Cyberthrasher

Dye will ALWAYS be better than paint because it penetrates the leather, whereas paint simply sits on top. That said, there are some good paints out there. For someone who's not used to using color, I would suggest sticking with Angelus Acrylics. It's well formulated for use on leather. Another favorite of mine for when I decide paints are a better option are Createx Airbrush colors (I buy from Coastairbrush, TCP Global, or Amazon). The thing to remember with Acrylic is that you need to apply it as thin as possible, building up your color. If you get it to heavy, it will flake off. Also, you'll want to apply a sealant on top to help protect it. That said though, I would always use a good dye if the colors are available before I use paint. For paints I pretty much stick to anything that's based in white (like pink, grey, white), although I recently found out that Angelus does have a pink dye that seems to work well.

Are you sealing your items first? I think for what you're doing, a good acrylic sealer would be ESPECIALLY important. Any kind of wax is only going to be a temporary barrier to moisture. I've had great results using Resolene and topping it off with Montana Pitch Blend, but I also know Pecard's works well for weather resistance. Not sure how any of that will hold up while working a fire, but it would be my first step.

It can probably be done with an OfficeJet if you get the right paper, but it might jam up your printer as well. Now, here's where I get on my soap box: One of the MOST important aspects of tooling is being familiar with your design. I see a lot of people who want to skip the "tracing" part and jump straight to tooling. While this is fine for the more experienced crafters, in the beginning you really need that extra pass to KNOW your pattern. Tooling leather isn't just tracing lines on leather with a knife. We have to make adjustments to the knife location, as well as depth and angle, on a regular basis. By tracing it onto the paper by hand (the old fashioned way), you're allowing your mind and fingers one more pass at knowing where these various aspects of the design are. Try an exercise: Find a simple basic design - something that you can do relatively quickly (like an hour or so). Now, tool it up. Next - do it again the next day, or even after a little time has passed. compare the two and see how it looks. Did it improve anywhere? Most likely the answer will be yes because you're more familiar with the design at this point. Now do it yet again and compare the results. A lot of this is a combination of muscle memory and studying our work to KNOW what went wrong and what needs to happen differently in various locations of the piece. That's something that can't be done by hitting "Print Now"

This is a common problem with SSL sites. I can vouch for the site and Justin, who runs it. It just looks like the security certificate he purchased for the site has expired in August. I'll see if I can get in touch with him to let him know. Justin is an upstanding guy who's trying really hard to get us all a good site to sell our goods that will also help with opening up new markets. I'll add that I never knew Justin before he originally posted his site here. But, I've had several opportunities to work with him since then.

You'd be a LOT better off with an airbrush instead of a paint gun!! That thing's going to put the dye on WAYYYYYY too heavy. For an airbrush setup, the Harbor Freight 3 Gallon compressor is nice, but stay away from the kit that comes with a red airbrush and small AB compressor included. I haven't taken comparison pictures yet, but their red airbrush is CRAP. Get their blue deluxe airbrush for a few bucks more - or go with a Paasche VL.

As long as the padding is still in good shape. BUT, I would suggest that if it's cheap padding (as many stock seats are) or just worn down, replace it with some closed cell neoprene foam. Most stock seat foam can't handle moisture and will break down pretty quick. The closed cell neoprene will resist water damage and also hold its shape. But, it's possible that he really doesn't want you messing with the foam either since his butt's used to it . Check with him and see if that's something he might want after you open it up and get a diagnosis.

Try to keep it properly cased. I have a feeling that a lot of the effect you're missing when comparing to your own work is simply the optics from looking through the lens of a camera. A lot of times that can play tricks on us. There's some of my work that people think is inverted just because the camera is playing tricks on them. I will say that this looks like it's a B200 beveler if that helps. It really doesn't look like a pear shader to me.

Resolene is a good choice for water/UV resistance, but the Lac products should work well too. Yes, Clear-Lac is the EXACT same product as Neat-Lac made by the exact same company. Neatlac was just specifically branded for Tandy so they could overprice it without people knowing the difference (my theory). Keep in mind that NOTHING will ever be water PROOF - we can only get higher levels of water resistance.

Lots of stuff to address here. First off, antique is traditionally used to lightly color the overall leather and really get into the tooling to highlight it and darken things there. It's basically designed for what you were discovering in the instructions you mentioned. Now, what you're trying to do with "darkening" the leather should be accomplished with dye and not antique. Antique/stain/highlight is not a dye. Antique will always have those results on leather without a resist underneath, which is meant to keep the leather from getting colored by the antique. Get yourself some fiebings dye and get a good solid color. Now, for an oil color, you can either over-oil to get a rich color (be sure to dab off the oil from your rag and apply in several light coats), or do a couple light coats and put it in the sun to color. Don't worry about not using Tandy - they are crap when it comes to leather and many of their supplies. They're the Walmart of leather. They've done a lot of good for the craft as a whole, but lately they're doing a lot more disservice then anything else.

it's just the result of the beveling. It gives the illusion that the leather is pushed up, when in all actuality it's the same level as the rest of the leather.

