Art

Superior vinyl/leather Cleaner, Murphy's Oil Soap, Lexol Cleaner,Simple Green/Water 25/75. I've used them all, not much difference, except maybe price. Try everything and anything on an inconspicuous spot first; you never know what something is constructed with unless you made it yourself. Art

Cool, thanks for that Colt. If you still have the stuff out, put a second coat on the 4:1 halfway up, let it dry a little and put a third coat 1/3 the way up. Art

Don't forget the bottle capability of the siphon. Art

Put it up for sale and see what it is worth. Stop asking us to do your leg work for you. Art

PEC Global airbrushes are reasonably priced but great quality. I have been using them ( I have a few) for a couple of years and they are working well. I also have my older Iwata airbrushes that are in the mix and pretty much interchangeable. I do use a big Iwata compressor, but that shouldn't make much difference. Spraying spirit dye is ok, but you don't get the same penetration as flood (dip) dyeing. Also great for spraying finishes as multiple lite coats are better than one heavy one, and they dry faster. The acrylics clean-up with water, the dyes with alcohol. Chuck Bauman uses the PEC (Veda) airbrushes for flame painting and recommends them. I don't do anything but spray dye and finishes and recommend them as they hold-up well. You can do some really fine line work and outlines and borders on leather with acrylics, but you have to practice some. Ditto fades with dye, but dilute, dilute, dilute. You can always put more on. These airbrushes vs. their cost are impressive. Art

My recommendations are to keep tool cost low to start. There are many ways to skive and bevel, french edgers are one of them. The safety beveler is cheap, easy, and if used on a 45° angle gives a nice clean cut with not much of a learning curve. No sharpening stone or strop necessary. Art

The reason for the "cheap" beveler (skiver) is that when you use it, you can cut on a 45° angle to the direction of the cut, much like you do with a real skiving knife. The super skivers and planes from Japan are built to cut perpendicular to the direction of the cut, which works if the blade is bleedingly sharp, for a while. When you skive on an angle, the blade slices the leather. Art

A good utility knife ($10 more or less) get something that holds the blade firmly. Pack of Irwin Blue Bi-metal blades ($10 more or less) Strop with chrome compound (make it with your utility knife, wood, glue, leather) see tutorials on leatherworker. Tandy Safety Beveler (not the super skiver) and some injector razor blades (again $10 or so). A lot cheaper, easier to learn to use, and easier to sharpen than a head knife. Art

It'll make you feel drunker than cheap booze. Art If you just gotta have one, then someone on here can probably sell you one.

Well then buying it from Lekoza (Matt T) is a no brainer. Art

Uh huh. If you can find Nubuck leather, that uses a sueded grain side, and of course flesh on the flesh side. Art

Hi Scott, I have also received hides struck all the way through, although I have never been able to actually order for that to happen. Essentially, it happens when it happens. With you wanting 11 oz or there abouts, I don't think it will happen that often. If you make belts for shows, you will go through 10 hides worth in one show, so you're going to have to sell at least that many to cover show costs. Harness is always the stiffest stuff around, bridle next. Art

You can use an edge paint that can be heated so that it goes into the leather and holds well, but for most stuff just a good edge paint and not heating is pretty good too. Video here. Giardini makes good paint, they have videos here. You can get samples direct from Giardini on their website. One of our members Matt T carries some of the Giardini edge paints in his Lekoza Store. Art

Please don't use 3-in-one oil. Use mineral oil from the drug store or go to your local sewing shop/JoAnns/Michaels/Hobby Lobby/Moore's/Hancock Fabrics and get Dritz Stainless Machine Oil, it comes in an extend-a-spout container that works great. If you are not familiar with the above stores, wait (not long) for a 50 or 60 percent off sale. Art

Well, on quality belts, I paint the edges anyway. That being said, there are usually about 10 sides to a drum. Leaving the hides in longer will put the dye further into the leather. My experience is that if you run them longer in the drum, they will also have a softer hand, although finishing might be able to correct that a little. Are you ready to shell out $1,600 + shipping or so? Call Wickett & Craig and have them do it for you. By the way, these won't come the next day, they would have to work your request into their production somewhere. Art

