joet

I stand corrected. I checked the pamphlet that Fiebings put out about their dye and you are right. The oil dye is not water based, but needs to be cleaned with alcohol. Why they say it's oil dye is not mentioned. Sorry for the mistake I made, but like I said, I'm no expert.

I am no expert on this, in fact, I'm a very bad person when it comes to putting color on leather; but I think I can answer your question. From what I've read, the Fiebings oil dye can be cleaned up with water. It can also be thinned with water just like an acrylic paint. The spirit dye needs to be cleaned with denatured alcohol, not water. I've always found the spirit dyes to be too bright and have always thinned them down with the alcohol with about a 50/50 ratio or more, depending on the hue I'm looking for. I've not really tried the new Tandy acrylic, but have heard that you must "set" the color for 24 hours before applying a finish. It is also recommended to use a spray of some sorts, like an airbrush or something like Leather Sheen, which I use a lot. This way the color will not come off as easily. Hope this helps. I've found the best way to try something out is to experiment on a piece of scrap leather, from the same piece that you are currently working on.

If and when you do decide to stay with leather crafting, you could save money in the long run if you apply for a wholesale club. There is at least a 10% savings on most items, and sometimes you can get even more, depending on what you buy. Tandy has two prices for their wholesale club; the gold card is $35.00 a year and then there is their wholesale club - Elite that costs $150 a year. If you get the Elite card, there is a 50% savings on merchandise. Check your nearest store or go back on-line and apply there. Springfield Leather Co. also has a wholesale club.

Not sure you will find anything much lower in price than Tandy, but after checking a couple of my sources the best I could come up with was Zack White. His machine is listed at $695.95, and his motor is $595.00. You can check out his site by going to http://www.zackwhite.com/home.php?cat=1108&sort=orderby&sort_direction=0&page=1, that is the page that has the machines on it. I also looked at Springfield Leather, but didn't really find any embossing machines there. Hope someone else can help, but those two sites are the ones I use the most.

It looks like the next time I make an order to Springfield Leather that I'll have to order a couple of bottles of that Angelus dye and try it out. I've heard a few people talking about it and how great it was, but that was several years ago. Cova isn't a bad dye, but it's more along the line of paint than dye. Most of the colors go on with only one covering, but once in awhile you have to go over it with a second coat. Cova, and the Fiebings dye were the only things that Tandy sold (along with their pro dye) those many years ago when I started out in leather.

Nicely done wallets. Sometimes the simple things in life are the greatest. What can you tell me about the Angelus dye? I found a supplier of it, but would like to know how it compares with Fiebings and Cova.

Luke, I've heard of Angelus dye and I'm interested in knowing more about it. I found that Springfield Leather carries it in a variety of colors and the price is about the same as the Tandy Cova paint, but in a slightly smaller bottle. How does Angelus compare to something like, say the Fiebings acrylics, which I've used. I am a wholesale member at both Tandy and Springfield, so I know that the price of a bottle will be lower. Let me know anything and everything there is to know, and I'll even take information serious from any one else who chimes in here.

I also wish to welcome you to the site, and salute you for what you do when not working leather. Let us see some of your work and maybe someone can help you improve, as there is a lot of talent here.

Now that really looks nice. I take it that it is hand stitched, but I'm not sure what you used for the card holder on the inside to close it with. Could it be velcro?

Really nice work. My father would have liked this. He retired from the fire department in 1965, with a bad heart, which did him in in '72. But he was a fireman's fireman until the day he died. Chased sirens and everything.

I haven't tried the Eco Flo Gel Antique yet, but one of these days I will. I've been using the Fiebings antique paste for the last 30 years with good results. In fact, if my dye job looks bad, antique it and it will solve most of the problems. I also haven't tried the new Eco Flo dye, but I've tried the stains and all-in-one colors and I like the results. Next I'll try their regular colors, but I have a ton of dyes/stains/paints from the past that I'm reluctant to use anything new until most of that stuff is gone.

Your color on the bear isn't bad at all; what did you use (brand)? Color has been one of my biggest problems and even though I have all the books on how to do it (Stohlman, Main, Laier) I still haven't sat down and practiced. Don't forget to show a picture of the finished product after it's been laced/stitched.

