Chavez

If you find the dye of the right colour, you can always cut it wih iso-propyl alcohol (if the dye is spirit-based) to make the result lighter. I cut any dye 50/50 by default but can make up to 4/1 alcohol to dye if I want a lighter colour.

I used a lot of modelling spoon to make my carvings look better, but with a bit more experience and better tools this becomes less frequent=)I hope one day I'd be able to tool without the spoon at all, but at the moment its my lifesaver.

Thank you for your reply Spinner, that was really helpful! By the way, I'm a bit into bikes myself (would have been a lot into them if had some spare cash lol), so I know what you mean about showng off=)

I followed someones advice here and mixed beeswax with rosin 70-30. Waxing the thread bacame easier. I usually pull the thread through the wax, then warm it up with a hairdryer to let the wax sink into the thread and then pull it through the wax again. Quite happy with the results, though I'm not sure if heating the thread up makes a big difference...

Hi! I'm actually very interested in this topic. How often do you get cutomers cancelling their orders and what do you do if you've already started the project or if you finished it and they did not like it (e.g. fishing for minor flaws, etc) and don't want it any more. The returns situation gets worse with distant selling regulations, where they can just return it to you within 7 days. As far as I remember DSR don't apply to custom items, but then once again, what if they just don't want the product? Probably easy thing to tackle for someone with good reputation, but it can give the beginners some hard times. I was thinking that once I start trading, I would ask for payment upfront or at least semi-refundable deposits, however this is a tricky area.

Aaron, Just wanted to say thanks for suggesting to buy BKs. They really are worth the price!

Hi! I would guess that postage will be around $40-60 (check Barry's website) and EU import VAT would be around 20% on top of the whole price (incl shipping). In addition to that, Germany might have some extra customs duty (e.g. here in the UK there is an extra 3% charge for exceeding something like £130 if I'm not mistaken. You might have similar taxes). Furthermore, shipping companies tend to charge you extra for processing the tax payment with your local tax office, which adds some £15 (flat rated i believe). Unfortunately, I was not able to find any pro tool makers in the EU, so I don't think there's a way to avoid paying taxes on US imports. PS having said all that, I'd better pay extra money to the taxman than pay for another cheap chinese/taiwanese stamp because, as I have recently discovered, the difference between BK and cheap tools is huge! Good tools are definitely woth the cost, even if at an extra 40%. PPS If you can find somebody to "smuggle" an extra dozen of stamps into the EU, please send me a PM )))

I think this is a great idea, though I'm just a newbie learning to use Stohlman's pattern from his books, so I can't share any =(

Hi from another newbie! Are you actually dyeing the pieces before applying highlighetrs, antiques, etc? I'm using fiebing's dyes and my problem is usually to get the colours light enough because if I use too much dye or too much oil, the leather goes dark in a moment! Do you oil your leather? I've read that neatsfoot oil gives a darker effect than evoo, but I've only used evoo so far and its dark enough for me. Another factor to consider is the quality of your leather. I still have some of my very first low-quality "practice" hide from tandy and any dye looks 10 times worse than the same applied to quality leather.

I believe that oil just darkens the colour of your leather. If you want the leather piece to tan, you need to leave it out in the sun for a few days. I always oil with evoo and it seems to have a significant effect on light shades of saddle tan and light brown dyes, but does not really affect dark dyes.

Wow! What a seat! Love it.

Hi again! I've dyed a couple dozens of leather items and I started getting more or less even colour until I decided to try some dye prep... I wet formed my first knife sheath (still in WIP), brushed some dye prep on it with a wool dauber (this stuff has horrible smell btw) and I got the worst dye job ever. I have never had such an unevenly dyed item, so I'm worndering if this if because of the wet forming or because I did something wrong with the dye prep? Have you had any experience with this product? Thank you for all your answers!

Hi Bob! Thank you for the great tutorial! I've read that someone was using felt bobins to burnish the edges. Does anyone know if I need to put some saddle soap or wax on them first? I've tried burnishing with them and the result was not great =(

Yeah, I already know the CD toothpaste trick, thanks =))) I'll definitely polish the hardware before installing it, but I think brass tends to oxidize very quickly (a few months), so I'm planning ahead =)

Thank you for your replies! I'll give brasso a go then=)

I'll add my 2 cents. I've been using Linux for almost 7 years and I must say that it's user friendliness has improved significantly. 7 years ago you had to be a geek to run any of the *nix but its not the case any more. My mrs migrated to kubuntu 2 years ago and she never shitches windows on unless she absolutely has to. She knows nothing about computers yet she has no problems using linux. Macs are great...for people who don't want to know anything about their computers and are prepared to pay for this priviledge. I'd compare it to buying a car with a chauffeur, so you don't have to drive yourself. Only the chauffeur will tell you what car to get, where to go and what you should wear while you're being driven. I'm not saying its bad. If you are prepared to pay for this service and this service suits your needs and saves you valuable time - go for it. There's no need to read long manuals (Linux) or live with a crappy OS that doesn't work half of the time (that's windows). If you have some spare time on your hands, try linux and see what the world is like if you don't use windows.

Hi! I did a bit of searching and couldn't find any topics about polishing brass hardware. What compound do you use to polish your brass buckles, d-rinds, etc? How do you polish them once they are attached to leather? I've seen some "Brasso" polish in local shops, both in liquid and paste form, so I would be grateful if anyone could advise which one's better (or if brasso's to be avoided). Thank you!

Looks great!

Gimp is good for graphics but I think what you really want for patterns is a vector graphics editor. There's a great open source programme calle inkscape. I use linux and it works really well, but I don't know if its gonna perform well in windows.

Hi! Apologies for so many questions about quality stamps, but can someone please advise me if there are any good quality tooling stamps made/sold in the EU? Shipping from US and British import taxes make prices for american tools rather steep but I don't think there are currently any stamp makers in the UK (please correct me if I'm wrong). Thank you for your help!

Thank you all! I think I'll stick to checkered backgrounders for now and try the bar grounders some time later whet my tooling has improved and I have some spare cash for a set of new tools!

Thanks Terry! Are there any particular reasons to use a bar grounder instead of, say, a checkered background tool?

Hi! I'm starting to come up with a list of stamping tools I need to buy and I was just wondering what do people use bar grounders for? Thank you for your help!

Ouch. Haven't tried letters yet=) I take it the general feeling is that these cutoff flowers do not look good?

Thanks! I thought about just leaves before but then I think it will look too basic and would be better off without any carving. I just can't make a string of leaves look good enough =) Maybe someone would share a pattern that would fit into 14mm?