SimonJester753

I'm moving out of my current apartment to a smaller place. I will no longer have a room for my work bench. I'm thinking of putting together a minimalist kit that I could take with me in my car, or put on a hand truck and go to a nearby park. I mostly make dog collars from latigo. I use solid copper rivets. Any suggestions for an easily transportable set up?

Thanks for the info. However, I didn't wait. My method worked pretty well. I googled "cleaning leather jacket" and got info about cleaning a jacket in more "normal" condition. Then I had an idea. I googled "cleaning mud off leather chaps," figuring they are also made of garment leather. Some people actually put them in the washing machine. Well, I don't have a washer and the laundromat is fussy about what you put in their machines, so I put it in the shower to hose it off, to remove the mud without abrasion. Then I used a moist sponge with saddle soap, then buffed with a soft cloth. After it dried I noticed a few spots I missed and touched it up. Now it looks better then before I fell.

I was walking my dog in the park after a rain. He got frisky and wanted to run, so we ran down a trail a bit, then we hit a section that was muddy. The mud was slick as grease and I slipped and fell face down. My leather jacket got covered. I assumed the best thing to do would be to let it dry, then flake off as much mud as I could, then wipe with a wet sponge. Even after flaking off the dry mud, there's still a lot of mud on the jacket. What's the best way to go from here? BTW, the jacket had been torn previously and I patched it. I contact cemented a piece of leather inside behind the rip and them used a vinyl paste made for leather repair to fill the rip. It gets set by heating it with an iron.

I was in Tractor Supply Co. and bought a pack of solid brass chicago screws, marketed by Weaver, a few months ago. I antiqued them using a chemical solution meant for antiquing brass and copper. It was a variety pack of screws with 2 different lengths. I really needed them all to be short for the project I'm working on. I went back and they were out of stock, so I ordered some from Tandy. They won't antique. They must be coated with something to prevent tarnishing. I happened to be in Tractor Supply again and they had Weaver brand chicago screws, so I bought 2 packs. The packaging was different. That did make me wonder if the contents were the same. Well, they're just like the Tandy screws– can't get them to antique. What solvent would you recommend to clean off the coating? Or do you have an easy way to shorten the female end of a chicago screw?

I got a strap pre-cut to width and the edges were already rounded. They still needed to be burnished. As compared to latigo, the leather seemed to bruise and show marks easily, if I slipped while burnishing. Part of that may be just because most of the latigo I've worked with is black or dark brown and the harness leather was a medium brown. I bought a side of black latigo when I was starting out. I still have a bunch. I'm still experimenting with edge finishing.

Try Ohio Travel Bag. I found this place today: http://www.buckleguy.com I haven't had a chance to check out the whole site.

I'm no expert, but I'd say you don't need to seal it. The only time I used a sealer was on the inside of a black latigo collar that seemed to be rubbing off. The dog that it was going to was white and I thought it was best to seal the inside. I recently made a collar from harness leather. I like working with it better than the latigo– it skived easier. The latigo is kind of rubbery, while the harness leather was firmer. I would use a conditioner and or oil it. Oil or conditioner will darken the leather.

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/07/how-to_leather_dog_collar.html I've been using the pattern from this article. I have the dog's owner measure around the neck up near the head with a tape measure. I tell them to make it snug– no room for fingers under the tape. So far, no complaints about fit.

If you want a concho to go with that they have them here: http://www.antik-group.com/epages/es122041.sf/en_US/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es122041_REPLIKATE_DER_ANTIKE/Products/%22GREEN%20MAN%20ZN%20925%22 They have different finishes available, too.

The happy customer wearing the collar.

I ordered from the website, not Ebay. You enter your zip code and click on a button and it shows you the shipping charges, and standard shipping came up $0.00.

I just tried Steck. Great prices, no tax and FREE shipping if I used "standard" shipping, which I did.

Somewhere I recently saw a book about the care and use of leather tools. I was clicking around on the internet, looking for something else and so I moved on, assuming I could easily find it again. No such luck. If anyone can point me to a link for the book, or just give me a title I can google, I'd appreciate it. I have a granite slab on my bench. I don't do much stamping. I noticed that it's not sitting flat. I'm guessing the bench is not perfectly flat and so it's wobbly. I wouldn't want to do and pounding on it as if it's not sitting firm it could crack. Do most people just put the slab on the bench or do the cut a hole and set it in the bench? How do you get your slab to sit perfectly flat on an imperfect surface? I'm trying to figure out how to properly light my work area. My workbench consists of a long desk that originally housed my computer, printer and scanner. It's a formica countertop on top of 3 file cabinets. The cabinets are on wheels, (the wheels may soon be history). I have cabinets above the desk and a florescent tube light mounted under the cabinets. This lights the back half of the bench, but the stuff I'm working on ends up back-lit– not very good foe seeing what I'm doing. The overhead room light does not help much, as my body ends up casting a shadow right where I want light. I also have a halogen torch lamp that shines up at the ceiling. This adds a bit of ambient light, but that's it. I'm thinking I need some kind of swing arm desk lamp. Any recommendation as to make or model of lamp? I'm thinking the base of a desk lamp might get in the way if I'm working on a big piece. Thanks.

