TomG

Hi Dwight. Yup. I learned early on not to hang a wet strap. You drag procedure sounds identical, except I have begun pulling through in about 2 seconds of submersion and then back the other way for 2 seconds....Then wipe off the excess as quickly as I can. I haven't done the belt flip. Will have to try that. I have coiled it loosely and gotten the one-way fade. what I have been doing now is using an 8 foot piece of wood moulding/trim left over from a remodel job. The back side has a shallow flat channel that holds up to a 1" or so wide strap perfectly flat. I have some Rubbermaid 1 quart rectangular tubs I found at Walmart that I use. I like them because they actually seal air-tight, so I can leave the dye in them all the time. I'll try a slower drag and see how that works.

I have been dip dyeing my collars, belts and leashes for a while now. But I sometimes have erratic results. I am using a "drag" technique because soaking seems to over-color the straps. But if I dilute the dye more, can I just do a short soak and a quick wipe down as I pull it out and get more even and consistent results. I guess the real questions are - How do you do it AND... will the leather reach a saturation in a given dilution of dye and not get darker past a certain point? Say.. Will Saddle Tan become a brown if I leave it in say 3 minutes? Thanks

I have been dip dyeing my collars, belts and leashes for a while now. But I sometimes have erratic results. I am using a "drag" technique because soaking seems to over-color the straps. But if I dilute the dye more, can I just do a short soak and a quick wipe down as I pull it out and get more even and consistent results. I guess the real questions are - How do you do it AND... will the leather reach a saturation in a given dilution of dye and not get darker past a certain point? Say.. Will Saddle Tan become a brown if I leave it in say 3 minutes? Thanks

So, Bob and Electrathon. What makes the SK-3 better than others? What makes a knife bad, good or great? I have large hands and some arthritis setting in. I have been thinking of the newer Tandy Pro with the large barrel.

You always dye first with either method. I dye, buff, balm/wax, burnish edges, paint, outline then resolene. You always dye first with either method. I dye, buff, balm/wax, burnish edges, paint, outline then resolene.

Wow. Almost 24 hours and no responses??? I'm sure there are may ways to do this. I've done it 2 ways. First, I use Leather Balm with Atom wax on the leather. 2 coats buffed between coats and dried.. First method is to use a thin brush and acrylic white paint to fill the outlines. I keep a damp rag in my hand and if I hav an "oops", I quickly wipe it off. You can get away with a couple of oops in the same spot before you possibly blemish the finish a bit. I can usually get it in 1 coat with this.. The new way I've gone to is to use a white Sharpie. I use the Extra Fine Point, Oil-Based Paint model. It fits the outline almost perfectly. I usually have to do at least 2 coats as the leather seems to absorb it more then the acrylic paint. You will want to practice both methods. The pen has a spring-loaded tip to release the ink and you can push too much and flood the letter grooves. The couple of times it happened to me, I was lucky and it stayed in the grooves. I was able to spread it out to the rest of the outline. But it could have easily overflowed and I don't the damp rag would have fixed it. Just go slow and careful.

I've been looking for a set of the old log letter sets if you have any of those. Tom

Much better <g>

This is not about your problem, but... Your "Interests" and Interested In.." sections in your profile are bleeding into your message. You might want to remove those "/" between the words, and use commas and spaces instead "Tooling/Dye/Stain/..." to Tooling, Dye, Stain...

Peter Main has an excellent and definitive book on coloring leather using dyes. I believe you can order directly from him. If I'm wrong, he can advise you on where to buy a copy. I'd start there and use it as your main guide.

What Howie said... You're only chance that I can see is if you put a copper rivet in and solder to the rivet. But you're going to have fumes out the wazoo probably. Solder melts at something like 750 degrees F. What are you trying to do?

There is a YouTube out there about setting the Segmas. One key trick is to snap them together and then give them a tap or 2 with the mallet to seat them. I also found that if I use them on thinner leather, I may have to use a larger domed setter to LIGHTLY expand them for a good fit. They do take some practice to get right.. at least in my case... And the other rivets... yes.. try to match cap sizes and make sure the post fits and use that concave setter. On those, you want about a 1/16" sticking up out of the leather. You can do a search here to find lots of suggestions for setting and fitting them.

