stingray4540

Do you have a sprayer?(paint gun, whatever you call it?) You can get a cheap one at Harbor freight. That is what I use on anything that doesn't need more than one color. Perfectly even everytime. Otherwise I have no advise. That's what my stuff looks like if I use a brush... My only other thought would be to try to use a foam brush of equal or greater width than that strap.

Thanks. Currently I've tried 3 coats and I'm still having a hard time, with the last drying over night. Have you ever used resolene under/over lacquer, or are you just speculating?

Sorry, I've tried searching to no avail, so here I am. Here's my problem. If I use resolene as a resist for Feibings antique, the antique still penetrates and darkens my dye on the raised areas. Because of that, I have to do a lot of buffing to minimize it and end up taking a lot of antique out of the low spots. In my research I found that supposedly the lacquers will resist the antique better, but today I just tried it and the lac lifted my dyes and made them uneven looking. So, my possible solution is to do a light sprayed on coat of Resolene to protect the colors, then brush two coats of lac on top of the resolene to resist the antique. Will the above process work? I really would like to hear from someone about it. The trial and error is getting expensive...

Thanks. That's kind of what I've been able to find, but a lot of times it takes me a few hours to do a piece too small to cover. Or I'm doing knots or a circular design that doesn't really afford the room to cover it. I can't really go by feel, because to me it feels like wetter leather impresses better than properly cased leather, except that it doesn't hold the impression when it dries. I'd like to just get a ballpark so I know that "ok I have 2 hours to get this done, and if I can't I'll recase what's left. Or 6, or whatever, but just some sort of time limit. Oh and Bay Area California, so dry and hot pretty well describes it...

When you case the leather proper, how long do you have to tool it before it's too dry to tool? Found plenty of info on how to case, but nothing on what kind of timeframe I have.

I suppose we could just ask Matani where he got it, lol.

BDAZ, too big for a stamp you would get from Tandy, or most of the stamp makers you or I would have make us a makers stamp. But not too big for a company who pumps out hundreds of these. I may be wrong, as it's hard to see too much detail from my phone, but the whole piece has a very commercial look to it. Looking at it from a high volume standpoint, it would be a fairly simple process to get that look. Stamp it. Base dye it. Antique it. Rub off antique, more vigorously around eagle. Add liner and corner pieces, then run through a sewing machine. Done. Sell for a reasonable price that consumers are willing to pay. Looking at it from a hand carved viewpoint, well it's hard for me to do, because I just can't imagine what tool would be used to make an impressed image like that. It certainly doesn't look like the relief carving typically seen in leatherwork. Assuming there is a tool(s) to accomplish this look by hand, it would be immensely tedious to do all those random dots and lines, not to mention that they are all un-uniform. Easily accomplished in a sketch drawing, but very difficult and tedious for hand carving. And if it was hand carved, the amount of time invested would make it unreasonably expensive. That's why I suspect it was sketched on paper, and a stamp created from the sketch.

IMO, it looks like the bird is a stamp, then some kind of antique was applied to the whole piece, and the center is lighter because they wiped the antique off the bird more vigorously than the rest. I could be wrong, but that's my guess. Doesn't look like any carving was done on that piece.

I tried to do a search but came up empty. What I'm wondering is if anyone knows of a source for ratchet systems for belts. If you google it you'll find 4 or 5 companies making ratchet or slide belts. Basically you have to make a two layer belt. Where the holes would be, you inlay a plastic runner that the ratcheting part of the buckle catches in. 1/4" adjustments, and when you need to shorten the belt you remove the buckle and cut that end. Anyways, I've been wanting to make a less dressy version than those offered commercially, but I have no idea how to find a hardware manufacturer.

FYI: anyone who finds this thread and wants to figure out how to sew a grommet like beetle posted, the key words you need to look up are "blanket stitch" and "dorset buttons." I spent hours trying to find tutorials on how to do hand sewn rope or sail grommets, but found little to nothing.

well the spray coats were pretty light, but the ones applied with the wool, well, the stuff dries pretty quick. I guess that my have been my issue. Perhaps next time I'll use the airbrush only?

Well, I just got back from a tournament this weekend and hooks held up just fine. But I'm Leary of them. Thanks mrdabeetle, I'll have to try That on some scrap! Jake, don't bother with straps and buckles they don't keep the armguard in place, it slides down your wrist. I already tried it. So far the best method I've found, is Shockcord and buttons.

Just finished my latest, and possibly last(for a while) leather project. Sorry for the long post, this is as much for my future reference as it is to let you all know what I did. Archery armguard pattern designed by me to offer more protection while still allowing full articulation of wrist and elbow. Pattern is an adaptation of the Ardre III runestone from Gotland. No pics of the inside, but it's lined with deer skin with snaps to allow for a removeable wool liner/sweat rag. This is only my 4th carving and 2nd dying project, so feel free to offer any critisism. I don't offend easily, so be harsh. My process: > Case > Carve > Cut out pattern > Oil > Glue/stitch liner > Dye > Spray deft lacquer > Wool applied lacquer > Antique (fiebings black paste. Applied with wool, buffed with flat paper towel. Wool buffing pulled out all the antique... It works for other people I guess but not for me.) > 2 spray coats of lacquer (I was afraid of lifting the antique, due to the problems from the first coats) > Wool applied lacquer > Punch eyelet holes > Add a coat of montana pitch blend and buff with wool (actually my own formula, but same 3 ingredients) > Attach eyelets Things I didn't like or would do different: > I need to find black shock cord and a nicer bead... > Make sure dye on figure goes "over the edge" as the antique doesn't always cover the "sides" of the carving. > Next time I will try 2 spray coats, as the wool applied coat lifted some of the red and made the eyes more orange than yellow > First wool applied lacquer step unnevenly darkened the deer liner. I think I would only spray the liner next time. > Lacquer crackled/spiderwebbed when armguard was wrapped around my arm for the first time. > Next time I might try 50/50 resolene/water instead of the lacquer, due to the crackling problem. > 3/16" eyelets are inefficient for attaching lacing hooks. They are barely attached, and I had to replace two of them already. Sorry, for the poor cell phone pics, still waiting for my camera to ship...

