Cyberthrasher

Sorry about that. Got sidetracked and completely forgot about this. Block dying will give a near perfect coverage because it's a limited amount of dye going on the leather at any one time. That's the main problem with brushes and daubers - there's just too much going on at once and you get all those lines and blotches (which can be a cool effect if you MEAN to do it ). Even just using a rag without a "block" will do awesome work. I do that a lot if I just have big area with the same color. I prefer the oil dye, but the regular alcohol isn't too much different. I use Fiebing's Pro Oil for the majority of my work, but there are better color selections in the regular dye, so as I need those I get it in that version. So far all I've really needed from that line is blue.

He sends instructions on how to break it in. Its not really a big deal. Its more that it won't sharpen as well as it can for the first few times. Just grab a handful of dull blades and go at it before you use the one that counts. You can mess up a water stone by carving it out, but a diamond stone will take some serious abuse to ruin it. Since you're new to sharpening, I'd suggest studying as many YouTube videos as you can find of professionalssharpening. Pauls videos are among the best though.

I prefer to give things a light coat of oil - nowhere near soaking it. If you're using it to soften the leather, you're actually going to help speed any rot because it's going to over saturate (hence the softness). I also find that it helps to even out some dyes as well when applied lightly. But.... if I have a piece with some aspects left natural, or even parts that are drastically different in dyed color, I always apply it to the flesh side and let it soak in that way. Otherwise, the oil can darken my natural stuff too much, or the act of oiling can lift pigment and spread it around into other areas - even after rigorous buffing. Then there are other "cheap" pieces that I oil because the leather is pretty dried out, just enough to put some of the life back into it since it's either been sitting too long, or it was just a poor tanning job (sometimes you just gotta have some leather and therefore cheap is all you can afford).

Another way to clarify that is to look at how it came off the cow. "Lengthwise" means from head to tail. So, that's the direction you'll want to cut in order to keep the grain moving in the right direction. Depending on how your shoulder was cut, you might be able to see the head/neck portion there to orient it. Now, a lot of people do the opposite when using double-shoulders in order to get the most length out of their cuts, but the grain will stop it from bending and folding the way it really should when utilizing it for straps. That's why I pretty much just buy sides so I have all the length with the grain flowing in the right direction. Since you're just working with a single shoulder, you don't have a whole lot of length to worry about anyway, so I would try to get it oriented head to tail and cut it in that direction regardless of the physical length of the piece.

8000 is what I have - got it from Leatherwranglers. You can get them other places, but they're the same price and I'd rather support Paul. If the knife is super bad and needs to be shaped, it may need something else first. That's where I might pick up another cheap oil stone. But, once you get it the right shape, the 8000 diamond will keep you going beautifully. You van try the diamond first and see how it goes. It may be all you need.

You obviously don't have the stones for this, but it could work with some more effort by using the sand paper. Since you're working with leather, I must advise you to a good quality stone NOW. The Japanese water stones are great and I've used one for years. I was recently turned onto the diamond stones mentioned in the videos here. They're spendy, but SERIOUSLY worth it!!! Either way, this will show you how to sharpen the knife using whatever tool you can round up. http://www.leatherwranglers.com/tips.html

I don't do any of this yet, but the few people I've talked to and the research I've done seems to lean toward the 30% range. Think about consignment as the store just buying more products to retail without the risk of loss. What's a reasonable markup for the store to make money? So, I would take whatever rate you would normally set and drop it by 30%, then ask yourself if you can live with that. It's a price to pay in order to "guarantee" work/sales when you take a wholesale/retail point of view on it.

Just holler

Mineral Spirits and Denatured Alcohol are two COMPLETELY different products. Take a look here http://news.thefinishingstore.com/?p=357

Definitely!! I actually hate using daubers because I can never get a consistent coverage. I usually try to airbrush everything if it's going to be multiple colors. If it's single color, I like to just block dye and get it over with. Block dying is when you wrap a rag around a block of something and put dye on, then rub it over the length of your project. It won't get into the tooling that way, so if you need to color that too, just wrap a rag around your hand and press harder to get it into the tooling. But, I haven't played with using wool scraps for dying either. I hear that's a good way to go as well. Just remember that the dye, or any other penetrating product, will continue to absorb into the leather over the next couple days after application. So, with a normal application I like to wait at least over night and come back to it the next evening after work. If I get it on heavy, I'll wait a little longer to see if it evens out before I do anything else to it.

