whinewine

neel's saddlery has splitters that handle up to 4" wide material for about $169 & they inclide a strap cutter that also mounts to a bench. I just got one recently but haven't used it yet, but it looks to be of pretty good quality. Other members here have the same one. Neel's Saddlery & Harness 12712 South ave., North Lima, ohio 44452 email: neelre@comcast.net

Gentlemen: thank you! Now I have a clue. I value your opinions & expertise greatly & I thank you again for your input! I still will have many questions, and as I go along I will ask, since this will be the first project of this type for me. Russ

I am in process of buying a new camera (Nikon D40 digital), and, in talking with a store's owner, the topic came up of making a brown (natural??) seat pad for his cycle to match his brown (natural??) tooled seat (which was done in Mexico). The pad he has is black. I don't know what brand he owns & I haven't seen the cycle or the pad. He said it attaches with suction cups (huh?) The reason I'm bringing it up beforehand is that this job would be partial payment for this camera, so I need to know some sort of ballpark $$ figure to quote him when I actually do see the cycle and pad and actually do negotiate the purchase of the camera. I don't want to walk into this as blind as I am now. Does anyone out there have a clue about motorcycle seat pads? Any pictures (preferably)? What would be a fair price to charge for: untooled? stamped? carved? Thank you for all your input in this matter. I don't want to seem like (more of) an idiot when negotiating for a camera. I don't want to rip him off. I don't want to be ripped off myself.

Back in the late '60s, the father of a girl I was dating at the time did leatherwork. He showed me & I was hooked. Later, Tandy opened a store in our town, so I constantly went there to watch other leathercrafters & ask questions. The manager (Barry Yeingst) asked me if I'd like to become his assistant and I tried to absorb as much knowledge as I could while I was there. Eventually I moved on & into half a dozen different (& divergent) careers, but still kept my patterns & tools (even though I didn't touch them again for over 20++ years). After I retired from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, my older son asked me if I would teach him how to carve leather & so we now make renfaire gear on a limited basis. And I still watch other leathercrafters & still ask questions.

Tandy has a freehand stitching groover that has no edge guide, so you can freehand as you wish & chisel out what you want. There are also various sizes of gouges that ordinarily are used to gouge out designs on linoleum printing blocks, & these are generally available at art supply-type stores, perhaps at ac moore or michaels. I hope this helps.

Ok, I tried making swivel knife cuts both without stropping and with stropping. Truly, I felt the difference was so miniscule as to write this off as residue being removed from the surface of the blade. To say that there is a significant difference, one would have to attribute that to the 'placebo effect'. I just didn't notice a great difference, certainly not a significant one, anyway. Sorry.

On a gem machine, yes, especially with diamond, but by hand on a piece of leather, I'd say no. You'd be stropping for a long, long time. I will try it this afternoon myself, to see if I notice any difference.

And I happen to like the ruby blade that I have & I use it for most of my work. I also have a whole group of swivel knives with various steel blades. What I find is that certain leathers carve better with ruby & certain ones carve better with steel, so I'll use the one that works better in the particular leather I'm carving. As far as stropping ruby, that is total fiction. Ruby & sapphire (same gem material & composition, just different colors) are the second-hardest natural substances (diamond is the hardest). To think that powdered rust or aluminum oxide can polish nature's second hardest substance is just an impossibility (think about trying to polish your ruby or sapphire ring with jeweler's rouge- it's not gonna happen). Diamond powder in 25000 or 50000 mesh will polish it, definitely on a motorized gem machine,but rust powder on a piece of leather, done by hand with a few strokes, won't. If it's gotten residue on it, stropping could remove it from the ruby's surface & may make it glide a bit smoother, but it won't polish it. Soap & water would probably work as well.

The eco black by Tandy seems to have a lot less crocking (rub-off) than either the oil dyes or the pro dyes: however, it is a water-based dye, so it MUST be sealed. Personally, I like it better than the oil based or the spirit dyes, IF I need to dye something black. For black, your best bet is to use drum dyed rather than to do it by hand, especially if you get a lot of orders for black items.

If you dye it before, you're going to be 'a wench of many colors' after your shower. The leather WILL accept dyes after wetting (after all, when you tool, you "case", or wet, the leather, probably several times in the process of tooling).

'Crocking' is simply rub-off. There is so much pigment in black dyes that one has to keep buffing (and buffing...and buffing...and...) just to remove enough so that it still looks black but doesn't rub off terribly much anymore & can be (somewhat, anyway) sealed. It's better to use drum-dyed black, for the most part, rather than try to dye it yourself.

