The Grizzly

Thanks! I'm getting better and better. I still need to follow the how-to that's pinned...all I'm using now is gum trag.

Hey guys, just finished this up. One of my repeat customers and a coworker asked if I could make a sheath for a skeleton knife of his friend's. He wanted a boot knife sheath after seeing the one I did for the officer's dagger. As with everything I do, I think I went way farther than I should have considering I told him it was just going to be a plain leather sheath. He didn't give instructions so.... Here it is: 8/9oz veg tanned, 3 layers, full welt on both sides. Also has a 2/3oz veg tanned insert that acts as a spacer and covers the belt clip to prevent scratches. Tooling texture was done with the ball end of my ball peen hammer of all things. I wanted a texture, and searched around the house without finding anything. Then I tried the hammer and loved it! This was my first 2 tone dyed project, got a lot to learn to do these properly! The eyelets are for additional securing either to leg, pack or whatever. Hand stitched with artificial sinew. The sheath isn't symmetrical on both sides for a reason, I tried following the outline of the blade a bit more than just making a universal sheath. Next time, I think I will go symmetrical, should increase versatility with other blades. Still have to apply my finish, beeswax/paraffin/nfo. Then it's ready to go! Thanks for looking!

Thanks for the suggestions! Would you recommend going aerosol or getting a brush on acrylic sealer?

Thanks so much! I gotta keep experimenting till I find out what works for me! Can you recommend any good aerosol acrylics? Someone recommended Deft in another thread, but I didn't know if it was lacquer or acrylic.

Thanks Clay! A drop of another color in the white? Hmmm any idea what color to use for this? Also, another issue I had with spraying my finish...I used a gloss clear lacquer in an aerosol can. I lightly misted on 2-3 coats. When I came to check on it, it seemed that the paint tried to "pull away" from the leather in places...not like it came of, but sort of shrunk...or washed out...or something. It's hard to explain what happened. Could it be that I just didn't allow enough time for the acrylic to dry before finish coating it?

Hello folks. I've been making some coasters and wristbands here lately and painting my designs with acrylics. I've been buying the better grade bottle acrylics from hobby lobby and they give a nice finish. My problem is with coverage....and perhaps I'm doing my painting a little backwards. For example, a black coaster with a white skull and crossbones in the middle: -First I case and tool my leather design to completion. -I dye the entire piece (black in this case). I let the dye dry and buff the surface with a cloth. -Next I start painting my skull and crossbones with white acrylic, straight not thinned at all. I find that I have to apply quite a few coats to get good even coverage where no black shows through. In doing this, the finish winds up being a bit textured/rippled due to heavier concentrations of paint in spots and lighter in others. Should I only dye the parts of the coaster black that should be black, then paint the undyed leather? Would this give me better coverage without so many coats of paint and also allow me to get a more even finish? Would thinning the acrylic down some help with coverage and gaining a smoother finish? What to thin with...just water? Thanks for any help you guys can be!!

Very cool! Would be an awesome accent if the grips were curly maple!

I had a couple of instances where a glued area pulled loose...and I figured out what I did wrong. Just couldn't leave the darned thing alone till the next day! Thanks for the suggestions and I will heed to them in the future! I have a question though (not to hijack the thread)...about how thick does the application of adhesive need to be. Are we looking for a thin coating or thicker? Thanks!

I, too, am very sorry for your loss. I lost my mother in Feb of 2010. As was said, the grief will subside with time. It is truly a tragedy that one of the parts of being human, is that we have to endure the passing of a loved one.

It's not just the edges, anywhere on the sheath would rub dye off. Thanks for finishing ideas too! I still haven't got around to trying a different method...hopefully soon.

On this wrist band I just completed, I noticed that after I was done beveling the edges around the stars that my leather had gotten wavy on the edges from being moved around. How do I remedy this? Should I cut my straps a shade oversize, do my tooling, then reestablish a straight edge, cutting off the wavy parts?

