Cyberthrasher

Doesn't really matter. They're pretty close in abrasiveness. I have some bad phone pictures of my process that I'll try to get uploaded to show.

I used to do that with some lint free rags. Then I got to a point at one time where it let me down and wasn't applying as evenly as it should. That's when I started just using the sponge religiously instead. Never failed me before, but that one time where I almost had to start from scratch on the entire order really made me say "not worth it". It was one of those times that was probably a fluke and I was in a hurry not doing something like normal, but I just can't help but say to myself "well, if it happened once it can happen again. Guess I better change."

Man, I've never made a SINGLE item without something on it that drives me nuts. You just have to see it, study it, find out what went wrong, and study your butt off to solve the problem and learn from it.

Sounds like you got it. Once the line's made, just use that modeling tool to even things out and try getting a flat surface from the line to the edge - smoothing out the mistakes that are closer to the edge than your baseline. I'm having you use water here because you're making the line and smoothing out some other stuff. That will make it toolable for you. Normally I don't really use any water when I burnish my edges - just bar saddle soap rubbed in. I have a groove worn into the bar that fits most of my leather perfect right now. That's most likely what happened here - too much moisture and it just caved. You can use the denim to polish things up pretty nicely. Just rub it fast and hot. I have one piece loaded with beeswax to wax my edge up and then a dry piece that I used to really polish them. Most of my burnishing is done with a cocobolo dremel burnisher, but there's not reason not to be able to get the same results by hand - just takes more time. Did you get the foam brush wet? Try a plain sponge and see if it's any different. I know those foam brushes can really suck up some material. It may be holding too much and squeezing it out on you. If you get it wet first, it won't suck up as much, and that will help to make sure your not applying too thick. I get 10 packs of sponges from the dollar store and cut them up into 6 - 8 pieces each and use those for wetting things down and applying Resolene. I'll have to test sometime to see if the sponge holds any differently than those foam brushes. Doubt I'll be able to see in time to help you on this though.

So, for the streaks, you'll need to either lighten up your pressure or make SURE it's cut 50/50 with water. Perhaps you need just a little more water in it. Nothing you can really do to get rid of the ones that are there, but it's possible that the next coat will even some of that out and hide it. Did you pick up a bone folder at all? If not, they have them at Joanne's, and most likely Micheal's. You can try to use that to clean up some of these spots. But, first we have to take care of that line. It's pretty good in spots, so we're going to have to make it look like you meant to do it the best we can Find the line that's the furthest from the edge on the entire strap - we'll use that as a baseline to try to make it look right. If you have some wing dividers, set them at that width. If not, find something you can use to make that line the same distance from the edge all around. Hopefully MOST of it will be pretty close to that point and you can maneuver the leather some and do some rubbing to make it look like it was meant to be. The stuff that's closer to the edge will need to be rubbed out the best you can - preferably with the bone folder or a modeling tool. It looks like they're all pretty close by viewing pictures 1 and 3. Just get that top edge damp and take your time trying to get your line as straight as possible to make it a border. Not sure what you're using to mark your design, but you can even use a stylus if you have to to get that thing going. Once we get that happy little line and it looks like it was done on purpose, I want to see you get that bone folder going and use it to slick up the edges on the spots that are sticking up. Think of it as a touch up burnisher. The far left side of picture 3 actually looks pretty good with maybe just a little roughness on the back edge that can be touched up this way. Let's use that as a baseline.

I'm mobile right now. Got a link to your page to make it easy?

Just go ahead and post them then let me know that they're there. I'm off work in about a half hour and I gotta run to the store, but I'll check back in once I get home. We'll make sure we get you going one way or another.

Using the edger makes it easier for ANY METHOD!! (to address your additional question) Get some pictures up of this indentation and we'll get it fixed. It's possible, from the sounds of it, that we might be able to turn it into a bead line For right now, let's just stop and make sure we're all on the same page before we move forward.