Check with the sewing machine dealers, Toledo, Cobra, Keystone, and see what they have. I have just about anything I need, and a lot of it came from The Thread Exchange. They carry Service, Eddington, and A&E, all good threads, Service and Eddington are USA, I don't think A&E are anymore, but they have bought many good factories around the world. About prices being higher, maybe a little, but it IS good thread. Lots of colors too which you won't necessarily find everywhere. Colors stop at 277, white brown black there and bigger. Art

In shoemaking, you can use monofilament fishing line as a kind of needle. Tie the thread to the mono. You can stick a shoemakers awl (kind of curved on the end) and while the awl is still in there, run the mono through, take out the awl and pull the thread through. Art

Peter, Like 25 says, find someone with a patcher. See if you have a guild in your area and ask someone for help. Like said before, anyone here is just going to saddle stitch it, especially with the zipper access. As a second alternative, you could continue the tie-wrap line of binding for a completely unique and durable effect. Art

Really nice work. Make sure that the needle comes up from the bottom at least 3/16 inch. Experiment with more if necessary. What you are trying to accomplish is the hook capturing the thread enough that the rotation won't pull it out. In my experience, you can bring the needle up 1/4 inch or more without problems. Art

I don't saturate anything with oil. I put on enough that it takes up all the oil (it will look and feel dry) in 1-2 hours. If it takes over a day, it is over oiled. Anything that bleeds oil is way over oiled. With the Montana Pitchblend or Pecard's one coat is usually enough and I stop at two coats unless it is really obvious it needs more. Even tack that spends a lot of time outdoors rarely needs oiling again for a year or two, something that lives in the tack room almost never. Art

Use a chisel point (leather needle) in a standard sewing machine. A @14 needle works with V-46 and a #16 or #18 works on V-69. V-69 will be easier to get, but not in many colors. You can get all this stuff from Bob Kovar at Toledo Industrial, and I think you can get V-69 in 1/2 pound spools. Bob has any needle you will ever need. With the smaller thread, you might want to tighten-up the stitches to 8 or maybe 10 spi but test, it really depends on needle size, you don't want to cut the leather (holes too close together). Art

First question, is thread a design component? Ask yourself what you want to see. V-138 will hold 2 pieces of 3 oz together, and so will v-42 or V-69; but they will look different. Run a couple of test stitch lines and see what you like. V-33, V-46, and even V-69 can usually be handled by a conventional sewing machine, especially 6 oz of soft leather. Art

Mink oil is the rendered subcutaneous fat from mink pelt production. Most of it comes from China. NFO is (or used to be) made from hooves of cattle, but today could be rendered from bones or whatever. They both are oils and will work similarly in unfinished leather. They are used to restore and aid the flexibility of dried-out leather. Mink oil is an organic oil which has an unusually high resistance to rancidity, higher I think than any other animal or vegetable oil; this is probably the reason it is used extensively in cosmetics. Finding pure 100% Mink Oil might be a little daunting and possibly quite expensive. Fiebing's has Mink Oil, but if you look at the MSDS, it is greater than 50% light and heavy naphtha type ingredients, better to call it Mink Oil Compound. The amount of actual mink oil is not clear as it is called "animal oil" in the MSDS, and is reported as greater than 0.0%. I guess what we should take from this is, if you like it use it. I just use Montana Pitchblend Leather Oil, which is made from Pine Pitch Sap and Mink Oil, when I need to oil. I have found over the years that you just find what you like and don't worry about it. Art

Somewhere between 1880 and 1910. Obviously hand made, probably by a harness shop on order. Nice to see they can't do brass rivets any better than I can. By 1910, the trade was moving more to factory work and a lot more automation. That is honestly a best guess. Art

I use Liquitex, the medium weight. From what I can tell, there isn't much difference in quality brands; I never have tried Angelus, Fiebing's are ok though. Use the "dry brush" technique, kinda like Bob Ross used to do. Go over it as much as necessary to cover, but small lite coats will stand-up better than thick heavy ones. After you are finished you should cover with something, some (me) use Acrylic Resolene, again thin coats sprayed. I don't do a lot of this, so pay absolutely no attention to anything I said. Art