This was made as a gift for a friend. It is my first wrist band and my first attempt at painting leather. The strap is dyed Fiebing's Pro Oil black and set with pyramid studs. The stars are hand cut and beveled, not stamps. Paint is lime green and titanium white acrylic. Finish is clear gloss lacquer in light coats on the top with a little bit of mink oil on the inside. Hope you like it!

Are there different versions of Weldwood, which one should I look for at the store?

Thanks for the replies. I'm thinking those 2 spots may have been where I had the glue a little thicker than I should have. It should not be thick, right? Just a thin coat. It should be shiny and dry to the touch when ready, I remember that from Chuck Burrows' DVD. Once it's dry and ready to stick, if there are any spots that aren't shiny (where the glue might have soaked in a bit) should you just add some more to that spot and let it dry?

Hmmm, the cement I have is the tubes they sell at Hobby Lobby. It's a blue, black and white tube that says: "Original Barge All Purpose Cement" it's the toulene (sp?) formula. Is this not the correct cement to be using? What about using DAP weldwood, I've been hearing people talk of using it with great results.

Weird problem here. Since it's started getting warm here, I decided to do a test on a sheath to see how well this beeswax/paraffin/nfo mix works when the sheath is subjected to heat...in my truck for example. Using a sheath I completed a few weeks ago, I put the sheath in my console and checked on it about a week later. Here's what I've noticed: -Wax mixture stayed in the leather, no problems with that = happy -My glue joint on the edge of the sheath has a couple spots where the glue migrated out through the burnished edge. What would cause this? Imagine a pb&j sandwich that gets squeezed too hard. I'm using the blue tube Barge cement. -The other problem, is that it looks like my welt shrank inward just a hair making my glass smooth edge look weird. I'm confused to the cause of these 2 problems. Could it have been the wax mixture that worked down into the leather causing it? Any ideas would be great!

Thanks for the suggestions. As for block dyeing, I don't think my railroad track will sit below the surface of the surrounding leather enough not to get dye on it.

Thats exactly what I'm talking about, thanks! Also, pertaining to using a resist before antique...what all do you coat with the resist? I'm still very new to all of this and the antiquing process intrigues me.

Sure, trial and error is the easy part! I was hoping that some of the more experienced craftsman could throw out a few pointers and 'keep in minds' to make it a bit simpler.

Perhaps between the 2 of us we can get an answer today

I have a belt order I'm working on, it's my first one. The belt will have a tooled railroad track that goes around it, in the back the track will open to an elipse where the name will be tooled in the center. I did some practicing on the railroad tooling and I'm afraid if I dye the belt all mahogany (the color the customer wants), the tooling will be lost in the darkness of the dye. So here's an idea that I'm thinking about doing. After tooling, I'd like to take the mahogany dye and color everything but the tooled areas (both sides of the track to the edge of the belt and possibly the gravel areas between railroad ties). I'd like to leave the tooling natural and let it darken a bit when I oil and finish the belt. What would be the best way to go about this? Should I paint the dye in with a fine edge artist brush near the tooling and finish it with a dauber/foam brush? Or, should I paint some type of resist on the entire tooled area then dye the belt allowing the resist to block the dye? Other options to consider? Thanks in advance!!

Thanks. Ideally, I would use a proper finish bought from a supplier. But, I need these bands completed kind of quickly and don't have time to wait a week for shipping, so I was trying to find something locally. I'll have to give that M&G a try, thanks for the suggestion!

That was my guess too. I may do some test pieces and alter my mix a bit. Do one with just beeswax and neats-foot, one with just beeswax and paraffin, etc. Any of you guys who have used Montana Pitch Blend or Sno-Seal, did you notice anything similar with dye lifting out?

Really? 50/50 Mop n Glo w/ water eh? Does this get sprayed, dipped, sponged, daubed, or? Should I do a coat of it after dyeing before painting then a final coat over it all?

Yes the dye had stopped coming off before I added my beeswax/paraffin/neats foot oil mix. After adding it, working it in with heat, and finishing with a coat of neutral shoe polish, the dye began to come out on the polishing cloth as I was buffing the polish.