Cyberthrasher

The best one I got was accidental and got covered up with the real color shortly after. The other one I did on purpose came out a little too dark and for times sake I moved on. But, I started with the Royal Blue and thinned it 50/50, which came out with a blueish hued grey. I was attempting to add the black in to get rid of a little bit of the blue tones, but I added too much for the mix. If memory serves me, my next step was going to be something like 25 drops blue, 50 drops alcohol, and about 2 or 3 drops of black. That was going to be to finalize the ratios and then I'd do the math to get some more workable numbers. I need to revisit it to get an actual recipe, but I know it's workable with that kind of process.

Do it and see if it works man. The only thing I'll say is that I only apply the oil to the flesh side if I'm worried about darkening the natural leather, or if I think I might pull up some pigment from my dye and spread it around. Other than that, it's usually best to apply it to the grain side. Remember, this is just "A" process that works. You've just gotta experiment and find what works for you. We can make all the lists in the world and they won't matter because you'll never understand WHY things are in that order. Don't be afraid to fail - that's why they sell scrap bags So, put down the keyboard, grab some scrap leather, and play around with different methods to see what works and what blows up in your face. That way you'll KNOW what each product does in which order.

A note on "Grey" dye - you probably won't get satisfying results with it. Fiebing's pulled it from the shop/lineup because it was crap. I have, however, come up with some cool greys by thinning Fiebing's royal blue and adding a touch of black back into it.

Usually before. Sometimes you may need a little tiny light coat after to help even out some dye, or because the dye has dried out the leather too much.

This is why all the malicious code writers are starting to write code to infect Macintosh computers. Please quit thinking this way!! The only reason they're "bulletproof" is because they weren't profitable to attack until recent years. EVERY COMPUTER IS INFECTABLE!!!!! Now, back to the topic at hand. I ran their site through a bunch of security scans and couldn't find any red flags. I'm at home right now and don't have access to my fancy security tools, but things look pretty good. It's possible that they received notice and fixed it. I haven't checked it from my own computer because I'm not in a clean environment right now.

The second I saw those I realized I had seen you post those in the past!!! The things our brains forget.

I use Resolene all the time on Pro Oil black, on the back of belts that go with business men in khakis - no bleeding.

Yeah, I figure if I'm going to go through the work to round it I'll want it polished too. Maybe if I had an angle grinder to start with, but I don't feel like buying one just for that. Once I have a project I need one for though. For now I know it's not going to scratch up my work.

Yeah, I wish mine was polished and rounded edges. The guy at our shop took me to a pallet and said "like these?". I said "sure" and grabbed the top one and went on my way. They actually pay to have them hauled away. But, it's all rough edges. I just taped some folded up paper towels over the edge to give a nice surface in case I accidentally drag my leather that direction..

You've done it again Nigel!! How many hours do you have into that thing? I'm really trying to pickup my stitching speed, but I don't think I'll meet the level needed to do something like that for quite some time.

That's what i was doing with some other stuff and my acrylic paints. But, I have a gold paint that I really don't want to thin at all and it's $16 for a little tiny bottle, so I don't want a bunch to dry out. But, when this stuff starts to dry up I'll see if I can restore it But, I bought those little disposable dip cups just for the purpose of mixing dyes and paints. Like these - but not at this ridiculous price. They're like $3 or so for a pretty big package. http://www.amazon.co...=pd_sim_sbs_k_1 Oh yeah, and I thought we were talking about pink ACRYLIC, not Dye...Oops yeah, I've never found a good pink dye and don't think I'd ever try mixing one. I pretty much say "any color that's based in white at all will have to be acrylic". Now, if they've got a good pink dye, I'm all for it. I just couldn't find one when I went looking.

If you want to - do it!! But, I'm sure there are some videos out there somewhere. I think everyone should just experiment and find the method that works best for their process

I've been having excellent results with some cheap 3M packing tape from China-Mart. It's really low adhesive so it doesn't leave a bunch of sticky on the flesh side, but still holds the leather in place.

I got a really cool pink pretty easily out of red and white, but I was using Createx Translucent colors. I just bought their primary pack for something else and ended up using it on leather when I was in a pinch. Now I've gotten to the point where I'm used to them. For pallets, I've been experimenting with the little disposable dip cups with lids like you get for take out fast food. They have them at WalMart here. Helps me save paint if I accidentally pour out too much. But, they're not as air tight as I would like so I've been storing them in ziplock snack bags to make them keep a little longer. If they were FULL of paint it wouldn't be a problem, but since we're talking about 4 drops worth, it dries up pretty quick even though its more than enough to do extra projects with.