Yep. Bearmauls are REALLY nice, but Barry King are pretty sweet too

me too - but that's going to take some work being on the West coast. Just search "edger" to see a bunch more. There are also some videos on how to do it on Tandy's website. The size isn't standard though. Right now I'm liking a size 2 for some reason (at least size 2 in the one I have with that number on it). You may want even a 3 or a 4. Sounds like you may have a Tandy nearby, so they should have some. http://springfieldleather.com/15093/Edge-Beveler%2CCraftool%2C%232/ Is your burnisher countoured or flat?

Just looked at your progress pictures finally (CJ Allan is a good brother of mine by the way ) Did you use an edger at all to knock of the corner of the edges? Looks like you haven't posted any more progress in a couple days.

Ok, so you'll want to sand that bit down a little bit to make it a little rounder. Start with your 400 grit. You might try some really light moisture while you're sanding. Sometimes it makes a difference. That will allow your burnisher to make better contact all around the curve of the edge.

Look at it this way. There's a certain "custom" maker that makes laptop bags targeted toward mac users. I'm not going to name names because I have nothing good to say. THEIR WORK IS GARBAGE!!!!! But, due to marketing they've managed to get people to believe that it's top of the line leather work. I had someone local that I know come to me and say "Man, I was so excited when I finally bought this bag and this is what it looks like. I thought they were supposed to be like the best man." - All because they managed to get an advertisement in Mac World and setup a website and purchased other web adds. I then did some research to figure out who they were and found all kinds of stuff that made my jaw DROP in disgust - including pictures of their young kids doing some of the work on customer bags (not always a bad thing, but in the context it was). So, keep at it and you can make it. Just gotta build up enough funds to promote things.

Sleek, smooth, no roughness. There's no room for close enough - that's what gets most people into trouble. Since you're doing double layer, the ideal sign of complete would be no sign that it's two layers. BUT, that can be pretty difficult sometimes. The main thing is to make sure it's super smooth and polished.

In a nutshell - Yep!!

The two brands I've had the best luck with are Golden Fluid (Fluid is a type that Golden offers), as well as Createx. I started using Createx when it was all I had from some other work. Someone recommended Golden products to me as well, so I gave them a shot. Angelus makes a line of leather acrylics that are formulated for leather and do a really good job.

Ok, so you won't have to smooth anything out - that's good. I think I recall you saying that before now. So, just apply the resolene like you are on front. I would finish one side completely, then move to the other side. Just to help you not panic about the time involved - I normally get my first coat on during my lunch break. Then when I get home I'll put the next coat on. Then I go eat dinner and maybe catch up on some online work for a little while and after a couple hours go put another coat on. If I feel it needs one more, then I put it on just before bed and come back in the morning. So, all that waiting isn't such a big deal if you just work out a routine and you're not just sitting there waiting for it. When dying and trying to leave the back natural, you need to make sure your edges are well burnished. Once you burnish the edge (and it's done well) and then dye, the burnishing will have compacted the fibers enough to not allow it to bleed onto the back. I usually apply my edge dye with a sponge brush. Just rub it along the edge and it covers JUST the edge without bleeding past it. Also, make sure your work space is clean and you don't get dye anywhere else while you're dying the front - that way you don't accidentally get some dye on the back from an unexpected source.

Ok. No worries, we'll just have to take some extra care. Is the flesh on the back pretty smooth, or is it stringy or suede like? You'll want to make sure that's nice and smooth first. This part may take care of some of the dye too. If it's not smooth and it has some flesh hanging, I like to sand it up with my 400, possibly 220 depending on how bad it is. Get it good and smooth with very few fibers sticking up. Like I said, this may eliminate the dye all together. If all the dyes gone, move on with the next section but don't add resolene. We want the part contacting the dogs skin to be as natural as possible "just in case" (others may vary on their opinion here) Once you're happy with how smooth that is, we're going to slick it kind of like we did our edges. Get a sponge wet and work in small sections (4 - 6 inches long) and wet the flesh side down. IMMEDIATELY get your bone folder (or something similar) and start briskly rubbing back and forth with pressure. We're trying to partly burnish and force those fibers down nice and smooth. The key here is to build up heat while pressing down. Get it GOOD and smooth at this point. You may feel a little roughness when you're done, but it will still be considered a nice smooth back. NOW you can go ahead and apply a few coats of resolene to the flesh.

