drphil

I am curious about their two black colors. Jet black and special black. Anyone know the difference? Thanks!

Hi all, I have finished my education at Iowa State University and found a new job. I am moving to Mississippi at the end of July and am interested to know what the leather scene is like down there. Local stores, guilds etc. I will be in Brandon which is 10 miles from Jackson. I am hoping there are some leather shops nearby. Any info about leatherworking in Mississippi would be great. I was able to find a couple of places on the internet that say Tandy used to have a store in Pearl, but it is not listed on their website. Maybe they have closed up shop in Pearl.

I am having a similar situation. I am wondering how to store the leather rolls in a shed outback of my house as well. I am going to be in mississippi where it gets hot and humid. Is there a safe way to keep the leather work in the shed (since there is not much room for it in the house - no basements or storage rooms down in MS and the wife wont let me use the kitchen table). So I am concerned about the leather rolls being exposed to the heat mostly, but I think mold and mildew is also a concern. or would you all recommend just not doing it? Anyone have experience with that type of setup? Thanks for any help!

Hey Jason, If I were to do it over again, I think the first "big" tool purchase I would get is a leatherwranglers swivel knife. It has honestly made the biggest difference in the quality of my work and in the enjoyability of leatherworking. You dont have to strop them every four cuts. They are truly worth the money. So, if you are to only get one thing, go for a leatherwranglers sk-3 swivel knife. After that, I would go with a quality tapered maul (18 or 20 oz). Happy shopping!

Looking good! What do you line these with? And where can I get some?

That is a nice looking belt. I have always liked the look of the clean white stitches against dark colored leather. Never been good enough at stitching to actually try it. Congrats! Stitching by hand is a chore, but yours look really nice! I am from IA as well. I'm in Ames and visit the Des Moines Tandy often. Welcome to LW.net the greatest leather working resource on the net.

Hey everyone, I just spotted a set of 12 Barry king tools on ebay. Thought I would share. http://www.ebay.com/itm/250916026221 Looks like they have only a day left, but might be a chance to get a "free" tool or two.

Well, I know you are looking for a more innovative idea than this, but have you considered this type of buckle set? They do have a special name, but I have forgotten it. Essentially they have a decorative piece that attaches in the middle of the belt. So you can take two smaller strips and make a full size belt. I am not sure how durable it would be, but I assume it would work. I haven't used one but always thought they looked useful. SLC carries a few different styles too! Good luck!

Hey all, I have recently started working on figure carving. I have acquired a number of stamping tools, mostly new from Tandy. The figure bevelers work fine and such, but I am having real difficulty with more speciality tools. For instance the F916 and the F926 just don't stamp right. F916 should work to make grass and such, but mostly instead of producing lines it nearly matts the leather with small line indentions. I know that this is due to the fact that these are crappy tools. So, my real question is, where can I get some decent figure carving tools? From my research here at LW.net I can only find reference to Robert Beard's figure tools. I DONT have that kind of money to spend. So I am wondering if there are any cheaper decent figure tools? Is my best option to try and get some old craftool figure stamps from e-bay (which probably means I will have to spend big $$ and then have to sell off duplicates)? Are there no median priced figure tool makers? I can find a couple of craftools from proleathercarvers.com but not nearly all the ones I need. Anyone have some they want to part with? Thanks for any help.

Hey Andreas, Welcome to LW.net This is simply one of the best places to find help on all things leather. I don't have any advise in regards to your cement question. I can offer some advise on your other questions. The antique gel and fiebings antique finish (a shoe polish, paste, type of antique) is used to provide an "antique" look on your leather projects. The antiquing gets down into the tooling impressions and cuts and makes them darker than the rest of the piece. Since antiques are used mostly for this they are applied after dyeing and applying a resist. Here is what I typically do. Tool the leather, then oil it with olive oil. The next day I will select what color I want the piece to be (typically brown) and I will dye the piece brown using my air brush. The air brush is not a necessity but gives a much more even coat of dye than doing it any other way (except dip dying). Now, the leather is brown and when it is dry completely I will then apply some resolene or clear lac. The clear lac serves to seal the project so that the antiquing only gets down into the tool marks and cuts. So, I can have a nice light brown project with the tooling marks and cuts much darker. That really makes the tooling and cuts stand out nicely. After I apply the antiquing (and I know it is dry) I add the final finish. Typically that is some more clear lac over the project. Then I give it a nice buff with a soft cloth to get some shine and I am done. I realize I provided you with a lot more info about the process so feel free to ask about details if you have any questions. Lastly, the black antique is nice for when the project also has black accents. For instance, if I were to dye the background black and keep the flowers etc. in a brown color. As long as the resist (clear lac, resolene etc.) is applied before the antique the antique will only get into the tooling marks and cuts. This is the typical use for that product. -Philip P.S. If you are thinking of dying something black check out the vinegaroon process. It is much more consistent and easy than using a black dye.