I just keep sending him my old used ones. I'm pretty sure they're getting thrown out at the border though as a "hazardous" material.

I usually use one of my trusty blue shop paper towels But, sometimes I have a problem where it squeezes out into my tooling because I'm pushing too hard.

I'm not sure if duct tape would be the best. Might absorb moisture or just make a sticky mess. I use clear packing tape. I actually have some 3M stuff from Wal-Mart that SUCKS for it's intended purpose and I would never trust it for mailing a package. But, it's so low on adhesive it works pretty well for backing my designs, as well as securing the back of my lighter weight work so it doesn't deform from tooling. You'd be amazed at how many people aren't familiar with their work before they attempt to put it on leather. It really shows when they put it out there too.

+3 on block dying. it's not actually white in the "tooling", it's just natural leather.

I think Tina was just answering both of your questions at once there. Sounds like she was saying she uses the Angelus Reducer for her colors and then when she finishes her work, she uses the Angelus Acrylic Finish. I just checked the MSDS for the Acrylic Finish and it states the product is water based, so water would be a good choice to thin it. I've never used it, but it's probably "similar" to Resolene, which is one of my primary finishes that I use and I always thin it with water. BUT, Resolene has characteristics that require thinning for a good application. I may have to pick up some Angelus and see how it reacts to my process. I'm always getting new products to test out and see first hand how they perform. As for the dyes, the MSDS looks quite similar to Fiebing's dyes in chemical makeup (I didn't verify amounts), so denatured alcohol would be a good way to reduce it I'd think. For Fiebing's, i actually use plain old Isopropyl alcohol because I'm cheap and get good results with it.

Let's get some detail of the face man!!! Basically what you're going to need to do for those tiny things is drop the knife and beveler and pretty much do straight modeling tools. Because of the size, you don't need the depth of the knife cut since depth is relative to width. From what I can see it looks KILLER though

Simple answer - cased. But, even a little bit of dampness from moistening with a sponge will give you a good enough impression to last throughout your tooling. This is the way we've all been taught to transfer our images and it works. The ONLY reason I back my design with packing tape is because I'm too cheap to buy Tandy's expensive and unnecessary transfer film. I spend $2 on a big pad of tracing paper and just put a piece of packing tape on the back. The packing tape keeps me from poking through, makes it last a lot longer (if I need to use it more than once), and keeps the moisture from distorting it. By doing it this way, the image is transferred by making a LIGHT impression in the leather, which translates to nothing to rub off. Oh yeah, and the "Saral paper" is basically what it sounds like you're using - colored transfer paper that works just like carbon paper.

Isn't that an unnecessary step when considering all the other transfer methods available (and risky if you happen to not get it all off)? On a similar note, I see a lot of people who try to just get the artwork directly on the leather without tracing it out first. Some people even do it in such a way that they NEVER acquaint themselves with the design before cutting it. I want people to think of the tracing (to get it onto the transfer sheet) as ONE MORE step in getting familiar with the design and HOW it should be cut/tooled. Each and every time you go over a piece of artwork, you should be thinking ahead of time about how you will cut and tool it. So, by drawing, tracing, then transferring - you've now acquainted yourself with all the lines 3 times. If you didn't draw it from scratch, you can see where this is even more vital to the successful outcome of the work because you'll only have 2 times to get familiar with it. Now, if you use a carbon copy method (such as Saral paper), then you're only going over the design ONE time before tooling it. Think of all the times you've gotten mad about a piece and redid it to realize that you were better acquainted with the design now and could pull it off better. This is the same exact concept, except you're not wasting any material by ensuring that you're familiar with your work before you ever take knife to leather.

Yeah, I did that once, twice on the same job The worst part is, the second time I was watching myself and trying really hard NOT to do it!!! Plus, it wasn't a small piece of leather either. But, the good news is that it was large enough I could just throw it down to cut up for wallets later. There's never any scrap - it's all usable for SOMETHING - even if it's just practicing your cuts or stitching. Practice materials are never wasted materials.

Just need to tear it down and CLEAN. I love spraying Resolene, but I have a cheap airbrush that's set aside just for that purpose due to how bad it can gunk up. Get your parts diagram, tear it down completely, and just start scrubbing. Here's a pretty good walk through on it. Those little tooth cleaners are pretty cool for airbrush cleaning http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2005/03/stuff_eng_tech_airbrush_cleaning_2.htm