Yukonrookie

Gotcha. Will it change form much, or mostly just shrink a bit?

Thanks. That’s a good, quick and easy idea. Have you ever stiffened with an oven? Or the “flash boil” method? Like for holsters, for example.

So, I know this is a super basic question but have been wondering on this for awhile. To mark my leather when I do layouts and nearly where what goes I usually use a simple metal scribe. That works great obviously, but my sight isn’t the greatest and I sometimes need markings and lines too noticeable so that they’ll still show at the end. In that case I use one of those silver marking pens especially meant for marking leather. Thing is that they are not really supposed to be used on unfinished veg tan. What do you guys use for marking your veg tan leather projects? Thanks Hank

Thanks for the tips and sorry about the late response. I’ll definitely order from OA in the future. I just got a side of W&C Russet skirting and love it a lot. That’s here in Germany though. Since I’ll be here for a few more months and have a few projects on the go it was worth getting a side while I’m here. I gotta say I think I like this side better than HO tooling that I used so far. As previously mentioned I haven’t been in this craft for long yet so don’t have vast experience with HO leather but what I used so far was great. Just like this stuff a tad better actually. I like how it burnishes. Although if it was their natural I think I’d like the HO better cause of the colour. Anyway, when I’m back home I’ll be ordering a side of each and really compare I think. It’s all still pretty exciting for me, being a noob still lol

Yeah, could be some kind of metal work near the tanning or processing area of some sort? Very strange. Could it even be something completely different? Not metal but other type of oxidation of some sort? Couldn’t be mold cause the leather was new and I got to work on the day of arrival, or could it?. I didn’t even fully case it, but rather used the sponge method, the first piece I worked on wasn’t large and I was eager to try out the leather and new tools. Granted the 10oz leather was “thirsty” and I did wet it with the sponge more than I normally would have. Anyway, as soon as the leather got its colour back some the first spots started to show. Later on I sponged it a bit more and even more spots were showing. Very strange. I really wish I got a definitive diagnosis but that might not be the case. Mostly out of curiosity. Of course, should I ever get spots like this again in a completely different piece of leather, I’d know the fault lies in my end. Can’t see how that could be though. Do you know if Eco flow easy carve has similar properties in it that give the same effect? Bee natural Pro carve is a bit harder to get in my region.

Thanks for all the responses guys and sorry for being lates responding at times. I’m dealing with health issues and when I’m in the hospital I slack off on emails and messages. I just got back today though and actually sitting at my leather work bench crafting away on a sheath. My 3rd sheath so far. Also I got a hide of Wickett and Craig Skirting and using it for the first time. I like it a lot. Actually prefer it over the A grade HO tooling. I really like how the russet burnishes when tooling. I wish it was a little stiffer. I read that when ordering directly from W&C they offer pressing to desired temper. Anyone know anything about that? Thanks again folks

First of, sorry for the late response. I was in the hospital and wasn’t on here much. That’s very interesting. I should try that out then. Thanks for the info. It was buyleatheronline, but they were absolutely great about. After informing them of my issue they sent me a new piece right away. Although only after they made tests at the tannery to see if a whole batch got contaminated or if it was just my piece. It turned out that it must’ve been an isolated incident cause their tests came back positive. The new piece they sent me is great and I’m allowed to keep the contaminated piece here. I’ll give that pro carve solution a try and see if I can salvage it that way. I was gonna (and am still going to) post a positive review one here. Where would be the appropriate sub forum to post it?

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