Chavez

Update: Ordered myself an adjustable wood plane to experiment with. At 1/60th of a price of a proper splitter its definitely worth a try =)

So jealous. I'm still just using a spare table in the flat =( Congrats!

If anyone's wondering, I really enjoyed the magazine and I would highly recommend subscribing to it.

Hi! Its been almost a year since I've made myself my moleskine cover and after a year of carrying it in my pocket it really needed a clean. Se here's what I did: - Washed the cover with saddle soap & water. 2 good washes have stripped the old finish (carnauba) and the foam lifted up a lot of dirt from leather. - Rinsed to get rid of remaining foam (cover was soaking wet even before rinsing) - Let it dry - Oiled lightly with mink oil - Applied 2 layers of carnauba creme. The result was not very good: the leather has darkened (I guess mainly because of oil), deformed slightly and completely lost its shine (even with carnauba finish on it). What is the proper way to clean leather items to try and maintain a good look? And what conditioners/finishes do you use? I've heard that leather items would last decades if treated properly. Thank you! P.S since the cover was almost ruined, I've decided to try "Lord Sheraton Leather balm" conditioner that I bought in a local tesco (couldn't resist the temptation of trying a new conditioner, even though it looks like a general-purpose clean-your-sofa sort of stuff). I mush say that I was really impressed with the results: no idea what they put into this balm (the box only claims that it includes a blend of oils & waxes) and why it has a strong chemical smell to it, but it brought back some of the old shine and even added to the cover's water resistance!

You can also try and stretch it: if you can cut a piece off it and bend and stretch it with your fingers as hard as you can, vinyl will stretch into a grainless plastic film (a lot like a regular plastic bag) while leather will stay leather. I had a mobile phone pouch and I was sure it was leather. Found out that it was vinyl only when I took it apart (to build myself a leather one) =). Also, it depends on how you define leather. Many things are made from splits that have been covered with some chemical and stamped to smooth one of its sides to look like grain (can't remember how its called =) ). Although this is genuine leather, its quality is usually crap, especially if it is used. And last but not least, when buying used leather you will most likely get chrome-tanned upholstery/garment leather, not the veg-tanned stuff.

Yeah, I was thinking about it too. Would any wood plane owners be so kind to give it a try and let us know if straps can be split this way? =) I believe that 2in is the common width of plane blades and that would be enough for me for a start. At least if it can keep me going for half a year I'll invest into a proper splitter =)

hmm. Also an interesting solution: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Craft-Sha-Leathercraft-Safety-Skife-Knife-Flat-Leather-Skiver-Plane-/110913244569?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d2f1cd99 Though it seems really narrow as I need to skive straps up to 2inches wide. Has anyone used these?

Thank you for the feedback!

Thanks Itch! I think these bad boys start from £500 and I will only able to fork this much cash out in about a year's time, given that I don't buy a Tippman Boss stitcher any time soon (still not sure if I need one at this stage). I usually try to get the best tools I can afford (and it always pays off!) but got to stick to my budget. To be honest, even £150 is pushing the budget a bit (just didn't think I will need a splitter so soon). Is the cheap one OK, or am I really better off trying to find a good used one on ebay?

Hi! I sometimes need to thin leather straps, and so far I have tried using a pairing knife and, following someone's advice here, a safety beveller for splitting/skiving. Both work fine on small areas but they are useless if I need to split a long strap =( I haven't tried using a safety skiver yet but I guess I wont get any consistent results with it. I am therefore looking to get myself a splitting machine. Ideally I would like to keep it under £200 and the little splitter here: http://leprevo.co.uk/photos/splitting-machine.htm looks like a good solution for a good price. Has anyone used these splitters and how good are they? Are there better solutions for splitting straps out there? I understand that since they don't have a handle, you can't adjust splitting thickness on the go, but at the moment I'll be quite happy if I can split a fixed thickness, as long as it works and the thickness is consistent =) Thank you for the advice!

I remember reading in one of the stohlman books that you need at least 3 applications of dye if applying with a dauber. First layer only covers the surface, second penetrates the grain, third goes into flesh. Make sure you dilute the dye with lots of isopropyl (50/50 at least) and you apply a lot of dye (i.e. don't let your dauber dry up) I usually coat each piece in the following way: 1 layer top-to-bottom; 1 layer left-to-right; 1 layer diagonally. Same pattern with oiling the piece after the dye dries. This will give you a very nice dye pattern - it won't be as even as if you dip dye it but it will look more natural (imho).

Hi all! After disappearing from the forum and a break from leathercrafting (was waaay too busy =( ) I'm finally ready to post my first thread into the "Show off" section! 8) This is my second wallet and here's why I am so proud of it: 1) I'm happy with the dye job! 2) My edges are (imho) almost perfect! Definitely a huge improvement compared to my old ones, thanks to the motorised burnisher. 3) I'm happy with my stitching. Still a couple rough stitches on the inside where i had to double stitch 4) Natural looking water repelling finish. 5) No asymmetrical cuts. Special thanks to Katsass for his critique of my previous items and to reddevil76 for coin purse pattern! And thanks to everyone else for all your support! PS had no time to assemble my new photobox but will try to take a few pics with it next time.

