whinewine

I also had a slight bit of a problem with mine. They are a fairly tight fit, so the easiest way I've found is, once you press them into place, turn the punch upside down & place that jaw (and ONLY that jaw, not the whole punch) on a small anvil or small mounted vice & hit it with a mallet to force-fit the anvil into place. russ

While holes could be too large, it could also be that you're using rivets that are too long for the thickness of the leather. If they tend to shift (or roll)from side to side, the rivets are too long. Just a suggestion. russ

I think it was Bick, not Lexol that you are referring to. Many people mix dyes with Bick & the dyes don't migrate all over the place like they normally would. I don't know if the combination would prevent the dye mix from running, since I've only used spirit dyes with Bick, not water-based ecoflos. The spirit/Bick mixes don't seem to run in the presence of water, but I don't have a clue about ecoflo. Get Bick & mix with ecoflo, experiment & then post your results- we'd be interested in the results. Bick can be gotten at Springfield Leather (Kevin Hopkins' business) or Beiler's in Ronks, PA, (among other places, of course). Both listed places have about the best prices. There used to be threads about Bick & dye mix here, but perhaps they may have disappeared in the crash... russ

I don't know why someone would tell you to use gum tragacanth -it's used for burnishing, NOT for a sealant or a top coat. Carnauba cream is (I believe), only water resistant, NOT waterproof. I personally like & use the hi-liters, primarily because of the range of colors available, & I use them on my drinking mugs & pouches. BUT I MAKE SURE TO USE A WATERPROOFER, not something that's merely water RESISTANT. My personal preferences are: neatlac, saddlelac, krylon, (all non-waterbased), water-based acrylics like spray supershene (light coats so the colors don't run). For motorcycle seats, I use Pecards (or sometimes Aussie dressing- just make sure you don't put crap underneath that might block the maximum absorption, like gum trag or carnuaba cream or some such. Just my $0.02 worth for what works for me, and there are certainly other products I haven't used that would work very satisfactorily. (It's unfortunate that so many employees [not just at Tandy, but at many, many other retail businesses] don't have a clue about the products they sell. They don't play with the products they sell, they don't experiment with them, they don't try to see what works & what doesn't, & many simply don't care except to say to themselves "Oh f**k, here comes another customer!" I can go into any Lowes or Home Depot, among others, & ask a simple question that will stump the person at the customer service desk. I walked into a Lowes last week & asked where I could find wood bleach- the person said "what's that?" I said "oxalic acid"- again, I got "what's that?" I walked out & went to Sherman Williams where the girl directed me right to it.) If you want correct information, contact Clay- a Tandy manager - he's on LWnet here (& I think there are a couple of others here who are in the Tandy system, but I can't think of them offhand). I would also recommend calling Jimmy at the Atlanta store- he's one of the old time Tandy guys & he does know his products. Great guy. Knowledgeable guy! Sorry for the rant- it's just that I've also done retail & was expected to learn & to know my product, not just sell, sell, sell (or worse yet, just collect a paycheck by avoiding customers). russ

Superb, marlon! russ

It's always great. Sometimes it's phenominal! russ

You used to be able to buy ink erasers (for ballpoint pen ink) that were in pen form. If you can find ballpoint ink erasers that are small enough you may be able to remove the corrosion without damaging the leather itself. As Johanna said, use neatlac to protect after cleaning (or maybe clear fingernail polish). russ

Yes, gan: the one side is the 'grain side' (the outside- the part that used to have the hair); what is split off is actually the 'flesh' side (next to the parts we eat). As far as the number of splits, it depends upon how thick the grain side will be (in ounces or millimeters) & how thick/thin the splits will be. The grain side is the smooth side, but it could be sanded to give a suede or rough-out texture. Some people do that. The grain side is the strong side- the splits are significantly weaker so they should never be used where strength is needed. You don't want to make a belt or a gunbelt or a holster entirely out of splits.

