Ellen

Thank you! Glad to hear that I'm not alone working in such conditions. Learning from others' experience allows organize all better, and I appreciate your input. About using scrap leather. I'm not going to craft shows, mail order only. This means spending quite a lot of time on visiting the post office, and this is not a paid time, so making $5 - $15 items is not worth the time spent. Orders are usually the single item for each person. Packing (adhesive tape) is also quite loud, walls are thin and I can here neighbors talking, if slightly above quiet talk, so I have to cut any noise making activity as much as possible too. :Sigh: Still have no idea what can be made from not a prime leather without tooling, have to check rough-out too, never heard of it before. Holsters are here frown upon, as well as importing blue replicas for them for molding. Problems, problems... Ah, I have quite a lot of tools, quite a fortune was spent on them through the years, and not many of them were practical for use. Gomph's fine prickling wheels comparing to Tandy's set of embossing and stitching marking wheels for example. Burnishing wheels, half-wheels and turned burnishing sticks that has too big diameter to use in complicated shapes, still have to use ball pen for that

Thank you! If anybody knows other options too, post them too, please.

Fantastic ideas, guys and gals, incredible help! I searched Internet a lot, but some things you told me newer were mentioned. Thank you so much!

Utility knife, even after buying Al Stolman's brand of knife: doesn't require sharpening, just snap off the dull part

There is analog of rawhide for stingray (same), sold for Japanese swords customizing, different colors. It could be wet formed.

Question for those who have to work in a fairly small room in the city, that serves as living space as well, with no outside work space or garage. I'm working with vegtan. One of the ways to downsize is to make small things, that will not require large worktable for processing. Buying kits from Tandy for them is cost prohibitive, their single shoulders are a middle ground (acceptable by size but not by quality, too much goes to waste, so cost goes up again), and clean leather suppliers (tannery) sell sides only. Sides could be put rolled on the wall shelf for storage (not under middle of the room cutting table, forced air heating blows across). Usually one needs more than one thickness, so two more sides go on two more wall shelves. The biggest space taker is a cutting table, that have to be large enough to accommodate half-unrolled cow side for selecting clean place and cutting. Add space for dyeing, drying, processing (finishing, assembling, gluing), sanding edges, tooling, small storage - it's quite a lot. How do you reduce the space required for work? And a small thing: What do you do with waste leather, not good enough for clean untooled things? Do you use it at once or let a pile to grow? Thank you.

How do you work around problem of using smelly leather dyes in apartment settings, with neighbors in closest proximity? Mind the norther climate with winters, so no holes in the wall for ventilation I prefer using Fiebings Pro-Oil, as a last resort Fiebings spirit dyes, and can't make Eco-Flo work without bleeding without Neat Lac/ Saddle Lac, which smells a lot by itself. No chances? What do you think?

Acrylic Resolene, maybe diluted?

If it should be of light gray color, as on picture, then there is a problem: uncommon color. Read about coloring leather white, I personally didn't do that, or try dilution of the black spirit dye, or diluted acrylic leather dye and see what will work better. For antiquing and highlighting commonly are used antiquing paste (Fiebing's, wax-like), antiquing stain (either oil- or acrylic-based), but all I have seen and tried are too dark for this. Try acrylic artistic paint in most flexible medium? Really a problem.

Same problem, tried everything possible, it's not working. So far trying to watch closely when neighbors go out, and trying to use this time for louder work. Occasional work is OK, but no way enough for making leatherworking a profession working from such home, with volume production, and for riveting or tooling.

I don't remember where we bought our big rectangular one (you can check on the web), but it is not suitable for drying grain side of leather facing downs - marks from mesh will be noticeable. So flesh side down only. It speeds drying process, OK. I think that ceramic room heater will do the same job for larger items, you have only keep leather far enough to prevent overheating and hardening, and maybe use thermometer near leather.