Hi. Is it a black belt by any chance? =) Take some saddle soap and give it a good clean. Just soap up a wet sponge and rub the belt and you will see how the foam lifts up excess dye. Once its clean, any finish should do. I don't have that much experience with leather yet, but the saddle soap wash and a lot of buffing after every stage (dye - buff - oil - buff - clean with saddlesoap - buff - oil - buff - finish - buff) leaves practically no dye bleed. That's quite labour intensive but it worked for me (even with black dye). I wear a black (fiebing's pro oil) belt with white shirts to work and i get zero ruboff, even though its just finished with mink oil & carnauba, not even bag kote or acrylic stuff. Made a black belt for the mrs following the same technique and had no complaints so far. I'd still recommend using an acrylic sealer for the edges though. And if you expect excessive exposure to moisture, seal with bag kote or in extreme cases - resolene. PS Aussie lifts up a bit of dye and then the coloured wax bleeds the dye when you rub it off. As a rule of thumb, the stronger the sealer, the less crocking you get. Resolene seals it dead, but I just cannot get consistent results with it. Bag kote seems like a better sealer and I believe it doesn't seal your leather completely, letting it breathe. Aussie is alright, but it needs to be reapplied regularly and it darkens the leather a lot.

Thanks Sylvia, I'm sure I've seen this one before actually=) Quite a weird choice of finishes and he doesn't cover popular stuff like bag kote, but I've picked up a lot of info from it a few months ago. I'm just wondering what belt makers would say, cause I've been wearing a black belt finished with oil & carnauba and I'm not complaining about bleed, but I've never used tan kote before, so I don't know how its going to be on a belt =)

Hi! I'm about to finish a lined brown belt, so I'd appreciate some finishing advice. For the outer grain side: Would tan kote be ok for a belt or am I running a risk of getting it wet and having the dye bleeding all over my clothes? Would bag kote do a better job? Thanks!

I'm not an expert in this area at all, but i've got an Italian belt here that I bought before I started leatherwork, which is marked "4001 - 110". No idea what the 4001 refers to 110 refers to total length in centimeters, ! excluding the buckle !, but including the hole end (20 cm in total ~8in). The buckle is another 4 cm. 5 holes spaced out by 1 in.

Hi from another newbie and welcome to the forum. I remember posting something like this about 8 months ago =) I am also after a briefcase & a messenger bag. The best thing to do is to read read and read this forum. You can also study others' work and see how pros handle different projects. I'd recommend starting with very basic things and as you build up your knowledge of leatherwork, move on to more advanced stuff. Bookmarkers and coasters are a great place to start. Ordering materials and basic tools is not a problem. Leprevo Leather is based in Newcastle, so their delivery is quite quick. They are my primary source for leather and cheaper tools. There is also Tandy who occasionally have some nice discounts. For higher quality tools you've got Joseph Dixon and handtools-uk.com (Osborne importer). Osbornes seem to be cheaper than Dixons and I did not notice any big difference in quality, but the choice of Osbornes is rather limited. And you can try vergez-blanchard tools from (if I'm not mistaken) France. Haven't tried any of them yet but the prices are similar to dixons. If you want some good stamping&carving tools though, you have to import them from the US and pay import duty on them. Tough luck. Having no space is a bit of a pain, but its not a major problem. You'll just waste some time clearing the work area every time you want to do a bit of leatherwork. And whoever you're sharing the room with might complain about the dye smell when you're dyeing bigger items. Nothing that an open window can't cure. Try to figure out how much you are prepared to spend on leatherwork a month and then start making up a basic tool list. You have a choice between cheap tools (some of them are great, some are not even usable) & starter tool kits (mainly from Tandy) and pro-quality equipment. Chances are you would want to replace cheap tools within the next 6 months after buying them, but they give you a decent starting ground. Unless you can't wait to spend a couple £k on your tools right away, you can only buy tools that you need for your current project and expand your collection over time. Just make sure you are not losing out on shipping too much. Books-wise, I can recommend: Valerie Michael's "leatherwork manual"; Stohlman's "Art of hand sewing leather" (a lot of info clashes with the leatherwork manual though); Stohlman's "Art of making leather cases" (all 3 volumes); Stohlman's "Projects & designs" for some basic projects and introduction to carving. PS Just be careful. Leatherwork is very addictive.

Hi Godfrey, I think Andy Bates might give you some lessons, though h is quite far away from you... There are many howto dvds on this subject though.

Thanks! I'll drop the rpm and see how it goes. How much pressure do you apply to the edge?

Hi sixer, If I hold the burnisher for to long, yes, I could feel the burn. I thought it was part of the process :brainbleach: Like you can't have a BURNisher without some burn =) Would recommend dropping the rpm to 5k?

Thanks for the link Sylvia! Lets see if Paul will accept the SK-3 back so I can buy this new baby =) Just kidding. I love my SK-3 =)

Hi! Can someone please help me with a bit of advice on how to use a motorised wooden burnisher? I've applied some water & saddle soap to an edge of a WIP belt, then loaded a burnisher into my proxxon, set the dial to 15k rpm and dragged a belt edge along the groove. The result was a very rough edge, so I started experimenting with proxxon speed and the pressure applied to the belt. I've managed to get some semi-decent results on 8k rpm, however, this involved just slightly tapping the edge with the burnisher groove over and aver again and was rather time consuming. Can someone please let me know how you use wooden burnishers and what speed & pressure you use. What are the signs of the speed/pressure being being too low or too high? Thank you

Thanks guys! Ordered a couple of back issues to see if a newbie like me should subscribe =)

Hi! I've seen some adverts of the Shop Talk magazine, but I can only find where to buy the annual subscription for it. Are there any places online where I can buy an issue or two to see if I want to subscribe for the whole year? PS what does everyone think about it anyway? Thanks!