I would take the whole entire piece back to tandy, tell them: 'lookie here!', show them what is happening when you try to wet it & see what they say & what they will do. This could have been a defect in tanning or could have happened anywhere along the way (crap spilled on it, forklift got 'stuff' on it, bad tanning in a section, junk leather itself- anything...) Take it back! Don't try to correct it yourself- it's probably not your fault. Put it back on tandy- they're generally pretty good about correcting. They don't need dissatisfied customers. russ

Damon: call Springfield Leather. They get scraps of it from time to time & may be able to get you however much you might need.

I just put into snopes 'worldnetdaily' & came up with some interesting tidbits of information: they spout controversial topics often "reported" by fringe bloggers without independent substantiation and/or verification for truth or accuracy... some of it is true, some of it is partially true & partially false, & some of it is totally false. I also Googled WorldNetDaily: among other sources, Wikipedia also notes that they are considered unreliable in the reporting field because they tend NOT TO VERIFY their info: [hello, VERY BAD JOURNALISM, when it comes to truth vs conspiracies, fairies & flat earth...]

Nic: I use it, but I much prefer the spray neatlac, although my supply is dwindling. I think the trick is to spray lightly, but you may try to see if ALL the areas will accept water before you apply the saddlelac. if not you may need to rub with alcohol or deglazer first. In any case, let dry before spraying. russ

A lot of stuff circulating out there is totally false, or urban legend. I always run stuff like this through http://www.snopes.com for verification. So far I have been unable to find anything associating Sen Rockefeller with the Cybersecurity Act of 2009. I have also found nothing at snopes for cybersecurity, cybersecurity act or cybersecurity act of 2009. I had submitted a request for verification to Snopes yesterday about this. So this looks like another nutwing conspiracy bit of garbage put out by the fringe wackos.. Before you jump on the bandwagon, check out the facts. If it can't be verified, IT'S NOT TRUE!!! (Except in the minds of those who believe in conspiracies, fairies & the flat earth). russ

Isn't the natural color of leather a variant of BROWN? To me that's an immediate red flag since he makes it a major demand from the beginning & one he can hang you up on. Even though he says he wants it all black, guess what, under the right type of lighting, a brownish cast could show through... Just on that part alone, I would kindly say 'thank you but no thank you'. I've learned that when things are phrased in a certain way (that would not be normally said), there's a very good chance that something's up. When I was shooting weddings, I was at a particular bride's house for the initial consultation, and out of the blue, the grandmother mentioned "Oh, I see you don't have a written contract..." It struck me as very odd, but I put it out of my mind & did the wedding anyway. Well, I bent over backward to do more to try to please the family, but it was never enough & it was never right: we ended up in small claims court where I recovered my monies and cut my losses. When something doesn't seem right, 99% of the time, it isn't. Run the other way. russ

Y'know, it's even worse if it's NOT anonymous, because you know who perhaps hates you because you simply are who you are through no fault of your own behind your back even though they're so super nice to your face... I'd rather deal with someone on a 'professional level' who deals with you as an individual and as business/hobby person. What their beliefs are are their beliefs & as long as they keep it to themselves & keep it out out of the professional realm, I don't care. But I don't want or care to really deal with someone who makes a deal with me & then makes a big racist/political/religious/moral judgement comment of our transaction in 'an anything goes' forum. My bottom line: treat me as a human being: don't make a deal & then laugh later because I'm not on same 'moral level' as you believe YOU happen to be. If you are this way & you can vent in 'an anything goes' forum about me afterward, well, I don't want to deal with you at all, because you can't keep it between professionals (because then YOU ARE NOT A PROFESSIONAL! fool).

