Toddo

I can't understand how any dye could make leather white unless it's some kind of bleach. Reading this article, It says that dye can only darken leather, not lighten it. https://leatherninja.com/leather-dye-vs-leather-paint/ Quick Main Key Points: Leather Dye Penetration: Dye penetrates the leather, forming a chemical bond and preserving its natural characteristics. It is permanent and can darken but not lighten the leather. Leather Paint Characteristics: Paint sits on the surface of the leather, offering a wide range of colors and finishes. It is more versatile than dye but requires multiple thin coats for durability. IDk. I guess I'm thinking about it wrong. I'll have to experiment with it. I was going to do a flag on leather and I wanted to do the colors in dye for a more natural look. I'm going for a dyed look instead of that bright painted look. I'm guessing this stuff is thinly formulated acrylic paint that soaks into the pores like dye. Then is regular "non-acrylic" dye just thinly formulated paint pigment with an alcohol or oil carrier? I can make regular acrylic paint soak into the leather pores quite a bit by just soaking the leather first with water and then watering down the paint. Seems like it's some kind of word game really.

Anyone got any idea why they call this dye instead of paint? How is this different from regular acrylic paint?

I think if the sheath was perfectly straight the lines would look just about perfect on my second stitching run with the second color. The sheath is junk. If you look around the edge of the sheath you can see that the cut lines are off especially on the left side.

I re-stitched the sheath and got a way better result by only cinching up the thread with moderate tension. Pulling it to tight throws off the thickness symmetry. Index finger and thumb pressure only. I also refrained from cinching it up tight to the leather no matter how bad it was twisted coming up to the leather. Before I was pulling it up tight no matter how bad it was twisted without any regard (like you do with twisted poly). If it's twisted when getting close to the leather I roll it around until it's straighter while I pull it up to the leather. I needed to do that on most stiches but it doesn't really take to much more time and it's not much of a hassle to speak of. The sides and punch holes on this sheath are not exactly perfect and that accounts for most of the unaligned looking stiches. All in all I think I can get the consistency and symmetry that I like to have with this thread now. This color thread is Havana Cigar. The color the first pic was Chestnut. I have read comments that Tiger thread is stronger than twisted poly. I guess that depends on what size of either thread you're using. I first had this sheath stitched up with the waxed black twisted poly that I got from Tandy on the left. I'm not sure of the exact size but it's pretty thick. I think it's 1mm. The Tiger thread on the right is "size # 1". So I think it's the equivalent of .9mm or 1mm. The Tiger thread might have a width of 1mm, but it's not 1mm all the way around because it's flat. It's only the flat side width that is 1mm. The twisted poly is 1mm all the way around which makes it thicker.. and stronger. When I cut the black Tandy poly thread using that red handled tool it took way more pressure to cut it. Way more. It was hard to cut. When I cut the Tiger thread with the same tool it pretty much cut like butter. The 1mm twisted poly is much stronger I'm afraid. And that's something to consider when choosing. The Tiger thread has great looks going for it because of the braided look. The twisted poly has strength going for it and you don't have to worry about it twisting because it's round so it looks symmetrical no matter what. This stuff just looks awesome. The color on the left is Chestnut and on the right is Havana Cigar. Yeah no problem Ok will do

Try Rocky Mountain Leather supply. You can get 80 feet "mini spools" for like only $5 and change. Free shipping to if I remember correctly. They also have a Ritza Tiger Thread sample card that has all the colors and thread sizes which I ordered also. One thing I didn't mention in my op is that I believe I was actually a little inconsistent with how tightly I pulled the thread, which will make it look a bit skinnier or fatter. Towards the end of the run I think I started pulling it quite a bit tighter trying to compensate for the twist and "pull out" the twisted look. I think this thread requires that you remain very consistent on how tightly you pull the thread on each and every stitch, which you don't have to worry about with twisted poly.

