NewYorkerInSydney

Hi all, When you dip a piece of leather (a wrist cuff in my case) into leather oil dye and pull it out to hang dry, I notice that a lot of the dye then pools around the end of the cuff and drips off and sometimes just stays there which makes that end part of the cuff much darker. How can I eliminate this after dipping in dye? Also, sometimes I notice as it is all dripping down the dye streaks. How can I eliminate that? I am using plain veg tanned leather with leather oil dye and the leather is not wet before hand as it looks quite terrible if I wet it first. I just dip the dry leather into the oil dye (Fiebings). Thank you much, Sydney girl

Hi friends, I'd like your help. I have recently made several test leather wrist bracelets/cuffs with plain old 4oz vege tanned leather. Here is what I did: I cut the size I wanted, then used a Preval sprayer to apply saddle tan dye to it. I applied a light coat. While the cuff was drying, I bent it a few times so that it would not harden so much. I let it dry 24 hours. After it dried, buffed it and it was fine, but stiff like plastic or something. It sounded like plastic if I picked it up and dropped it on the table. Did not feel like leather. Since it was stiff and I wanted the saddle tan to get just tiny bit darker, I then lightly applied neatsfoot oil to the cuff. Its a little softer now though it could be softer, however, it turned the leather many shades darker like almost dark brown. Its like night and day. And not only did it dye it so many shades darker, it just looks splotchy or something. I would like your assistance in helping me figure out how to get the cuffs much softer than they feel without the color getting so dark and splotchy lookin and losing its lustre? I so appreciate your help. PS. When I bend the leather A LOT it looks like a nicer lighter saddle tan shade which I like and even looking, reminds me of pull up leather even though this is not, but when strap is flat it is so hideous and splotchy looking. Not sure what that means. Sydney girl

Handsewing.

Hi good folks, Will one of you kind folks please tell me where I may be able to get some of the nice thick threads that I often see used on knife sheaths and holster sheaths. I'm not interested in looking through Tandys products. Any other places I should look into and could you tell me what kind of thread it is and what size thickness I should be looking for? I just like thick thread as long as it is under 1mm thick preferably in khaki, tan, natural or cardboard colored thread. I appreciate any leads as I would like to use these thick threads to make some big designs on my belts. Thank you very much!!

Hi friends, Anyone try spraying oil dyes onto leather with a spray bottle before (like the one pictured)? I would love to hear your experience. I don't have the money to buy an airbrush and do not know if I would use it much any way and thought of this as an alternative.

THanks Kate, but how can I replicate this look with dye? Anyone? Thank you much.

Hi all, I just tried Fiebings leather sheen on a new project I dyed. I finally got a dye job that I really liked. Then I brushed on this leather sheen and the whole thing looks much darker by several shades even after having dried for a few hours. Does that normally happen? And is there something else that would be better to use that won't darken my dye job like this? Plus it feels kinda sticky to me, not very smooth. Hmmm. Any ideas? Thanks very much. So frustrated. -Jade

Hi friends, I really like the look of these belts. How can I get my leather to look like this? In your opinion, what color dyes would I need to get a similar look for and what techniques are best to make it look like it. Notice the leather looks faded and lighter and darker in some places. How can I get my belts to look just like these photos? Any ideas. I appreciate you taking a look. Thanks very much

Hi friends, I really like the look of these belts. How can I get my leather to look like this? First, what color dyes would I need to get a similar look for and what techniques are best to make it look like it. Notice the leather looks faded and lighter and darker in some places. How can I get my belts to look just like these photos? Any ideas. I appreciate you taking a look. Thanks very much

Thanks so much for the advice mate. I am going to contact Kevin and have a chat with him. I appreciate you taking the time to assist me. And I am going to try what you say with the horsehide and go from there. I am so pleased with your helpfulness. Take care. Jade

