dai malbrook

Reading back over it, i guess my question was a bit ambiguous. Basically i want to dye some geometric patterns (like the picture below) in the center of a piece of leather. I need the edges of the blue and red regions to be sharp. But my tests on scraps have been unable to get a straight line at the edge of the shapes. The dye keeps bleeding out making the edges are blurry. I tried using tape to mask out the region. I'm not sure it was painters tape - i don't know if that matters. I'll try wiping most of the dye off and see if that helps.

I'm finally getting around to a project i've been planning and i need to dye some areas that have straight edges. I've tried a few test pieces and i can never seem to get a straight line. The colour keeps bleeding, making the line uneven. Is there a trick to getting straight lines when using dyes?

Hi Joe, I've been thinking of trying to make something similar. It's probably a bit beyond my skill right now, so i can't really help you with leather choice. But i'm curious, were you planning to include some form of padding to protect the laptop? And if so, what are you going to use?

That's a neat idea, i can't wait to try it. I'm pretty sure some form of enamel paint would give you a result closer to what you expect. It looks like the acrylic just got sucked into the water and dried in the shape of the drop rather than just being on one side. It still looks good, especially with the shadow effect from the overspray. I could swear that there is actually somethin sitting onto of leather. It just looks a bit more like round salt than water.

That looks really great. Out of curiosity, what are the D rings at the bottom for?

Thanks, I guess i'll just get the 'Encyclopedia' then. -DM

I've been looking at getting a book on leather braiding and i've heard good things about Bruce Grant's books: "Encyclopedia of Rawhide and Leather Braiding" and "Leather Braiding" Can anyone tell me if the smaller "Leather Braiding" book has anything that isn't in the Encyclopedia one? In other words if i'm planning to get the Encyclopedia, is there any reason to get the other as well?

For aesthetic reasons, i want glue two pieces of leather that i would otherwise sew together. I've seen a couple different glues mentioned and I'm trying to find out if any of them will give me a semi-flexible bond that will hold two pieces of latigo. I seem to recall reading that barges doesn't work well on latigo. Is that true, and if so is there an alternative? And how durable can i expect the connection to be? For a belt made with two pieces glued instead of stitched, should i expect the glued edges started to come loose from normal use and is there a way i can avoid that? Finally, are there any tricks to getting a better bond when gluing leather? Thanks for any help. -D.M.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I live in Ames; about 30 miles north of Des Moines.

Hi, i'm new to the forum and wanted say hello here. I've just started working with leather in the last month or two and i've really liked it so far. Unfortunately, i don't actually know anyone else in the local area who does leatherwork. So hopefully people will be patient with me if i ask stupid newbie questions. I've been really impressed with the work posted here, and i hope someday i'll be able to make stuff that approaches the quality that i've seen in the pictures here. Bye for now, -D.M.