Cyberthrasher

Personally, I'd save your money and NOT buy the one in the wooden box. There are plenty of badgers available without the wood box. The one directly above the one you're looking at has the spare bottle, just no hose. Buy an airbrush hose and save the wooden box for someone who wants to display their brush and not use it. I don't know anything about the compressor you chose. I just use a small 3 gallon shop compressor. Make sure it has a regulator and at least install an inline moisture trap.

If your flesh side is "Fleshy", you need to smooth it and slick it. Get rid of all the fuzzies and get yourself a nice smooth surface. If you're leaving the flesh side natural, this will give it a much better appearance. If you're dying it, this will allow it to take the dye better. The entire list is a composite of information found on the forum. Most of it is pretty easy to find with a little reading.

If it's really soaked in, you're stuck with it. Try applying some neatsfoot oil to even it out some. This will darken if applied heavily, so go super easy and super light. Chances are there's not much you'll be able to do.

I'd agree with Dwight, if it's not cleaning, then it's not transferring and there's not much else to be done. NOW, you might want to look at why it transferred onto the bag to begin with.

to be a little more objective, normally I would say it depends on what grade you ordered. If I order C, craftsman, budget, mystery, or whatever you want to call it, I may just say "screw it, that's the chance I took". BUT, unless you're doing something that could incorporate that design then it's completely unusable, so that's reason enough regardless because there's no way you could expect anything like that when purchasing cheaper grades.

Yep!! I like Barge contact cement. It's spendy, but works really well. There are other brands. Let me find a video on it real quick and I'll get back Here you go. Look through all their other videos too and subscribe for when they post new ones.

If you glue it up well you can save the actual stitching for the end. Just make sure your pieces are assembled and not going anywhere when you edge/burnish them. This is one of those things where you may decide to mix up the order a little bit. Maybe you'll want to dye the main project, then dye the edges separately. Also, when gluing two pieces together, you'll want to sand up the edge regardless to clean off any glue runout.

Oh yeah, and you don't need much of a "workshop" to practice and get a feel for this stuff. Save that for when you're doing the actual work, but for practicing, just grab a few things and go. When you're there, tool up a bunch of scrap and take it out the door with you. From there you can work off your kitchen table. My workshop started as a simple desk that I had with no granite on it and a small cardboard box to hold my tools. Now I at least have some granite to go with my cardboard

Looks pretty good. There will be adjustments that you'll want to make as time goes by. This is just what I've come down to in my process. One thing to note, if stitching, you'll want to get that done BEFORE you do your edging so you can burnish both edges together (and also be sure to only bevel the outer edge of each piece). All in all it's a good list and will save you from "wasting" time. I would start by getting some scrap, tooling it (since that's a process all its own) and then start figuring out how to finish it all up once you're ready for that stage. Doesn't have to be anything you plan on sending out, and it doesn't have to really BE anything. Just grab a funky shaped piece of leather that's not good for anything and tool it up, then practice dying and edging and all that stuff to figure out each step and SEE for yourself what works and doesn't. I'm really glad you've taken the time to research though. That's the first step to putting out killer work. Steps 2 and 3 - DO IT and LOOK AT IT

Well, first off, you haven't said WHAT you're making. Some products may be better suited for different things. As far as how long to leave it in the bag - I've had pieces bagged in the fridge for months with no issues. Just pull it out and get back to work as if you hadn't even put it away. I'm adding more notes below for clarity. A lot of your "Overnight" stuff can actually just be several hours. The main one you'll want to watch out for is dye (especially if you've gotten it on a little heavy) and oil. If you're antiquing, you'll want to let your final resist coat before antique cure for quite a while too. There may be a few things out of order here. BUT my main bit of advice is to not stress the details so much at this point. Don't get me wrong, you need to be detailed in your work when you're selling it. But you also need to just jump in and experiment and play. We all learned this stuff through trial and error. You have a good list to bypass some of our error, but you still have to try it out for yourself and see what works best for your methods and work process. Don't be afraid of using scraps, that's what they're for

Those things come and go. I'm fighting a creative block on a strap right now. It's mostly designed, but there's one element that I just can't get to flow right. It's driving me nuts because it's the type of design I've always been really good at!!

http://leatherburnishers.com They're well made by a member here and they're the last dremel burnisher you'll ever need. Get a couple different sizes and you're good to go.

Yeah, I worked on one 2up seat and it's still sitting there because all those curves gave me issues. Granted, my leather was too thick for it, but it was still enough to make me cringe at the thought of doing more.

I hate you - in a good way Spent a while looking at your tobacco pouches and harp cases the other day too. Makes me want to start ordering up some different upholstery leathers and get to work on some stuff in my head.

Just an FYI - they average about $60 - $70 at most online stores, sometimes cheaper. $120 is the MSRP.

yeah, it wouldn't sound like it's too far off depending on the weight. For reference, I get all my veg-tan from Springfield. My last order had a side of 5/6 oz and a few bits of hardware and shipping was about $12. With 7/8 oz it's usually about 18 - 20 with UPS. So, I'd say you're relatively within range in comparison.

never ordered from there, but how much did you purchase? I usually estimate about $20 per side when I'm ordering Veg-Tan. Not sure how much Horween's leather weighs.

Let it sit for a couple days and see if it mellows out. The dye will naturally lighten as it's absorbed into the leather.

Just try it all out on your test piece and experiment. Gotta get a handle on what works and what doesn't. If you do something that doesn't look good, now you'll know that that doesn't work. So, get some samples, take some pictures, compare them, decide what you like and don't like. Then we can help you decide how you might adjust your tooling based on the samples.

Awesome!! I had never tried it myself, but I had high hopes since it came from some pretty well known experts.

16 oz is a good preferable weight for most tooling. Any less and you're hitting harder than you need to, which causes more noise. Along the same lines, there's less mass in the mallet/maul to absorb the noise. Holding a granite slab on your knee may be quiter, but it won't produce good tooling. Find a solid surface to put it on and get some more mass underneath the granite if you have to.

You'll probably want to go with an antique of some sort to settle into the tooling and bring the lines out.

I would tool the flag then paint it. If you don't want to tool, get a 5H pencil and lightly draw it on

If you haven't tried anything yet, you can possibly dab on some pure lemon juice and let it evaporate - NO RUBBING. That's a trick that some old-timers used to remove "metal" stains from leather. It's not a guarantee, but from what I hear it's about the best you'll get. My guess is that your hands weren't clean. One problem I have a lot is that I tend to clench my tools pretty hard in tight spots and get some metallic rub off on my fingers. If I'm not paying attention, the second I touch the cased leather I get that same mark. Once I started noticing that happen a lot, I made sure I ALWAYS wash my hands with dish soap before I start a customer project. Then it's just a matter of making sure I'm not getting the transfer on my hands from clenching too tight.