Hello Denster, Oh I see. If what you say is true, then that is disappointing. What do I do with all this leather now? I have 4 long horse butt strips. I have never heard of jacking till now and after reading your description, I would say this butt is "hard jacked" cause if I hold the piece flat with one hand, nearly the whole three foot long piece hardly bends. LOL. I don't just a little leather experience, but I have never seen anything like this before. Hmm, I may do a few more tests then and see if I come up with something that may work for me, but somehow I am doubting it at this point. As a result of this, I would like to try my hand at buying plain pink looking cowhide, the kind most of you guys use for tooling. I would like it in the 4-5 oz range so that I can make the belts and cuff bands that I have in mind. See, I would like to dye leather. My experience thus far has been with chrome tanned leather that is all ready to go. I'd like to dye leather different colors and experiment with that. I see there are several leather stores around, but anyone in particular I should go to to purchase this leather in several square feet. I'd like some nice stuff that will dye well. I don't have any Tandys nearby and would rather use someone else frankly. What is that leather called for tooling? What should I ask for? I REALLY appreciate all of your help. Thanks SO much. -Jade in Australia

Thanks guys for your responses. And Noah, it's not veiny, just faded looking. Something about it reminds me of static. The fading is all throughout not any specific spots. This hide looks so nice too. Almost perfect with the exception of it being so stiff and not the fading. I dont know what else to do. Jade

Hi friends, I posted this in the dye forum and someone just told me I should post it over in this forum instead. Hopefully someone can help.I have been trying to learn to dye leather unsuccessfully so far. Here is what I have: strips of 5oz natural looking, undyed, horse butt leather. It has not been oiled or washed or anything and looks in excellent condition. Came to me the way I got it from the supplier just like all the tooling leather. It is VERY stiff, almost as stiff as a board and I have Fiebings professional oil dye in saddle tan. Here is what I have done with the small strips for testing I have cut out of the horse butt piece: Strip 1: Plain horse butt dipped into the saddle tan oil a couple of times and let it soak just a tiny bit. After about 24 hours I have buffed in gentle circles with a soft cloth and noticed the dye faded and you can slightly see the original color of the horse butt through the faded dye. Strip 2: Saturated the strip in water for a few moments, til damp but not soaking wet, then immediately dipped in the oil dye a couple of times and let is soak just a tiny bit. After 24 hours it probably even more stiff than before. I buffed and same problem as above occured. Faded and original color showing through Strip 3: Saturated the strip in water for a few moments til damp but not soaking wet, then dipped in Neatsfoot oil for a moment and allowed to drip dry. After 24 hours it is much softer than original which is good. I proceeded to dye it in the same method as above. After another 24 hours I buffed it and same fading issue as above has occured. Strip 4. similar to strip one except I conditioned it with Lexol as the very last step. That further faded the dye and made the whole strip look terrible. Now, I am not rubbing vigorously and am using a soft cloth. Anyone have any idea what the problem is? There is nothing on the leather, no coating of any kind, it is plain and ready for tooling or whatever someone wants to do with it. Please help. Thanks so much, Jade

Hi everyone, I am in the market for a leather splitter. The leather I use are narrow strips no wider than 2inches to make belts with and wrist cuff bands. I need to be able to thin the leather to make it skinnier as it can be too thick for my liking some times. Can anyone recommend a decent splitter for under $200 that would work for this? Thank you so very much.

Hi folks, I have some raw and undyed horse butt leather that I am about to dye. I have not done anything to the leather yet and am making a belt strap. Should I put neetsfoot on it to soften it up (as it is very very stiff) BEFORE I dye it or AFTER? I really appreciate your help. Jade

Hi guys, thank you so much for your replies. Ok, I guess I should have said, I am new to this. This was the first time I have dyed anything and was so happy with how well the leather dyed because it was even with no streaks. All I did was dye it and that's it. I never buffed it because I did not know that I had to do that. All I did was cut a piece of leather into the shape of a belt. they dyed it. That's it. No other steps. Yikes. Do I finish the leather AFTER I condition it? or before I condition it? This horse butt leather is really really stiff, sheesh. Im really sorry for sounding like an idiot. So I am going to try this again shortly. I will cut another piece of leather and dye it and then buff it. And then?? Thanks for your help.