No. This is neither the place nor the venue to spew mindless venom. That's destructive. Troll the internet: there are probably many thousands of sites (both far left leaning and far right leaning) that cater to one's distorted views of reality, and those are the places to go if you want to vomit your hate. You'll be preaching to the choir there, you'll reinforce each others' distorted moral & intellectual superiority there & you won't piss people off like you do here in this very diverse, mixed site. This is LW: a CONSTRUCTIVE place. It should stay that way. Even our 'off topic' area was fun as long as it stayed out of religion & politics & moral judgements, but it's gotten very nasty & divisive & mean spirited. LW is for leather. Lets keep it for leather. Lets truly act like the professionals we would like to believe we are. russ

While I agree this is in an'off topic' area, I truly feel that Religion/Politics/Moral Judgements (R/P/MJ) should not be included in a leather forum. This is about LEATHER and the CRAFT AND ARTISTRY OF LEATHER, not about 'MY OPINION ABOUT... R/P/MJ'. There are enough sites out there that cater to that. Here, 'MY OPINION ABOUT...R/P/MJ' doesn't/shouldn't count: by that same token, 'YOUR OPINION ABOUT...R/P/MJ' shouldn't either. R/P/MJ opinions are like rectums: everyone has one- they don't need another one. There is enough off topic stuff to discuss without getting into this type of nastiness that pisses people off. There were several sites I used to belong to (other stuff, not leather, btw), that ultimately were commandeered by people with very strong political agendas & anyone who would dare disagree with those politics risked being villified. They became political, rather than what they were meant to be, & because they had lost purpose and meaning, I stopped going there. It was no longer fun & it was no longer informative. I would hate to see LW turn into that. russ

Wow: hard question! You could use a running stitch, which I don't think will look very nice in conjunction with, lets say, a double cordovan stitch around the outside, or you could punch a double row of slits & do something like a mexican basketweave on the areas you pointed out & try to transition that on to the edges when you reach that point (I know I'm not making myself clear, but I'm trying- sorry). russ

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Finally some common sense put forth in a MATURE manner. (And y'know, my portfolio & investments are in the toilet also.) But to listen to the nuts on talk radio & then to parrott the buzzwords they utter without ever knowing what the words mean or even knowing if they are real words (WTF is a 'porkulous', for cryin' out loud?): this makes people into mindless, unthinking little trolls, puppets controlled by idealogues on both the left AND the right, just like the bookburners & the anarchists in nazi germany before WWII.

I don't know if it comes in anything other than spray. Most of what I use I spray anyway, and I do use saddlelac, but I still prefer neatlac (spray) over the saddlelac (but it's not bad). I prefer a shiny finish over a satin or dull finish anyway, so if you don't like shiny, you wouldn't like saddlelac, nor would you like neatlac either. russ

no, they just don't listen very well... (deaf by choice,y'know) russ

The Ellis Barnes' tools are excellent tools! In a previous post, I lamented that I would prefer checkered bevelers & checkered pear shaders, but, Oh well- they are still an excellent value, for the price. There are new additions to that line, now, posted at Siegel's. I haven't used the crown tools, so I can't vouch for their quality. russ

Maybe because it would mat down the fibers & defeat the purpose & look of suede? It's also water based, so it could rub off in a damp environment. As an added note, regular spirit dyes are not suitable, nor recommended for suede either, because they stiffen the fibers. Fiebings has a suede dye, I believe. russ

Only thing named is the shop vac: R2D2.

I began leatherwork back in the late '60s as a hobby, worked various jobs & had various careers... was asked to become an assistant for Tandy Leather in my hometown & freelanced my holsters, belts & wallets, wrote & sold articles on a freelance basis, became a professional photographer shooting graduations in action & in the off-season, shot senior class panoramics with a 4 X 5 view camera, became a full-time stringer photographer for a daily newspaper, worked in various social services in diverse facets, & retired from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections in 2005 (plus I did other stuff throughout this time period, but some I don't remember anymore {due to some of this being SO unmemorable} & some I choose NOT to remember {because of it being SO memorable}). After my myocardial infarction (heart attack) , triple bypass & re-opened left carotid artery, I've made a lifestyle change by walking every day, (to the extent my emphysema allows), try to eat healthier, keep off the weight & drink less. Now I do leatherwork, ( http://www.wheredragonstread.com) , deliver flowers ,and my son & I do celtic- & ren-faires together. My son is a web programmer for a startup company manufacturing electronic medical prescription dispensing devices & it is starting to take off. I feel blessed. And I've never had more fun!