Vianeth

Double boiler is definately much safer

Instead of having to order a new bottle of leather dye/lacquer stripper (I buy the stuff from Turtle feathers/Angelus). Can I use my bottle of nail polish remover and expect the same results? Anyone try this? Thanks

I've had a couple people ask me if I could make armor (not real armor, just for costumes) out of vegan leather. I'm not sure if there is vegan stuff outside of drapeable garment leather, but I would need something somewhat stiff to attach straps and buckles to. Is there a vegan leather that is similar to vegetable tanned leather, that can by dyed and tooled? It would have to be fake and not come from a cow. I'm not familiar with vegan leather at all!

Here are the tools I ordered today from Barry King Swivel knife 1/2" barrel 3/8" straight thin blade checkered beveler size 2 smooth beveler size Lined, scalloped veiner size 2 Horizontal thumbprint size 2 Lined veiner size 1 mule foot size 0 Bar grounder27, 7holes I'm pretty excited to replace my craftools with better ones, and I'm wondering what you guys suggest I buy for my next patch, which stamps? I'm new to sheridan style so i'm not sure what my priority should be other than a decent beveler. I picked out what seemed like important ones from King's recommended size list for small/medium work! Alicia

So I'm using pro oil dyes and antique paste (the stuff from Fiebings) for my work and I'm still in search of the best finish. If I'm not extra careful, pretty much everything rubs off the antique paste because it's not oil based. I can spray on Saddle Lac but that stuff ends up cracking and peeling off all the layers to expose the dye (I spray 2 coats, as I don't feel like a single thin layer gives it enough water protection). Spraying 50/50 water + acrylic resolene with the preval sprayer doesn't rub off the antique, but gives the work a milky white appearance in dots and puddles and never seems to be applied clear or evenly. I've created a beeswax finish which is 50/50 turpentine and beeswax. Applied as a thick mixture, I use a hairdryer to melt it down to a thin layer over the leather, allow to dry for a day then I buff it in shiny. I love the shine and protection it gives, but it doesn't seem to ever dry, it always feels slightly tacky. Anything I can do to make it dry hard and not tacky? I need the high polish shine and waterproofing, no flat finishes. Thanks

The Turtle Feathers website states Airbrush artists can thin the product with a bit of the Finisher to help achieve optimum flow. I purchased their Acrylic Finisher and the paint is now very diluted and is only flowing when i open and close, periodically, the glass paint bottle attached to the airbrush. The website says to use the Finisher and the back of the paint bottles say to use the neutral paint to thin/dilute or small amounts of water. Maybe i'll keep adding Finisher...

When the airbrush trigger is pushed down, i'm at 20 psi. I can get paint flowing for a couple seconds when i unscrew the glass paint holder, and retighten it again, and paint can flow out the metal tip. I thoroughly cleaned the paint tip with thinner and then rinsed with water and water definately flows out the tip. I'm having trouble keeping a constant flow of paint coming out.

I've got a Badger 250 filled with thinned Angelus leather paint (thinned with acrylic finisher). I've cleaned all the parts, air is flowing, but the paint is not feeding upwards and out of the needle. I've tried airbrushing both paint thinner and water but it's not airbrushing those either.

Looks like dried leather still works quite well. I compared some super cheap Tandy craftsman leather to some higher quality very smooth, flawless leather. The cheaper stuff wrinkles a lot easier. The nicer stuff seems more dense and thus harder to form wrinkles. The cheaper stuff feels lighter and more spongey.

I have a leather item i'm trying to recreate. It's got wrinkled texture on the surface and it's supposed to look worn in. It helps with the antique layering as well. I can do this a little bit for thinner straps by soaking the piece in water until it's well-soaked, and rolling it along my bench until it's wrinkled. This is a bit harder to do with 7oz+ veg tan leather. Any suggestions on how to get this wrinkled look into the leather? I have some pictures of the original item. I've tried rolling wet leather along itself with the heavier weights, but the wrinkles don't form whatsoever. Any suggestions or ideas would be great. Thanks

I need something more stable than the traditional Fiebing's paste when it comes to moisture/water. I've looked online and can't find anything yet. I've tried all sorts of various antique's but they are all water based and not stable enough. Is there any such product? I have a lady over in New Zealand who makes costumes for TV shows and she uses an oil based antique and she can use that as the final layer and water just beads off the product. Thanks, Alicia

Thank you for the recommendation, i'll purchase some on ebay and test!

There are some great books out there on coloring leather, I think one is by Cova Color and one by Al Stohlman. Buy some cheap dye for practicing and as you gain experience and $ buy the Professional Oil Dyes by Fiebing's. Dyes are used to change the color of leather.. makes pretty colors... pretty self explanatory! If you go to Tandy's Leather website they have free videos somewhere at the bottom, just look through them all. You'll also need to buy wool daubers to apply dyes.

A leather expert I have been talking to suggested I use polish, instead of a coating (such as SaddleLac spray) which can crackle. I've used Kiwi Shoe Polish, and I can get a nice little shine out of it, but is there something that "sticks" better that contains wax and is hard to rub off with wear? I make leather armor (costuming) and I color it with acyrlic paints and antique finish and I'm in search of a professional quality polish as a final layer. Any pointers in the right direction would be appreciated! Thanks- Alicia

This is the third armor set that i've finished and i'm patting myself on the back right now! So happy to be finally done and i'm quite pleased with the results. This is a replica version of a costume worn from a fantasy tv show.