start making my first pair of chaps for example?

Now this sure is strange. I was sure I had replied on Saturday. My apologies. Those chaps you made are awesome!. In Canada I wear chaps regularly when I’m on horseback. Lots of tall and kwillow bush, where chaps come in quite handy I ended up ordering a Croupon from Laederiet. Thanks for the tip. I also gave buyleatheronline.com a shot too. Just a half bend for now though. The reviews are pretty good and their prices are hard to beat. Have you ever ordered from them before?

Thanks for all the replies guys and apologies for the late reply. @dikman I usually apply NFO after I’m done tooling. Warming the leather might be worth a shot. good idea. Thank you. @DieselTech I almost only use pro dye. After trying a few different ones I came across pro dye and that’s what works best for me now. @TonyV I tried saddle soap and it did help a bit. Thank you. Again, thanks for all the advice guys. I appreciate you taking the time to help out a new guy like myself.

Hi folks, I have yet another question to tallowed leather. I have some leather here that’s been slightly tallowed by the tannery. The supplier claims it’s tallowed sparingly and that it can be dyed. It takes Fiebings Hi-Liter Antique well, but I’m having some issues with dye. It does absorb the dye, but a little slowly and some spots absorb the dye faster than others. Any advice on this? It also tools and stamps well. Has anyone dyed, or worked with, tallowed leather? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance guys.

@Dwight thank you kindly, Sir! I will not “case” with alc before dying anymore. It did sound like defeating the purpose of oiling in the first place. Just read about it somewhere so I thought there must be a reason. I now know better. Thanks again

Apologies, in my first reply to your post I asked if you could recommend any leather from laederiet, but you already recommended these croupons from them. Thank you kindly for that. It didn’t have that bleached look, right? Did you carve or stamp some of it? I will give it a try. Now that I think about it I had ordered from them once before. This wasn’t leather though. Thanks again!