AEBL

I have some really tightly wound linen thread. Threading it through the needle isn't super hard, but piercing the thread is a bit challenging. I use some jeweler magnifiers to help me see what I am doing, and I do slightly untwist the thread and then try to stab the blunt needle through the linen. It is challenging. For poly thread I use two piercings, but for linen, I just use one, because it is such a pain in the rear to accomplish it.

@jnovosel96706, I'm not sure I'd use clorox ... maybe white vinegar ... but if you get some leather conditioner, that would be my first step. You might also try saddle soap, then the conditioner. Clorox might also make your leather brittle. If you try it, try it on a small sample first.

I'd imagine that your leather would smell bad if it had potential mold issues. Mold would present as dark gray patches. There are other things that can cause dark gray patches in leather, but isolating the blotchy leather from the rest of your good leather is probably a good first step. If you do find any, all hope may not be lost. There are a few threads here that talk about how to clean up moldy leather ... but you may not always be able to save it. Also note that sunlight can change the color of leather - not all blotches are a bad thing. Blotches caused by sunlight will likely be wider, and more leather-colored. Mold blotches are small to medium sized patches - often pinpoints of dark gray.

@SUP, from what he told me, he uses his knife belt grinder (2x72) and works through the grit progression on the edges "up to like 1000 grit." Then he uses Tokenole, and then burnishes it. He may also use a buffer wheel on the grinder after burnishing. I had been using 60 grit paper on a wooden block (because it was handy) and then I tried 120 and then 220 after I heard what he had been doing. The edge did look nicer after I burnished it, so from my perspective, finer grit did indeed make the edge smoother, but it was far from what I would have liked to have seen. I was using Gum Tragacanth on veg tan, I don't see why that shouldn't have been similar to Tokenole on veg tan (but I'm new at all of this).

Is there some way to fill in gaps left by the "meander" stamp? I was worried if I started to stamp something with that pattern I'd leave gaps somewhere. Very nice work.

Neat two-tone effect. Airbrushed? Also, trivia: the "icthus" is an acrostic in koine Greek: Iesus (there is no "J" in Greek) Xristos Theos Uios Soter Jesus Christ, Son of God, savior and the fish symbol is because ixthus = fish in Greek

The "nice tool" factor I get. Some things I use just make me smile when I pick them up. I'm still learning the art of burnishing, so I imagine that today I could make just as bad-looking of an edge with an expensive tool as I could with a cheap one . I'm going to keep trying though, and there's a leatherworker near me who makes glass-like edges. I'm going to see if I can trade him a six-pack for some in-person training.

It looks like a very nice tool. Is there something special about what it is made of - or can I just use a chainsaw file and a block of scrap hardwood to make one?

For belts: try "Chicago" screws. If the unscrew themselves ... I will put a drop of loctite on them (Loctite BLUE, not RED - you will never get them off if you use red.) https://www.buckleguy.com/chicago-screws/

I had a stamp that I was having a hard time identifying. Originally, I thought it was an R244 ... but it is a B244. A round, smooth-faced beveling tool. I'm having trouble understanding why I couldn't just use a regular (rectangular-ish) bevel. To save someone having to look the tool up, here's a link: https://proleathercarvers.com/products/smooth-round-beveler-set

A lot of "how to" guides on saddle soap say that you should condition your leather after using the saddle soap. I looked around on the internet a bit and found a website that indicated what Hermes recommended for shoe care: Hermes-approved leather cleaner (such as Saphir Medaille d’Or Renovateur) Leather conditioner (such as Hermes Leather Balm) I'm not sure what Saphir Medaille d'Or Renovateur is, but it sounds like it is similar to Mink Oil (The Saphir stuff is also available on Amazon). You might try to grab a container of that stuff and try it out. If you can't get it, maybe try Mink Oil (since the Saphir stuff says "Mink Oil based"). Here is where I found the information: https://thedutchladydesigns.com/how-do-you-clean-hermes-leather/

Neat!

Ok - I'm also fairly new compared to a lot of the more seasoned folks here, but this guy explained it in a way that made sense to me. I have been stamping and tooling leather using his advice and it has turned out sorta good. I think that "casing" leather was originally leaving it in a tray of water for a while (a case) overnight, or "a while" and then taking it out and letting it dry "to the right consistency." Joe Meling wipes on water with a sponge and watches how quickly the water is absorbed. You may decide you like a different way, and it may turn out to work great for you, but definitely get out in the shop and see what works.

I know some leather hat makers use wire on the brim, you might consider that also. I do like the shape though, very classy.

Well, she's a first-rate woodworker for sure!

Not sure about the actual post you are looking for - but I found a few with a search: The consensus seems to be "use Angelus paints." Obviously, it is a bit more complicated than that, but Angelus seems to work well for many people. ~ nn

I wish I could claim that work as mine - I grabbed that image off of Google image search ...

KeepassXC is a good, free, password manager. It also has support for TOTP (time-based one-time passwords ... the things that they want you to download Authy for and stuff like that). I believe that it also supports hardware tokens like YubiKey as well. https://keepassxc.org/

Those look nicer than mine Leatherworking is such a varied and interesting art medium. I had picked up some of those in an estate tool, and it took me a while to figure out what they were. The more I learn, the more I realize that I'll never be able to focus enough effort into learning all of the different ways of working leather.

Unrelated ... but .... aaaaaaa! Your phone is almost out of battery!

Previous thread here mentions that brand, some of the regulars have posted on there ... Uwe mentions some documentation at the Smithsonian, in image form, not PDF, but here that is also in this link. Uwe also mentioned a website for Puritan, but it is a dead link now. (http://www.puritanindustries.net <-- dead)

So - in the case of your icon, I'm pretty sure nobody is going to come look for you. Simple search online leads you to this site: https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/swimming?word=swimming&craft=1 There is a selection box in the lower left-hand corner that says "icons licensed for merchandise" which when hovered over says that you can use the icon as the main element of your item. There's one on the page that looks exactly like yours. If you were doing some logo, like IBM's ... they might come looking for you, but stuff that appears on signs, that you are doing artistic renderings of ... probably fine. Especially if you can point to an icon site and say "I copied that one, licensed for merchandise."

What is this style of leatherworking called? Are there many people doing / interested in this sort of work? I believe it is done with shaped leather punches ...

I like cheap as much as the next guy, and to be honest, I have a lot of cheap Chinese tools ... but I'd feel sort of bad buying an *expensive* Chinese tool.

Basket stamping looks great to me. If you would like to feel better about your stamping, I can post some pictures of the basket stamp I did last week. I'm going to blame the stamp, that stamp was no good, couldn't have had anything to do with how I was using it ...