Hey Chavez, Here is a link to a similar topic which should provide you with some more information. Click Here http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=28552

Well, I have had similar experiences. Not as bad as yours has been. I ordered a few books and patterns from them and received them the next day!! It was from their place in St. Louis to my place near Des Moines, but still I was amazed at the fast shipping. However, my second order was no so fast . . . I will come back to that. The books and patterns arrived in good condition, but in a used box . . . ok fair enough I guess. I placed my order through email and had a good experience. The patterns were much cheaper than other sources and were clean with no creases etc. After that, I decided to go out on a limb and order some more from them. I ordered some craftools, dyes, and a hide. I received a small used box with the craftools and dyes no prob after a week and a few days. The craftools were just thrown in the box clanging around in the bottom when I got it. I later found a small ziplock bad they used to be in inside the box. Guess they slid out? The hide is another story. had to wait over 3 weeks to get it and when it did show up it had dark marks over half of it (similar to the grease marks on jimbob's Im sure). The entire hide had nick marks, holes, scars, unusual coloring and an unusual smell over all. What a disappointment it was. I will probably not order another tooling hide from them! The hide came rolled up wrapped in a sheet of poster board wrapped in packing paper. No box. I also ordered some kidskin lining leather that they never sent shipped billed etc. so no loss to me I suppose. This hide was just received on Tuesday oct. 11th. I inquired as to why it was taking so long and was told that they had to wait to get one of my books in stock. Then I was told the hide had the wrong address on it . . . turns out it had the CORRECT address on it. I just assume they forgot to ship it and put it in the mail after I inquired the first time. Of course things that like I will never TRULY know. Bottom line, they do have good prices on books and patterns as well as tools and dyes. Those items are probably safe to get from them as they cannot get that messed up. I had no torn pages etc. But do not order tooling leather from that place. I was kicking myself for not spending an extra $40 to get a W&C hide. I do know of a few people that love their lining leathers and have good things to say about them, but I dont have any experience with that side of their business. If I order from them again, and that is a big IF, it will be to get stuff that I know cannot get harmed, that is cheap (compared to other stores), and that I know is not a rip off reproduction of something quality that I really wanted.

Here is the page from Al Stohlman's "Coloring Leather" p. 19. Thought this might help. Since it is for educational purposes only, and is just a small section I think it is probably ok to post. It is interesting to note that in other sections of this book and the Figure Carving Finesse book he uses other colors to their fullest and then dry brushes other colors on top. So you can do moon light and the such. He does a few horses with a lighter or darker color and then dry brushes another color on top. Looks pretty cool and give nice life to the texture.

Hey Skye, If your cuts are small enough you might try Stohlman's "dry" brushing technique. You can find more in his "Figure Carving Finesse" and in his "Coloring Leather" I think those are the two that show it. Maybe it was the "How to Color Leather" book? I will have to check when I get time. Anyway this technique is good for putting the dye on the "top" of the fur on animals and really any textured surface if fine enough. So you can have a hair effect that shows natural leather underneath and the color of the hair on top. It is basically taking a brush full of dye and then using it till most of the dye is out and then using the remaining on the figure to color the "top" of the figure. It makes really good effects for different animals and such. I am not sure it would work on larger spots though, like an inverted carving. For inverted work I would think you would have to use the resisting technique. Oh, I also wanted to add that Super Sheen would probably not work like an antique where you can wipe the excess off. I would not try it. It will be applied anywhere it is wiped. Not sure if you could use something like a deglazer and clean it off the raised surface later on leaving the Sheen behind in the crevasses

That's the bargrounder. It is a type of background tool that creates little bumps. Those bumps form the background texture. Bargrounders come in many many different sizes. You can get tools with various numbers of circles and various sizes of the circles. Check out Barry King's bargrounders here: http://www.barrykingtools.com/page5.htm From what I have been able to gather over the years, the bargrounder is mostly used in Sheridan Style floral carving. Nearly all the top Sheridan Style carvers use the bargrounder almost exclusively. It takes awhile to learn to use it correctly too. Other than the bargrounder another background tool commonly used is the A104 and A104-2 Those give a nice matted style background. Other than those two there is also what is called a rose backgrounder. It basically makes little flowers as the background. It is relatively uncommon though. I have seen it used in some of Stohlman's work and is mostly a western style backgrounder. Anyway, that is probably way more info than you wanted but I hope it helped!

I'm glad to hear the production quality is high. That really does seem to make a difference when watching and learning. How long are the videos? I can't find much info about them on the site. Thanks for your help.