Also, how long has it been since you applied it? I might wait at least a day or two to see if it happens to lighten up a little as it settles into the leather. On your test piece, did you apply it EXACTLY the same way you applied on the real thing. I'll run into that a lot when I'm testing a new color mix. I'll brush it onto a test piece in blotches to tryout the color. But, when I spray it on or apply heavily with a rag or something, it's always a LOT darker. For some reason I never remember that and fail to plan for the difference in color between testing and actual application .

I think the Neatlac is probably your main issue. Lacquer products are really strong and have a tendency to reactivate lots of different products.

Do you have a leather strop that you've made? Just edge it like you would any other piece of leather and rub the compound in. It will be the exact shape of your edger.

Hand stitching (done properly) will ALWAYS be stronger than a machine stitch. Not saying machine stitches are always weak, but they just don't lock the way a saddle stitch does.

As with all products, there will be differences between manufacturers and their intended market. Look at cars. A car is a car is a car "could" be a valid statement if all you're doing is going from A to B. But if you're hauling a semi-load of product or racing on the drag strip, then that's obviously not a true statement. The same would go for acrylics. If all you wanna do is get color on something and you're not too concerned with how it will hold up or apply, then by all means "acrylic is acrylic is acrylic". Now, if you want something that applies nice and cleanly and will hold up to use, then it's better to do the research. LOTS of people recommend Angelus Leather Acrylics and I probably wouldn't hesitate to use them. They are formulated for what we do - applying color to LEATHER specifically and they are made to hold up to flexing and use. There are also other brands of non-leather acrylics that have been recommended to me by member's here who get a lot of use out of their products. I'm trying out Golden Fluid Acrylics right now for their metallic colors - so far I'm extremely impressed. I was also told to check out Citadel paints for other colors. They're spendy though and I don't think I can afford to test them out just yet.

If I'm understanding your question right, it sounds like you have a really fleshy piece of leather (the flesh side is the underside). A lot of lower quality leathers get really stringy on the flesh. I grab my sharp knife and shave off as much of the big stuff as possible, then sand it down a bit by hand with some 220 grit or so. From there I wet it down with a sponge, grab my bone folder, and rub vigorously until it's nice and smooth. From there you can seal it with your topcoat if you desire. I have no experience with horse equipment though, so I'm not sure if that's something you'd want to do.

I'm even cheaper and use plain old Isopropyl. Less expensive and leaves less fumes (doesn't bother me, but my wife suffers from migraines already).

I don't know. That's a hard one. I stand by my work and will gladly refund the money if I did something wrong. But, this sounds like a case where you had to admit fault just to spare your name. Now thy guy basically got his belt shortened for free. The bad part is that it probably didn't spare your name. I might have offered to have her send it back and I'll stitch the piece back on I guess the question is, was $15 worth the bad publicity from her while keeping him happy. Bottom line is that you didn't do anything wrong and have several emails to back it up.

There's a big talk we were having down in the "PC Help" section at the bottom of the forum called "ERP Software". Most of them I'm looking at are overkill for what I need. But, I've been using GNUCash as a good starting point for accounting and expenses. It's basically a free open source version of Quick Books. I'm still looking for something that will help me better manage customer data and inventory, but GNUCash does have a customer tracking feature as well. I just haven't played with it that much.

I use a couple heavy coats. Basically cover it heavy, then when you to the end of the part your masking, go slop some more on. Doesn't need to be pretty, just glob it on. I ran into the same thing my first time experimenting, so I learned real quick how much wasn't enough

Wink, please take a look at Hidepounder's tutorial on edge finishing. The saddles soap is used as a lubricant and slicking agent. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=18101

They are related. Actually, Bruce Johnson would be able to tell you for sure since he deals with a lot of vintage tools. Here's a brief rundown from his site http://brucejohnsonleather.com/content/index.php/leather_tools_for_sale/leather-tool-maker-history/

I think that duster came out the perfect length man. Not too long to feel like it's in the way, but still long enough to do its job.

Though I don't do holsters (Hey, other topics interest me too ), I pretty much did the same. I did a LOT of market research and found that comparable items with equal quality were selling for a certain price range. Eventually I found that a straight hourly rate was pretty accurate at getting that market price and still pays for material. I do mostly guitar straps @ $20 per hour. With the cost of material, I usually come out at about $18.50 per hour. That hourly rate matches MY speed right now. As I get faster in my work, my hourly rate goes up as the time to completion goes down, keeping the price the same. One thing that really drives me nuts is crafters who under sell their work just to be able to sell stuff, which you'll see a lot of doing your own market research.

Sounds right to me I just wanted to make sure I was on the same page.