JustKate

One possible solution - you can mix the antique paste with some Tan-Kote to make a lighter antique. That will also take some of the "stiffness" out of the paste and make it a little easier to work with.

Clark, this looks to me like leather that was antiqued after a resist was applied over the entire piece. If that didn't give you the results you wanted, maybe if you could show us a piece you treated, that might give us some idea what to suggest.

Bruce Johnson is a great resource for beautifully refurbished quality vintage and second-hand tools. His web site is at brucejohnsonleather.com. azinger on this forum has made a lot of stuff from horse hide, but I don't know off-hand where he has been buying his from since Seigel of CA underwent their recent transformation. You might try PMing him. What kind of finishes are you looking for?

I'd send it back.

Tom is referring to Billy 2-Shews. I think his method would produce that kind of result. He produced a really well-done instructional video you can find out more about here: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=3766&hl=2-shews

Angelus dyes are pretty intense. In most cases, I have to reduce them about 50%.

Sergey, do you have any information on how to purchase your book? Just send you a private message?

Even if it wasn't in response to your communication with them, I'd say it was a nice bit of serendipity. Think I'll have to put in an order for some...

Just took a look at their web site... interesting concept. I wonder what their "Lunk Alarm" consists of? Anyway, nice work on the cool design!

That was exactly my thought. This is a good way to distinguish a scam from a legitimate claim. If he's hesitating to get an attorney involved, it's probably because he knows he has no case, and no reputable attorney would comply. How someone could get a patent for something so vague and undefined? That's like getting a patent on a nail or a button. I thought you had to define the object being patented pretty specifically, with exact dimensions, exact function, etc., not just "any type of band that has bullet cartridge elements on it". Someone at the patent office should be shot.

Thanks for the list, cem. I've worked with some you've included, but I see others that look worth looking at. Also, another Photoshop alternative that I don't see listed there is Paint.net.

I'm satisfied if I know an item I made is better in some way than the last item I made.

They're working to become more profitable. Nothing wrong with that. That's what I should hope we are all trying to do. It seems to me that what they are actually trying to do (Eric) is narrow their market share to only include the segment of larger companies who were already upgrading frequently. Many of the one-person shops and hobbyists who were barely able to scrape up enough cash to buy an upgrade once every 3-5 years will soon be gone from their market. I don't know how many that is, but judging from all the chatter I've seen about it on Facebook, Twitter, all the tech and design blogs... seems to be quite a few. And as for piracy prevention, the company itself says that was not a major consideration. But it's a free market, and if that's what they want to do, they can do whatever they think is best for them. I can easily see how this benefits Adobe... it will probably cut their support caseload to a fraction of its current volume, by being able to offer a hosted (cloud-based) application that they can maintain, and by reducing their clientele to only their highest-performing customers. Many of those big shops have their own in-house support, whereas the small or one-person shops tend to rely on Adobe for most or all their support. In other words, they're culling out customers who are low-income/high-maintenance and improving things for the customers who are high-income/low-maintenance. Add that to the elimination of their distribution channels and all the headaches and expenses that go with them, and it seems like a panacea from their perspective. It's a little sad that us one-person shops have to end up as collateral damage to their "improvements", but we as consumers have choices as well. I've been preparing for this possibility for years, and I will be joining the migration away from Adobe. On the bright side, this may give a little more momentum to the other products out there serving the same markets.

When I still used acrylic finishes (*-shene, resolene, etc.), I found that spraying it on in light coats, as Cyberthrasher suggests, was the best way to apply it. When sprayed on, it doesn't disturb the antique at all. For finishes, a cheaper, single-action sprayer will work perfectly well.

If you're following up a water-based dye with any kind of antique, you'll want to dye it somewhat darker than you want it to end up, since the antique will lift out some of the color. Once a sealing finish is applied, it will be stable.

Good for you! Did you post any photos of your exhibit?

Greetings, Mike! If you haven't yet stumbled upon the great holster-making tutorial videos by particle, you can find them here: http://leatherworker...ch&fromsearch=1 There is also a local leatherworker's guild that meets near you (at Ottawa, just south of Lawrence), the Santa Fe Leather Artists' Guild, that usually meets the second Saturday of each month. There are at least a couple of members who are experienced in holster-making. Here's a link to their web site with contact info to get in touch: http://santafeleatherguild.org (Did I put my apostrophe in the right place???)

Just out of curiosity, I set out to see if the manufacturer shares anything about how it's finished, and found someone who had translated the Japanese message that is included with the notebook, and here's what it says: It almost sounds like they just dye the cover, and don't put any kind of sealing finish on it. And looking at some of the photos, the covers appear to have that chalky texture that you would normally see following dye work. If that's the case, that is one thing I would definitely deviate from the original.

Hi Eric, I agree with everything you wrote - there are always other leathers, other finishes, etc. one can use to achieve the same look. The original question was, "How do I duplicate what's in the video?" The Midori Traveler's Notebooks are made with veg-tan. I'm sure you're right about the weight, which the reviewer described as being "about 2mm thick"; according to the wight/thickness charts, that would be closer to 5oz. I know I said 6-8 earlier - I was eye-balling it. At any rate, it's pretty thick, I thought, for such a small notebook, but watch the video as it describes how the notebook is used. It's a pretty clever system. As for the finish, no telling what was actually used. I agree I like wax-based finishes better than acrylic. I've actually been using more lacquer lately than anything else, but that's not something 6sigma will be able to pick up at Tandy. I haven't used the LBAW for a long time, but I don't remember having any problems with it lifting out much color.

The dye absorbs into the the fibers of the leather, rather than covering the surface, so it leaves the natural surface texture of the leather untouched. Some of the antique absorbs in, and some will remain on the surface. I just buff it in until it becomes unworkable and that leaves a nice two-tone patina. Both the dye and antique will dry into a somewhat chalky texture. No worries - the finish will give it more of leathery luster. For a more satin-ny finish, you can try an acrylic like Satin Shene or Acrylic Resolene. If you think you might prefer a wax-based finish (more water-resistant than acrylic), leather balm with atom wax is fine. Good luck with your project, and don't forget to post photos. :-)

He mentions the leather is vegetable-tanned (9:26), so that's the type of leather to use to replicate this item. The question is, how much quality do you want and what weight to get? The quality question comes down to how much you would want to spend, but since this cover won't get any tooling, and part of the charm of it is that it gets scuffed-up over time to get that "Indiana Jones" look, you can probably get away with using something pretty cheap, assuming it doesn't just bother you to use cheap leather. (It would me.) The weight could be something like 6-8oz. To get that color, all you'd need is some brown dye (or whatever color you want) and some antique paste. Treat it with a leather finish to set the color from the dye and antique, and that should do it.

For that I would use deerskin, calfskin, or lambskin. I've had some nice soft goatskins that would also make a good collar liner, too. Anything soft and comfy for the dog.

Did you meant to attach an image?

Guess I won't be chucking my felt-tips any more, thanks for sharing that discovery. I'm guessing if you hold the tip of the pen in the dye for several seconds, it will continue to wick up dye and be able to hold quite a bit. Edit/addendum: Also thought I'd mention, if you don't have any old felt-tipped pens laying around, Turtlefeathers has some empty felt-tipped pens that you can fill with whatever dye you like. I've gotten a couple of them, and they work beautifully.