The first setter looks like a male Segma snap setter. Not sure of setter 2, 3 and 4 Setters 5 and 6 look like Segma snap female setters. Setter 7 is a cap setter for rapid rivets, double cap rivets, some conchos, etc. The snaps marked Glove Snaps are Segma snaps - male and female. The Brown What are the cap and post for the Segma snaps. The rest are an assortment of rapid rivets, double caps and so on.

Hey oltoot, A number of years ago, I got the hots to make my own maul out of rawhide. I mentioned it either here or on one of the yahoo groups and one of the members had a fresh hide of rawhide he had just made. He graciously sent me a whole bag of rawhide disks he cut for me. The even precut the center hole just like you suggested. I did exactly what you said. Soaked them for a while, then I took a couple of squares of 2x6, drilled the same hole in the centers. I pushed my bolt through one and stacked all the rawhide on the bolt, topped it with the other 2x6 and tightened as hard as I could. Every few days, I'd go down and tighten some more. I seem to recall it took a week or 2 to dry thoroughly. I think it was Bearman who gave me instructions on how to do the assembly. I use it all the time for stamping and it's still holding up.

I do have a question though... What is the purpose/reasoning for both guns facing the left hand?

I like the shotgun shell "waistalier". Looks a lot more efficient than the over the shoulder bandolier. I am really into the one of a kind stuff. Don't like doing the same old stuff all the time, but those are ones that pay the bills, so to speak.

Had a real similar experience as Dwight. My "mentor" actually gave me a test measurement strap like yours. I had a lady friends of ours who wanted a belt so I handed it to her and told her to put it on and tell me what hole it was. My mistake was in not watching and asking if that was where she wore her BELTED pants. At the time, she was wearing sweat pants and the belt was for low-rider jeans. A 4" mistake.... Darn curvey women <g>

I had wondered about it before I started turning. But the square pieces got out of alignment when I glues and clamped, so I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to get a hole straight down the center. I should have made my squares a bit larger to allow waste during turning and done the center dowel. I'd still have the problem of attaching it to the lathe. I don't have a 3-jaw chuck and I'm not sure if the spur bit on the head spindle would hold a dowel of the size I want to use for the center bolt. But now that I have it turned down to a cylinder, I can probably square it up enough to drill a center hole straight and try the dowel. Fingers crossed... And I may just stick to wood <g>

What Tandy patter kit is it from?

Yup. There is always a metal rod or bolt that runs the length of it. The leather itself will never support the torque and flexion of a handle like that. I finally slowed down enough that I'm planning on heading the garage later to work on it.

Hi Dwight. That was my first thought as well... until I took a second piece of the same leather and dipped it in the other vat of dye and no splotching. I'm going to have to do some tests tomorrow and try to isolate it. 2 different pieces in 2 or 3 different tubs of dye and see. I may try to take a picture and post.. But it's almost like the dyestuffs on it are just sitting on top and not absorbing.. But no ruboff. Puzzling...

No core. I thought about it, but haven't done lathe work in a long time and never on leather. I wasn't sure of what to use. Like I mentioned. With only a live center and a spur, all I could think of was a wooden dowel glued in, but then, I'd have to drill that out for the mounting bolt on the maul. What would you suggest?

I have been dip dying some of my straps and belts for a while now, but just ran into a problem. I usually use Fiebings Dark Brown and dilute is anywhere from 1:1 to 4:1 Denatured Alcohol to dye for different shades. I just made a new batch from a new bottle of dye for my medium brown, but when I dipped the latest strap, it came out blotchy and uneven. I could swear that I diluted this batch about 3:1 for a medium brown. A second strap in a different batch for medium came out OK. Has anyone every heard of bad dye out of the bottle? It's all I can think of since the other batches used other dyes. Could I have somehow gotten it too thin? Would this cause the blotchy look? Any ideas? Thanks

I am making a new maul and decided to try making a leather handle like on my Tandy Stohlman maul. I glued up a bunch of 3" squares using contact cement and clamps and then mounted in my wood lathe. So.. I have a few questions for any of you who have done this. 1) Is leather harder on the tools than wood? I seem to be having to sharpen my roughing gouge frequently. 2) I do not have a chuck - only the spur and live centers that came with the lathe... How do I taper it down thin at the end of the handle. I have about a 2.5" cylinder now and can already see it flexing as I cut it. Thanks

What is it? I've never heard of this...