Bob Blea

I use Wyosheen from Sheridan Leather Outfitters as a resist when antiquing, but I do but it on thick enough that it waterproofs the leather but isn't particularly shiny. If you apply a thicker layer it does get shiny. But as Benlilly said it doesnt' last forever and will wear off eventually. Bob

Wow, thanks mrdabeetle, I had never heard of that before. That's really good info to know. Hope I never run into it either. Bob

If you are looking for a dark impression over a lighter surface, you probably want to use Antique, not a dye. In most cases the dye will darken everything and you probably won't be able to see any of the burnishing you make on properly cased leather. With an antique, you (probably) want to add an additional step of applying a resist. Typically in Sheridan style floral carvings you first coat the item with something that is going to prevent or 'resist' allowing the antique to penetrate the leather and thus keep it lighter. It will also make the higher points in the carving come out lighter and have a greater contrast to the lower points (your stamp). I have an example of the difference this makes. This first picture is of a geometric stamp with Tandy Eco-Flow tan antique applied and then wiped off, but no resist was used. The antique darkened the leather overall, and the stamp impressions are pretty dark: Now here is the exact same stamps on a different notebook, but this time I've applied Wyosheen, a product that resists the antique. I applied the same antique and then wiped it off. Notice how their is greater contrast in the resisted notebook: Does that make sense? Bob

Ski, Tree Reaper hit it on the head when he said your leather is too wet. Try reading through Bob Park's tutorial on casing: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=19121 You will want to let the leather dry a lot longer than 15 minutes. It needs to return to almost natural color which will take many hours after which the leather will burnish (get darker) when you stamp it.. Also, some of the darkening you might be seeing on projects could be coming from antiqing, which applies dark colors into the low lying areas on stamping or carving in leather. You will get much greater contrast when using an antique than you can just from burnishing alone. Bob

I like JLS and Dwighs answers better, use the grain side of the leather. As I think about it more, I would worry that the atom wax surface would collect grits too. Better to go with the grain side of a lining leather. Bob

LeatherHead, I would be concerned that a suede surface would trap grit next to the glass and cause scratches. It wouldn't be much better than having the unfinished flesh side of the cover against it. I would either use a thin leather liner with the grain side towards the glass, or use pigskin, or I might just seal the existing flesh side with something like Fiebings leather balm/w atom wax. I have used the leather balm on the flesh side on occasion with a slicker and got a fairly smooth surface, and the was seals it somewhat. Just my suggestions, Bob

Cool idea. I really admire your work, it's first class! Bob

Very nice, I like the simple design.

I've done that with Leather Balm w/Atom Wax, but that product doesn't look like a gel so I'm pretty sure that's not what they are using in the book. Bob

Thanks Frank, this is good info. I appreciate your posting this tutorial. Makes me want to try this tool out. Bob

Looks great Mike!

NICE! Someday I'm going to own one of those, not in the cards right now though. I'm envious! Bob

Congrats Cheryl, looks nice. Wish I had one. Bob

My $.02 worth, the round knife is far easier to use than a utility knife once you get used to it. As long as your knife is (very) sharp and you practice with it a little bit, you find it much easier and safer to cut leather with. I couldn't imagine using a razor blade to cut my leather now. Bob

Looking forward to seeing all of your items at the show! I've got one of your burnishers and love it. Bob

Hello Lacosta, I haven't seen a premade trim like this. Have you tried searching Etsy for someone selling this in one of their shops? There are a lot of people there that sell raw material for making other crafts, and maybe someone there has something that will work for you. I've tried a few of the scalloped scissors made for paper crafts and so far I haven't found any that work really well for cutting paper consistently, let alone leather. If I were going to make a scalloped trim I would cut the suede to the size I needed then I would use a half round punch to punch out the individual scallops. Bob

Hello FFleather, welcome to the forum! I use a product called Wyosheen (available from Sheridan Leather Outfitters) as a resist for my antiqing, and it will block water. It's the modern version of NeatLac that Tandy used to sell, and it's also available as ClearLac (at least I think it's the same product). I test that I have a good coating by running a damp sponge over my project to make sure the water doesn't penetrate the Wyosheen. If it doesn't I'm ready to antique. I'm just using a thin layer in my work and I don't know how waterproof it would really be. It might not work well in a situation with a lot of wear or heat. I know that most of the people on here that make motorcycle gear use resolene for their items, so it might be better choice for high wear items. I don't have any experience with it though. Bob

Wow! Really outstanding work! It looks really luxurious. Bob

Truly stunning and inspiring craftmanship. Thank you for sharing! Bob

Wow, very impressive work!

Really nice work!

I've got a trick to add. It's actually a specialize tool I modified to solve a problem. When lacing notebook edges I have a bad habit of lacing until I have a very short length of lace left before trying to dry splice in a new piece. Sometimes I get stuck around a corner and either need to backup my lace to before the corner (wasting a lot of lace) or push on past the corner and end up with a very short length for splicing in the new section. It happened enough that I finally took a standard Tandy two prong lacing needle and cut it in half. I then filed down the newly cut tip, just to remove the sharp edge, and made the point a bit narrower like the original tip would have been. The result, a half sized lacing needle that I can swap in and finish the splice. Bob

Hi Al, I think that is a tough one, and based on the fact nobody else is answering I'm assuming there isn't a good answer here. It the leather is truly scratched so the grain surface is broken a bit, that is probably opening it up to allow more dye to penetrate. I can't think of a good way to stop that without using something to stop up the 'broken' surface (like a resist) but then you would have the opposite problem. You might try applying the dye in that area with a brush and applying in light thin coats. That might give you enough control to make the area look even. I've seen light dye coats used to make very subtle color gradients in leather, so I think it might work with some practice and luck, but I haven't tried it myself. Bob

Hi Daniele, I found a picture of a day planner that had 2 oz. pockets installed in it. The pockets are layered on top of one another and skived at the bottom (out of view) to reduce thickness. They are just glued at the bottom to each other but they are sewn along the side where they are visible. This pocket assembly came out kind of bulky in my opinion, and I would probably try to use something thinner (like a chrome tanned leather or the pigskin with a rolled edge) next time if I make something similar to this. I have carved leather this thin but it is very tricky. It is very easy to cut too deep with the swivel knife and end up punching a hole in the leather with a beveler. The pocket below was cut and beveled as you normally would. However, I tried this again on a different notebook and broke through the leather while beveling. Now I just trace the celtic knot design onto the leather and then bevel it without using a swivel knife. I think that so much of leather's strength is contained in the grain surface of the leather that on these very thin leathers I don't want to actually cut through that surface, so I just bevel or use a modeling spoon. However, if you are just planning on stamping the surface I think you will be OK as long as you have it attached to some sort of backing to prevent stretch. In the pocket picture I have used a pebbled backgrounder across the whole surface. It's a big tool that you have to hit hard, and the leather stood up to it just fine. Hope this helps, Bob

Hello Daniele, I use either pigskin or 2 oz. (.8 mm) vegtan leather for my interior parts. The pigskin is very thin but durable, but it doesn't look as nice as the vegtan. Vegtan is bulkier but I like the burnished edge I can make on the exposed parts. There are also other thin leathers (calf, goat, exotics) that people use but I don't have any experience with them. This is just what I use, others here who make more of these sorts of things probably have other suggestions. Bob