At last, there is some improvement in my 4-H kids and their work. Sat down with them last night for about half an hour just fine tuning certain areas that they were having trouble in. Even though I had shown them the proper way of holding the mallet, none of them used it properly; so, I went through step by step how to pick it up and then using the wrist action, strike the tool of choice. They weren't happy about it at first, but as they used it more, then it started to come natural to them. The swivel knife came next. At the last class I noticed that all of the kids were using the knife at a very steep angle. I tried it that way myself to see if there would be any harm in using it that way and found that there was a lot of drag to the knife. So, the next thing last night was to bring the knife up to a straighter angle and after several attempts they were able to see the difference in their work. The angle of the knife is not all that important, at least to me, as I've seen the masters at work and some of them held their knife at about the same angle and were doing excellent work. But I felt that in the case of the kids, the proper angle would help them get a deeper cut. We next worked on the proper depth of some of the tools. The pear shader was first as all of the kids were trying to drive the tool through the leather. With the proper use of the mallet, they were able to get the right depth. Tapping the tool, not smacking it was the rule last night and it paid off. The beveler came next. I pointed out to them the different names of the tool, such as the toe and heel and the proper position of the heal when it came to placing the tool on the line. Many of the kids were beveling the line with the tool facing the wrong direction and later finding out that the background was no longer the background, but the foreground. I think the lesson given, will help many of them.The first three practice projects for Unit 2 were completed and we worked on another project that was not related to the unit. I had brought in a craftaid I had that was for a rounder. What is interesting is that that same pattern is the one I learned on 35 years ago and it hadn't changed any. I had tooled up a sample of what it was to look like and the kids used that to see what tools went where. They are slowly learning. One of the boys is picking up the use of the tools and will improve a lot this year. He is very interested in doing the work and will, in my opinion, turn into a good craftsman. One of the other boys, younger than the one just talked about has come a long ways and what is interesting is that he doesn't get frustrated easily. I feel that in time, he will also become a good craftsman.I had to put the younger girl back into Unit 1, but not because she couldn't handle the work. The powers that be decided that she was too young for the work she was doing and had to start all over again. Time is running out as the county fair will be here before we know it, and she still has a long ways to go to be able to finsh. I have a feeling that I'll be expanding my classes to two meetings a month instead of one. Time will tell.

Neat video. I have never seen how the laser worked except on human surgery to correct vision. It looks like I'll have to find a place here locally that does the sort of work that you do. The price range is a little out of what I can currently afford, and I would have to re-wire the house to handle that sort of wattage. It's surprising what all lasers can do and the technology has come a long way. Keep the video's and pictures coming. Still out of my price range. What kind of facility would I have to look for locally to find someone who does laser work?

How much do one of these laser units cost, and can anyone use them or are they mostly found in certain shops?

Dave, keep us posted as to his recovery. God does look after us leather crafters as well as the rest of the folk in the world. You had better make up some quick restraining straps to tie him to his bed before he hurts himself more.

Until about a month ago I wasn't aware that lasers could be used on leather. While at a guild meeting a Tandy employee, who does sporans in his spare time, showed the guild members what he was working on. It had been laser cut by a friend of his and it looked really good. At first I thought that the work on the sporan front had been tooled with some very fine bevelers. Then I remembered that he is just a beginner in the tooling aspects of leather and didn't have any such beveler in his tool box. Keep up the fine work and keep the pictures coming.

Nice work on the Celtic design; they can be a real pain to do, depending on how complicated the design is, it's easy to get lost in. I really like the over all color, what did you use?

Thank you for the update on George; keep us posted on the outcome Dave and we'll keep him in our prayers. He has a lot more information left in him that he needs to put on videos for us.

Beautiful job Clay. I've been following your work on it on your blog and at first I wasn't sure I would like it, but after you colored it, not only did I like it, but I loved it. Will you be entering it in IFOLG this year?

I find it kind of funny that sort of stuff comes up first on a random search before anything else. Goes to show you that we have to be careful what we ask for.

Thanks for that information Clay. I also have seen the various bears and other animals that Jan and Robb did and they are (or in Robb's case, were) both very talented. It's really nice to see what someone can do with leather and work it to the max.

Great job Clay. Any idea of how far out from the background Robb Barr got with his figures? I have several of his tapes and he never really says.

I just viewed the video and really enjoyed it. WC covered the material very well, and brought out several good points for beginners to look at and understand. It was also good for us who have been doing it for several years.

I am no expert on this; it only happened to me once; but when it did I used a match flame to burn out the bit of leather that was inside the needle. Seeing as how you have done this already, I think that there may still be a little bit of leather left inside that you didn't get out. You might try doing it again and then run something thin, like a wire into the needle to dis-lodge whatever ash is still there. I tried using something with a barb on it, but the only thing that comes to mind is a porcupine quill. I keep several on hand just for something like that. Hope this helps.