If it will show, I'll dye it & seal it as well as possible (such as the underside of a purse strap). The insides of purses I will also dye. It just makes for a much more finished-looking product, IMHO. The backs of belts, no. (Sweat & natural body oils will take care of that). Black is a whole different issue. I try never to use black if at all possible (because of the crocking issue-although the eco black has much less crocking... however, because it's water-based, it presents an entirely different set of problems...)

a metal brush-type scraper normally used to remove rust from tools- any hardware store has them, perhaps under $1 or $2

It's probably the most comprehensive book of its kind that shows the majority (but still not all, certainly) of the tools used in the various leather craft/ leather working fields. It gives pictures & illustrations and the uses for the various tools. It is a great resource for those who see weird tools (often on ebay) & wonder 'what the hell is that & what is it used for?'. It's pricey. Is it worth it? Depends. It's a RESOURCE, a REFERENCE source. It doesn't show leathercrafting techniques; it illustrates various (weird, often) tools and variations of those tools. I just got my copy & I find it worth the money. Others may or may not. Shop around for prices. Google (or use some other web search) 'Dictionary of Leather Working Tools' & you'll see book sellers that have various different prices. Amazon.com had(has) a special offer of $30.00 off on a first purchase is you take their credit card. That's how I got mine. Good luck. russ

If it's a production line-assembly basis, as the Major said, they probably used a carved mold, whereby the leather would be pressed in till dry, then filled in the back before assembly... it may be a single part mold with the leather pressed in by hand or with a modeling spoon, or it may be a two-part mold. It's a bit too time-consuming to do this by hand on a day in, day out basis and keep the perfect dimensions of the fleur.

Thank you. I believe I will purchase a splitter & strap cutter from them. russ

Jim: did you call them? That would be a first step. Their number is 1-888-263-5277. Perhaps they have an old one lying around, but you won't know till you ask. Sometimes companies have too few of an item to list in a catalog, so they don't.

Update: My son came here last night & dyed his sporran eco black- two nice coats (with a dauber) for good even coverage, and left the backs undyed. This morning I sprayed the backs of each piece with spirit mahogany dye, let dry & used a dauber to apply one coat of eco black. While there is just an ever-so-slight brownish cast, the coverage is significantly more even than with the daubered two coats of black that I used on the flesh sides of mine (I also applied a third daubered coat of eco black to the flesh sides of mine to blacken-up the mottled blue, but the pieces with the sprayed spirit dye + 1 coat eco black with a dauber are much more even than even the 3 heavy coats of eco black).

CL, I don't have a clue- I used a woodburning pen with several tips. Take a scrap & try with the laser. Good luck! russ

CL: It is possible. I did a banner (on chrome tanned suede, however) using pyrography on part of it. You just need to take reasonable care so as not to burn through if the leather is very thin. There is another post somewhere here on LW.net on pyrography. On it, I did a post of a picture of dragons using pyrography.

On ebay is listed a leather splitting machine plus strap cutting machine for $169 + $20 shipping. It is being offered by Neel Saddlery under item ebay# 260141628261 (I can't seem to transfer the link via cut & paste, so here are the details). It is a buy it now deal. I've never heard of Neel Saddlery, nor do I know anything about this splitter.It reputedly skives 6" wide, but because the blade is itself 6" wide, I don't believe it & immediately became suspicious... I know the ones based on the Osborne #84 (like Craftool's current model based on it) are 'supposed' to be top notch, but I really don't know. What I am asking is: is this a good machine? a bad deal? a whole lot of trouble trying to keep the adjustments consistent from one split to the next? any & all help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. russ h

Thank you, Clay. I've signed up also. (I have one of his butterfly packs & have never done anything with it. This'll give me some incentive to work on them).

Here are my test results with eco coal black dye: I dyed a test sporran in eco black over the weekend. I used 2 coats, both sides, using a dauber, and I didn't use any blue or dark brown basecoat like you'd have to do first if using spirit dye. Overall, black coverage is pretty good on the grain side (could use a 3rd coat, but still, pretty decent black coverage), but the flesh side seems to really suck up a lot of dye and the color is more blue & mottled than it is a true black, even after 2 coats. There IS some crocking (rub-off), but certainly it's a whole lot less than with using spirit dye. Good buffing removes most of it , and hopefully the rest can be sealed appropriately with neatlac or supershene so that it doesn't crock. Sealing is a must: since it is water-based, even a wet or damp finger will cause the dye to come off on it. I also tried to spray the eco black to see what would happen (even though NOT recommended by Tandy). I used a preval sprayer. It will spray, but it seems that the amount of pigment in it causes the preval to spit globules of black all over the place (not all the time, but throughout the spray test), rather than give a nice, relatively even coverage. Perhaps an adjustable spray gun would give a better, more even coverage than the preval does. If anyone has different (or the same) results, I think others would like to hear about your results. Overall, I'm still pretty well impressed. I just wonder if the black would be as black if one used a dark brown or dark blue basecoat first (either eco or spirit dye) & then applied just one coat of eco black over top???

Beilers does have good prices on many of the items they sell (they also manufacture things too). They are an Amish/Mennonite concern, so they don't take credit cards (checks, money orders, & cash [if you pick up]) & deal with the horse-drawn buggy clientele to a great extent.

If it's going to be relatively stiff leather, you could spray it with saddle-lac (or neat-lac) that's about as waterproof as you can get without applying it by hand (and by rubbing, possibly causing the dyes to run or smudge).