I just did my first experiment with Tiger thread. I knew it was going to be a little bit of an issue with the flatness of the thread and getting a consistent run because of the twisting before I even tested it out. I really want to use this stuff because of the looks of the thread and the colors. This is an old wet molded knife sheath that I had discarded and used for the test run. The front of the sheath got severely dried out and shrunk up a bit and that might be part of the problem with the consistency because of the punch holes maybe being a little out of line here and there. I don't think that's the entire problem though. It's got something to do with how twisted the thread gets into the length of the run also. I tried to be as consistent as I could be on the whole run as far as my technique goes but disregarded any attempt at trying to keep the thread flat and untwisted for the test because that's how I run twisted poly thread, without regard to twisting: Backside looks acceptable:

I really appreciate all the great compliments on the bag yall. Thanks! I name the bird on the front of the bag the millennium falcon ((any star wars fans out there.... ))

Thanks man I appreciate it!

You're welcome. That's what this forum is all about.

yeah haha. And you're right, it's more of a "mantle hanger" presentation piece. If I make another one I'm gonna try to make it it little more practical size wise. I was loosely basing the whole thing on an American Civil War troop kit

Thanks. The side panels are, a) back piece, b) 1/16" acrylic board, c) front piece. I wet formed the back piece that has the gusset part.

thanks! Yeah you could call it a black powder possibles bag. Props to Treasure Cast for the closure pin and arrowhead

thanks man. That was my absolute best attempt at quality fer sure

I thought I'd post a few closeups of the bag cause it's hard to see much on the first two shots. I really need to get a backdrop and a photographic-lighting setup one day sheath robust strap stays interior/black felt name imprint

Thanks! Procrastination is my middle name

cause it took nearly a millennium for me to finish it. The bird on the front.. guess Started this bag for my son back in 2018 (i think) as a muzzleloader bag/trail bag. Finally finished. It came out a bit bigger than I envisioned. I plan on scaling down the dimensions a tad if I do another one in order to make it a little more practical. Had a lot of firsts on this bag. First sewing job (hand sewn). First on wet molding anything. I was real happy with how the lock-blade knife sheath came out. The interior has got black felt glued down with Barge and it's sewn around the entire perimeter. I'll probably die the interior on the next one.

I have tried a couple 2 or 3 different printable substrates. Originally, I simply traced from plain paper printed in an inkjet printer using a pencil as a stylus which worked pretty well. I got pretty accurate and decent defined lines onto the leather. Then by suggestion I tried the Overhead Projector Transparencies For Inkjet Printers. Those things are a big no-go. The projector transparencies are so hard/dense that even a sharp stylus cannot make a well defined line in the leather. Last I got some "Tracing Film" from Tandy but ran into the problem of how to make inkjet printer ink stick to the plastic film. I came upon this product that you paint onto the tracing film that makes inkjet ink stick to the plastic called Golden Digital Ground For Non-Porous Surfaces. It's an ink aid that makes ink stick to slick surfaces. That was a big pain in the neck but it did make the ink stick to the plastic without smearing the ink. Then only to find that the image and digital ground compound will actually peel up in sheets from the tracing film when pushing a stylus onto it. Today I think I finally found the optimum setup for tracing onto leather. Tandy Tracing Film combined with a LaserJet Printer. The Tandy Tracing Film and a sharp stylus will actually make the most well defined impressions when compared to plain 20lb printer paper or the overhead transparencies. Here's a comparison photo: Here's an image printed onto the Tandy Tracing Film using a cheap HP LaserJet Pro 15w printer that I got today for $80: I was worried that the LaserJet Printer might melt the tracing film but it did not. It turns out great and it's dry to the touch as soon as it exits the printer! No smearing. Just what I was looking for. When you push the stylus onto the film with the toner ink on it (which is not really ink at all but melted poloypropylene) it actually etches the ink up when you run your stylus over it which lets you know that you've traced that line: Here's the stylus I use which is pretty sharp:

They all look great. I'm partial to the barbed wire one myself.

That's very creative. Creativity don't come easy for a lot of people. Very nice.

Beautiful pouches. Etsy would make a good home for those. (is Etsy in the UK?). You could use those for lots of things like trail kits. Fire starter kits. Small first aid kits etc.