Hey David, I dont know if you are aware of Tandy's new "Leathercraft Library" www.leathercraftlibrary.com They have put a number of their older patterns and such on that site including nearly all the old doodle pages. You can find the particular one you are looking for here: http://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/p-993-blue-jay-realistic-carving-by-charles-heschke-series-9d-page-3.aspx Of course you will not get the actual paper in your hands, you will get a .pdf computer file. All the same information will still be there of course. Hope that helps out! If you are actually wanting an original paper copy post a reply and let us know.

Speaking of meeting a few customers, is your shop in MN open to visitors? I visit Rochester MN nearly once every other month or so and would love to stop by sometime. I have been admiring your knives for sometime, good work! -Philip

As I have mentioned before, do not put too much stock in what the MSDS says. The MSDSs are designed to inform people about any, all, potential, possible, might happen, might never happen effects of chemicals. While it is true that oxalic acid is more reactive and worse for your health than other compounds used to clean leather. it should not be looked at as worse for your health than other chemicals without much more experience with the compound itself. What I am saying is that it depends more on what you are reacting with, what concentration you are using, and how safe you are working with the chemical (proper protective equipment etc.). As far as oxalic acid behing hazardous, I would say yes. Is lemon juice hazardous? Yes in the right situation. Take a look at the MSDS for table salt. Hazardous? You bet! Check it out: "Precautions: Keep locked up.. Do not ingest. Do not breathe dust. Avoid contact with eyes. Wear suitable protective clothing. If ingested, seek medical advice immediately and show the container or the label. Keep away from incompatibles such as oxidizing agents, acids" Now consider the MSDS for some of the primary ingredients of lemon juice that are good for cleaning leather. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and citiric acid. Let me know if those scare you a little. Check out acetic acid from the vinegar. How about phosphoric acid in Coke. One should not think of a chemical as being hazardous just because they don't recognize it easily. Many people get the idea that just because something does not occur naturally that it is especially hazardous. This is no more true than the reverse. As I mentioned in previous posts, snake venom is a naturally occurring product, that doesn't make it safe for me. On another note, oxalic acid does occur naturally and in products you might eat. Take Rhubarb and spinach for example. The thing is, the oxalic acid is not as concentrated there as the crystals you might buy. Of course you should making a dilute solution with those crystals anyhow when cleaning your leather. The overarching conclusion is to use chemicals (anything made of atoms) carefully and safely. Consult the MSDS, consult a chemist, consult anyone with experience and follow their reasoning. Better safe than sorry. Do not dismiss something as being more hazardous/less hazardous just because of your preference for "organic" or common products. I am using the term "organic" here in the common consumer sense which is almost completely at odds with the chemical definition of organic. I would venture to guess that there are many more hazardous chemicals that are in your house that kids and pets could get into as well. Be safe and use common sense. I would probably use vinegar to clean my leather as well, although I have no experience with cleaning leather. Anyone have any experience using other acids? Perhaps hydrochloric, or acetylsalicylic acid. I am inclined to think that dissolving a couple of aspirin tablets (mostly acetylsalicylic acid) in water might yield good results. I am very curious to know what the results are. And, while we are speaking "chemically" here it should be noted that water will not neutralize the vinegar it will only dilute it. Not that it is that too important. :-) I assume you would still have a little vinegar smell like 'rooned leather?

Hey Mat, I don't have any experience with knife sheaths. I am not sure if it would damage your steel. I have used a few snaps and other metal pieces in conjunction with 'rooned leather. I have found that snaps will rust and sometimes discolor after having been on the 'rooned leather after a few days. I would think that if you 'rooned it, applied the baking soda wash, let dray for a day or so, oil it, let it dry for a day or so that you would be good to go. When I saw the discoloration it was after doing all the steps in one day. Now the real question is, what would happen if the leather gets wet later and the knife is still in there? Would any acid still be there to leach out and destroy the knife? It is doubtful that the baking soda would neutralize ALL the acid. I suppose I would use a liner of some sort just as a precaution in those cases. Just a few thoughts. . .

Hey all, I have a number of sheridan patterns I am willing to trade for other floral or sheridan patterns. I am looking to expand my pattern collection and can make a swap for some nice patterns. I am willing to trade for almost any type of pattern/e-book. Send me a PM and we can discuss more. Thanks!

I have a few different sheridan style patterns I would like to trade for other leathercraft patterns or e-books. Any offer welcome. Send me a message if you are interested in making a trade.

Hey FB, Check out Springfield Leather here: Springfield Leather Manufacturing Shop I know they state on there that they can make shapes in bulk. Give them a call, I bet they can make what you need.