I wanted the collar to be a bit wider, too, but I was working from pre-cut harness strap and 1.5" was the widest I could find. Thanks for the link. I check them out.

The rivets are to hold the buckle and "D" ring. I antiqued the buckle and "D" ring using JAX Pewter Black solution. I'm wondering if 4 rivets is overkill. Maybe just 2?

I am still learning and appreciate the advice. Attached is a photo of the finished collar. The mark I've been talking about is on the top edge. I think the oiling darkened the leather to minimize it.

Good to know. Back in the infancy of ordering through websites I was into bicycling and ordered stuff through catalogs. If you called, the order went right in and you got it fast. If you ordered online, or faxed it in, it could sit for a few days, till they got to it.

Well, I skipped that solution. I wasn't sure how to deal with the border when it came to the narrowed strap ends. I rubbed some oil into the leather, which made it darker and hid the burnish mark somewhat. Then I dyed the edges, but it seemed a bit weak, so I went over it with Edge Coat. My first attempt at making this collar will be an experiment. I was looking for copper buckles on the internet and came across a belt with a copper buckle that was made from "sanded harness leather." So I'm going to sand the finish off and then try oiling/waxing.

I think I'll give them a try. Thanks!

What I'm ordering isn't that heavy. A few tools and a small bottle of dye. It could all go in a flat rate USPS box. I'll have to check out Springfeild. I forgot about Brettuns Village Leather.

Another thought I had was to take a stitching groover and cut a groove along the edge. The piece I'm working on is a dog collar. It's 1.5" wide, reduced at the ends to fit a 1" buckle. Once I groove it, I could dye just the outer border to obscure the "bruise."

I've used Tandy for most of my tools and leather and finishing products. The one thing I've always found annoying is their shipping and handling charges and having to pay tax. I know, tax is not something they have control of, but when I deal with a company that's not in my state I don't have to pay tax. They have a store somewhere in NY so even though my stuff comes from CT, I have to pay tax. The shipping is what really gets me. I deal with plenty of places where shipping is free. I know nothing is "free," but their prices are good even if they build the shipping cost into the item price. It bothers me to see $14 in shipping added to a $58 order and then another $5 in tax. So I'm looking for someplace that sells leather tools and supplies that has reasonable, or free, shipping and won't charge me tax.

I deal with Antik-Group. I like their stuff. I was disappointed with the finish on their antique silver pieces. It's too antique for my taste, but their plain silver is fine. I love the antique copper stuff they have. As for the pieces not looking as good as pictured on the website, remember, those pictures are probably taken under ideal studio conditions by a pro photographer who is trying to make them look as good as possible. I wish their conchos had screw backs, rather than rivet backs, but that's a small thing.

I'm fairly new to leather work. Mostly I've been using latigo, mostly black latigo. I found the brown latigo that I could get from Tandy was fairly dark to start out, and once I rubbed some Aussie leather conditioner in it just got darker. Since I couldn't find lighter brown latigo, I got some harness leather in a lighter, (but not as light as I wanted), brown. I'd been using a slicker wheel in a dremel to slick the edges with gum trag. I slipped a couple of times and "bruised" the surface of the leather near the edge. The bruise is darker. It turns out that the groove in the slicker wheel has gotten deeper from using it at high speed in the dremel, and so it comes up over the surface of the leather more than it should. So even when slicking by hand I got some bruising on the surface. So I need a new slicker. I know I can minimize the bruise by rubbing mink oil into the leather– it will darken it and hide the bruise. But I'd rather not darken the leather. Any suggestions on how to eliminate the bruise without darkening the leather? Also, so far I've slicked the edge, first with just water, then with gum trag. I need to finish the edge. I've heard oil dye doesn't take well over gum trag, but it was ok on a small test strip. I'm worried that on something bigger than a test strip, it might look inconsistent. My other option is edge coat. Or if I end up oiling the leather, just let the oil darken the edge and finish it with bees wax. I saw a video about using a glass burnisher on the surface of leather. Would something like that help?

I started a dog collar made from harness leather, had a few too many things go wrong and started again. Before starting the first one, I did a test strip to experiment with edge treatments and leather conditioning. I did another small test strip before edging the 2nd collar. The thing that gets me is the test strips look nothing like the final pieces, even though I followed the same steps. I feel like test strips or not, it's hit or miss.