Very nice! Did you do the dying, tooling, antique, and finish; before or after forming the sheath?

Ohhhh. So maybe you cut and stitched after dying? I would have never guessed, I usually do all my cutting before dying. Good to know for the future though.

Hmmm. I don't think it would be the groove, but what do I know. I'm at a loss, but I'm pretty new to this too, so you got the blind leading the blind in here 'till someone else chimes in, lol.

What I meant was, if you are unhappy about the finish, why did you bother to stitch it up instead of starting over. But that's neither here nor there. You mentioned contact cement. Did you glue it before you dyed it? Maybe you got some glue on the leather which prevented the dye from penetrating the leather? The picture is kind of dark, but all I can think of is that somehow there was something on the leather, resisting the dye along the edges. But then again, I'm not really experienced enough to think of any other possibilities.

I was thinking it would be cool to have a sticky thread where people post pictures of some of their work after it has seen a year or more of use. I was thinking along the lines of "Finishing steps in your words", but with pictures. Like, "here is a picture of one of my holsters(or knife sheath, belt, bike seat, etc) after being carried for 2 years: (insert pic) I used such and such to finish it, and this was the process and order I used to apply it." In another thread, twin oaks posted a picture of a 4yr old leatherman holster that was resolened. It was very educational to actually see what you can expect your project to look like after an extended period of use. Maybe we could just encourage people to add pics to the "finishing steps in your words" thread? Or maybe the mods can start a sticky thread with a good title and explanation? Maybe I can convince TwinOaks to get the ball rolling?

Did you finish the edges before you dyed? Accidentally getting some kind of finish on the grain side that resisted the dye? No other explanation I can think of. If it was that way before you stitched it, why did you bother with all the stitching? For others, smarter than me, it will help if you tell them the dye used, leather used, how you applied it, etc.

That's great! Maybe we should start a picture thread where people can post any work that is >2yrs old, and list what use its seen, and there finishing process.

Yes we did siscuss that, but I said I'd try it anyway. That was me saying you we're right, lol. Oh I see, I thought it was mostly the carving process that was hard on the leather, didn't think the dyes had as much to do with it. If that's the case though, I think I would apply to the flesh side then.

Florida, I see! I also forgot about compound archers and their plastic veins. Don't see much of us trad guys in the rain, unless we're actually hunting. At any rate, I think any finish that can hold up to being pressed against a sweaty arm should handle most rain just fine. Hopefully someone will chime in on how their finish has held up after a couple years of use in similar conditions. Anyone have any long term use reports on the finish you used on a wallet, holster, or armguard?

Curious as to why you oil after you dye. I'm working on a test piece and I oiled before the dye(Montana pitch blend did not work well...) I waited 24hours, and it returned to almost natural leather color. The dye went on well and was only very slightly darker than on bare leather. And I didn't have to worry about smearing the dyes around or lifting off the color. What is the advantage of oiling after you dye? P.S. I also sprayed the first layer of lacquer, then brushed on the second. Thus avoiding smearing the dye. So far it has come out very well! Now I'm just waiting for my antique paste so I can finish.

Well, my experience with ecofoofoo color fastness has been terrible. Lets hope your experience doesn't match mine! I've only done one armguard that was tooled to date, but it was not dyed, just Montana pitch blend. This is my wife's. I have an untooled guard that is finished similarly. It's been 2years with no retouch of the finish and just late last year on a particularly long hot day, I noticed a spot on hers that had absorbed enough sweat to discolor it. But, being undyed, you can't tell now that it's dry. From my research it seems resolene or lacquer is the finish of choice for products that see similar wear, such as holsters, belts, etc. I'm currently working on a tooled armguard for myself, and this is the finish I plan to use: Carve Lightly oil w/neatsfoot Dye Buff off excess dye Spay on deft brushing lacquer(resolene should work just as well?) Wool/brush on 2nd light lacquer layer Antique paste 2more lacquer coats using spray then brush method. Hand rub on some Montana pitch blend(or any wax finish like sno-seal) this will be reapplied every season or as needed. So far my test piece is coming along nicely! But I have no real world experience to report, sorry. Only time will tell how mine holds up. One thing to consider, archers usually don't spend a lot of time in the rain so I would worry mostly about the sweat. Because of this, I am planning on using a replaceable wool liner on mine, and may consider adding one to my wife's. P.S. pics or GTFO!

I would definitely be interested if anyone ever accomplished this! Dissapointing that 6 years would go by and no one has done it. I would love to be able to create a pattern on the computer, then do all the stamping/carving/coloring on it. This way I can see if my idea in my head actually looks good in practice!