Hello ABN, Thanks for your reply. The leather is undyed cordovan leather and very pale and natural skin colored, made of horse butt, which to my knowledge is called cordovan leather. So it was undyed. Cordovan is a color as well. This thing wasn't already dyed at all. So I have no idea why this problem.

Hi everyone. Last night I dyed my first belt. I used Fiebings Oil Dye in Saddle tan on undyed, natural looking Cordovan. It looked great. No streaking. Not a bad job at all. Thats all I did. End of story. That was about 24 hours ago. I just decided to put lexol on it so as to soften the leather because this cordovan is friggin stiff. Anyway, I noticed as I was applying it that the lexol was turning orange because the dye on the leather was coming off. The leather is completely dry now and the color is ruined. It is faded and looks terrible. Does anyone know what I did wrong??? I waited about 24 hours before conditioning and didn't even rub the lexol in hard. I haven't done anything else to it. I would love to hear some feedback. Thanks very much.

Hi Dirtclod, that's not a bad idea. Thanks for sketching it out and showing me. Thanks so much.

Hi friends, Its me with yet another question. I recently purchased some beautiful Cordovan leather for the first time. It arrived and it is vegetable tanned, I imagine, and pink in color. I plan to dye it at some point. As for now, I just want to be able to make something out of it, but it is stiff! How can I get this stuff to be a bit less firm and maybe more bendy or something? This would be fine for a belt, but not small leather goods, at least for me. Should I wet it or apply oil to it or something? I would just like it to be MUCH more pliable. Any advice anyone? As always thank you so much. I am always so grateful. Warm regards, NYIS

Hello Coltrainer, after you suggested I do that, I went on a mission to figure out what you were talking about and how to do what you were talking about. In just these few hours since your post, I learned how to make a strop and already made one and figured out how to strop the blade on the razor. I did it! All those dull blades are sharp again. Do you know how thrilled I was?! I proceeded to skive everything in site. I was logging on just now to thank you guys and saw your message. Thanks very much for telling me about that. I am happy to reuse all these blades. I just hated the idea of buying so many. I was going through dozens of these every week and that's just wasteful. Big thanks. Sydney girl

Hello good folks, thanks for your replies. I have attached a photo of the skiver/shaver tool I use. I can't image stropping those itty bitty blades and I can't see how it is that you would strop it while the blade is still attached to the tool. How do you do it? I am interested to know. In the meantime, anyone else have any skiver recommendations for me? Thank you SO much! NYIS

Hello friends, i use a shaving razor type tool to bevel edges and shave my leather down at the crease where I bend it to glue it. This tool is fine except the razor wears out after about two or three uses and I have to keep replacing the blade which is fast becoming expensive for me. I heard that I can use a skiving knife to skive the edges and thin out the middle of my leather where I bend it and flip it over to glue the pieces together. It seems like a skiving knife would work for me because I can just resharpen this tool as I need and not have to constantly replace blades. I have done a search but nothing comes up within my price range. Will you all be so kind as to recommend me some nice skiving knives that I can buy for under $40 please? Please do not recommend anything that costs much more than that as I am not interested. I need to keep my cost down. I really appreciate any links to vendors or websites, etc. Thank you so much as usual for all your help. Many kind regards, New Yorker in Sydney

Hiya friends, A couple of weeks ago I reached out and asked you if you would please recommend a place to order custom leather maker's stamps and several of you suggested Laser Gift Creations. I promptly contacted Brenda there who handled my order in the most no nonsense and professional manner. She had created my stamped and had it shipped within like two days. I got it all the way here in Australia in two shakes of a lambs tail. I fully recommend her to any of you who are looking to purchase any leather makers stamps. Total professional and excellent quality stamp. I'm very happy. Check her stamps out at http://www.lasergiftcreations.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=20 Tell her I sent ya! -New Yorker in Sydney