Leather scraps. How do you store them? Some of them could be quite big, even the small ones, that are without defects, could be used when you will have a free time. Unfinished work? 1) What is drying after moulding. Mine is currently on the white coated wire shelf, tied under the leather cutting large table. 2) I'm doing the same procedure on the few to several items at time. When I have to halt work for hours/night or have to use this table again, all small goes into small plastic drawers, larger ones are going anywhere where still is available space, including computer top and computer desk. Highly inconvenient. Do you better ways to do that in a small spaces? I was thinking about starting making something for SCA or LARP, but it will require finding a mannequin (no suitable model at home). I'm afraid to think about cost of delivery and space for it and resulting product, finished and not. No car and garage for it, obviously. And so on. Any tips, minding limited space and resources, will be appreciated. P.S. About my level: Hobbyist, on and off for several years, but already have most the things that are necessary and some of the required skills.

If you are not sufficiently bored yet, Storage organization. It the Messy Workrooms thread a lot of attention was paid to a table, sometimes the only big table in the home that has to be cleaned so others can use it. Where all the supplies, unfinished work, tools and, most important, leather rolls are going then? Are you carrying them in trays? Where these trays are stored most of the time? Leather. I've seen photos of two types of leather storage. 1) Deep shelves, as in stores, for storing leather of different thicknesses and colors. 2) Or a sturdy carton boxes for storing rolls vertically, then it takes less space, but ends become damaged. My temporary solution: For not a big living room, that acts as a workplace too, I'm currently using 30 cm wide (12") shelves, attached to the studs, leather rolls are parallel to the wall. Black curtain, hanging from the ceiling, protects them from the sun. 3) I also have seen photos of the Japanese professional leatherworker: small room with aquarium, no rolls at all, flat medium sized pieces are hanged as pants in the closet (or wardrobe) above the table. What any of use would do? Cut the side in pieces? Buy smaller pieces? Even double shoulder is stored as a roll. And wouldn't be such pieces stretching with time?

2. How to go around the problem of heater air heating? It is not only a noise transmission channel, that couldn't be possibly eliminated (without, again, too expensive renovations with changing heating system), nothing shouldn't be done in the interconnected rooms that involves flammable vapors, that will flow down and potentially cause house fires. Water heater and furnace labels expressly warn about such danger. All rooms will be exposed to the smell and chemicals too. The only place, not connected to the other house by heating is a bathroom, and because of this the current dyeing place is a small windowsill, when the window is open and door closed. Part two of the problem: storage of the solvent-based dyes and finishes. They can't be stored in the room, nor in the bathroom with window and without heating: code prohibits to store such things within certain distance from the chimney (hopefully, this is the right word for the whole construction, not the exhaust only). Are you storing all your Barge glue, Fiebing's dyes and aerosols outside, in the garden/tool shed? How the apartment dwellers do it, who do not have outside structures at all? I already looked in Eco-Flo as an answer, but they are not for every application. Neither are acrylics. 3. Ventilation. In a cold climate no part of the house may have a hole in the wall for a ventilation, even if it has a closing shutters, 2mm thick. This is not sufficient protection from the frost outside. Opening sealed widows in the middle of winter is not a good idea, plus cold, together with vapors, will go down the ducts throught the whole house. Again, how others are solved this problem?

Hello, I'm new here and didn't find rules about reviving old threads, is it encouraged or prohibited, so starting the new with the link back: Messy workrooms . My situation: 1. I have a trouble of adjusting to living and doing anything in the hollow walls and hot air heating house in a cold climate, typical in North America. Maybe you can give me some points how to go around it without rebuilding it, if you always lived in such houses. Wooden studs with drywall are working as a drum, no sound protection at all. Neighbors talking are heard very well, so mallet banging is out of question. Same with sound transfer to the floor below (floor planks - joists - drumming drywall again): moving chair or tooling sounds like being multiplied in the room below. I have to consider needs of the neighbors and family that have right not to be exposed to the noise and smells of leather working. I understand that detached house in remote area on a mountain slope will be better that a rabbit hole in the heart of a big city, but nothing can be done about it. Efficient sound protection is too expensive and will require rebuilding the whole house, so not an option too. What you are doing about that? Or it should be a different type of house in different area as a basic requirement for a leatherwork?