There was a large problem with Hostgator and several other hosting companies yesterday. In all reality, many of these hosting companies are actually sub-leasing storage/hardware from larger companies such as Rackspace and Amazon. I haven't heard an exact answer from any of my contacts, but my assumption is that there was a larger issue that effected several of them at once. I know that wasn't the case with use since the site wasn't reachable by IP address either. The DNS was resolving, but layer 3 wasn't working at my location.

Get a hold of Springfield Leather Company and let them know what you're doing. They'll be able to get you just enough for what you need. For a wallet, I would suggest a nice light pigskin. I use the mission grain they have quite a bit, but there is other lighter stuff out there as well. For a belt, you might want to go a little heavier. I've been having good luck with their "soft veg-tan" for this purpose, but the mission grain pig will do well here too.

I've never had it happen from this end, but I have been on the other end of it. From my understanding, once you file the complaint Paypal pulls the money and holds it while they go through the process. That's how I remember it anyway. This would be a good reason to ENSURE that you have a written document and be able to prove that the customer has seen it.

When I can't get my dremel burnisher in there, I use either my bone folder, a sharpie, or a thinner marks-alot dry erase marker. basically anything that's smooth plastic.

I'm assuming that the picture of the offending collar was provided to Nicole to show her that "I have other leather collars that don't do that!", and this is likely what they had for that black collar - black latigo or something. I'm pretty sure they're used to having a water resistant leather and assumed they could just treat Veg tan the same way. I'd say 6/7 is probably a little light for a puller, but it shouldn't do that unless it was belly or was subjected to water followed by immediate stretching. I have a cheap horrible piece of 7/8 I used for my dogs emergency collar. He pulls like crazy and it's held up perfect.

I'd guarantee it. My preferred method is to use a lightly dampened sponge and use very light to NO pressure when applying it. Just make sure you don't leave any bubbles behind. There will always be a little bit of a foam trail, but try to get as much of that cleared up as possible too. USUALLY those little teeny tiny foam bubbles will settle down. It's the real bubbles you have to worry about because they will harden in bubble form. Run some test pieces to get yourself acquainted with it. The other method that I use when I'm worried about lifting dye and spreading it around to other colors is to use an airbrush for my first coat. That's not an option for everybody though. The key thing is light pressure, and make sure you've buffed your dye well ahead of time so there's not as much pigment to lift up. I also keep a pre-mixed bottle of 50/50 sitting there and I poor off a little bit into another little jar to load my sponge. That way I'm not mixing pigments I happen to pick up into the entire batch.

You're putting it on too thick. ALWAYS apply Resolene 50/50 with water and apply in multiple LIGHT coats. Otherwise it will cure up like a plastic coating. It's something they should really put on the bottle!!!

Nobody has addressed the real issue here! Here's what shows me the exact culprit for you: "I'm making sure to overlap the tool a bit over the previous impression and doing my best to strike with the same force each time" Walking a beveler is NOT hit-lift-place-hit-lift-place like with a normal stamping tool. You will get choppy results EVERY time. Walking a beveler should be more like a jackhammer using your index finger as a shock absorber. Suspend the beveler ever so slightly above your line and TAP it quickly and repeatedly. The spring action from your finger will make it raise back up out of the cut as you're moving it along the line. This should really sound like "taptaptaptaptaptaptaptap" and not "Tap......Tap.......Tap.......Tap". I struggled with it myself at first because nobody had ever seemed to explain the difference to me. Once I got to see a professional beveling their work on video it instantly hit and I fully understood.

Sometimes you can fix it if you clean it up immediately....... Whenever you apply finish over your antique, use light pressure and make sure you're not using an applicator that will go down into the tooling to pull the antique out. Also, make sure you're letting your antique dry long enough. Give it some time to cure and harden up a little bit so it doesn't pull out as easily.

I'm a pretty big fan of these ones. It seals well (put some vaseline on the threads) and your brush is never over gunked up. http://springfieldleather.com/16721/Jar%2CPlastic%2CCement%2C32oz/

Fiebing's Pro Oil yellow, thinned down, will be yellow if your leather is white enough. If you don't thin it, you'll get a light tan color. The problem you're going to face is that yellow is such a light color it's more susceptible to the color of the leather to begin with. Some of the more russet colored leathers are going to have a harder time becoming yellow. That said, I've only had a couple of pieces of leather that were dark enough to be an issue.

Have you seen tutorials on wet molding a pouch? Basically just like that. Form the gusset around something so that the portions that need to be stitched are held in shape after it's formed.

The easiest way to do that will be to wet form it in the shape that you need and get the sides flattened out. Other than that, the other option would be to glue them in place first so they're not trying to spring back on you while you stitch. But, wet molded will look a lot better. It also looks like maybe you're trying to stitch too far in. The distance from the edge should be about equivalent to the thickness of the two pieces combined (within reason).

For inside curves you'll want to use a hole punch and then finish it off with an X-acto/craft knife. For outside curves, just cut off straight pieces bit by bit until it's curved.