This is a dog collar right? Leave the back alone. You'll want to put some finish on the edges though since they'll be exposed. The back will be in direct contact with the dog. But, if you've dyed the back, you're going to need to put something on there to keep the dog from turning black. Let me know if that's the case and I'll walk you through my process for super sealing the back. I don't worry about buffing so much after Resolene - the leather is already sealed and there's nothing to really buff off. BUT, if I put on a wax conditioner after the Resolene, I buff that up to make it shine.

Yes, Resolene is glossy after it dries. BUT, cutting it cuts down on that some. It should build back up with a high gloss with the multiple coats though. ok, just caught all your other posts. COMPLETELY finish your items before punching any holes or attaching hardware. That means you MUST be finished with the resolene on top. Let it cure for AT LEAST a couple hours. Flashing off is one thing, ready for another coat is another. It's an acrylic and it will continue to harden up. If you apply another coat too soon, you'll actually just smear around and remove your previous coat - it makes a mess.

Most of what I use is the B grade Hermann Oak from Springfield while I'm building up other supplies. I'm about to start getting some A grade from another dealer though. I have no problems with the B grade, but sometimes there's a bad spot in the middle that kills my strap output and the A wet molds a lot better. If it were a huge difference in price I wouldn't worry about it, but for the $0.20 more or so per foot it's worth it to me. Oh yeah, and I print out the digital stuff when I need it. That allows me to get a hard copy of the exercises and patterns, without using up paper/ink on words that I can just read from my computer.

Once the resolene is cured (let your last coat sit 4 - 6 hours) there shouldn't me much to buff. You'll want to POLISH your edge at the end. Not really reburnishing it. Just rubbing it down briskly with a piece of denim or canvas. I wouldn't worry about applying your Aussie to the edge, but it may do the trick.

For a strap, I just do about a 6 inch section at a time and rub on one straight pass real quick then lighten up the pressure to spread that application around. Kind of circular I guess. I would do at least 2 - 3 coats with a couple hours in between. As long as it's super thin coats, you could even get up to about 5 before it's getting to thick. In time you'll figure that out exactly. For now I would stick to 3 light coats tops until you have more experience with how much is too much. Remember - TEST PIECE first

ALWAYSALWAYSALWAYS cut Resolene 50/50 with water and apply in LIGHT coats. I can't stress that enough. I've had people come back and say "Well, I thought I'd just try it like the bottle says anyway. I guess I should have listened to you." On a single color item, I like to apply it with a lightly moistened sponge (get sponge wet and wring it out to the point of no drips). Then use LIGHT pressure when rubbing it on and be sure to get rid of any and all bubbles and streaks. You'll have some lines of foamy looking bubbles, most of those will be ok but try to keep them to a minimum. If you're doing multi colored stuff, you have to be really careful with that technique because the first coat will lift and move around some dye pigment. You can do it, just super light pressure and be very careful. I prefer spraying it with an airbrush if I'm doing anything like this so there's no chance of moving around dye to an adjoining color. Go ahead and put all the wax finish you want on top of the Resolene. Just remember, since Resolene is an acrylic sealer - if it's something with oils in it that will need to condition the leather, you'll need to let it sit for a while. If it's just wax, apply it and buff it and get on to the next project. Do you have Microsoft Office? If so, you can use the built in picture manager to compress your pictures quite easily.

Yeah, Isopropyl will work well for finger oils. If it's really heavy, you could try Denatured Alcohol - but use it with caution because it can seriously dry out the leather if you use too much (alcohol sucks up moisture and evaporates it). For sanding your edges - if you're going for a flat edge, use a block. If you're going for a rounded edge, use your fingers and cup the paper.