Sylvia

Hi there: I was wondering about your choice of making a circle then trying to cut it. Here is one video that shows the tandy lace cutter and how it's used on "raw hide" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXKAFsNFuB0 Here is tandy's video. I find it interesting that in the first video, the guy uses rawhide dog chew toys to get his rawhide. Sounds like a good idea to me. Good luck I hope you get the cuts you are wanting.

You could do a few things to get a new piece to look like that. 1. Roll the un-dyed, un-treated leather toward the smooth side over and over and over. It will give a wrinkled look to the leather. 2. Take a trick from "shabby Chic" designers and scrape, sand, bash with chains. 3. Drag it behind a car on a gravel road. This would give the most random wear I think. Definitely try these methods on a test piece or two before you try it on your finished item.

Well, I finally got out to the shop with my stamps and a rounder. I chucked up the camoflager, lowered the drill press table, slid a piece of board over the drill hole in the table, stuck my rounder on the table and started "pressing." It seems to work well. But I can see where a "guide" might be necessary or perhaps I need to be seated so I can have a better vantage point to see what I'm doing because while standing I managed to get the design off the line. Good thing it was just a trial run! Here's a Picture.

Ha ha ha. Yeah that's what happened to me too. Salida Colorado huh? I have loads of Guitar playing friends down there in Colorado. Ever heard of Jim Deeming? http://www.jimsguitar.com He lives in Berthoud, I guess that's a ways north of you.

You would be surprised how many tools you already have on hand can be used for this. I'm about to go chuck up my stamps in the garage on the hubby's drill press and see how it will work as a stamping press. (no power of course) But then again I consider myself resourceful enough to use what I have and make it work through ingenuity. The Dremel tool for a hole punch is a great idea. I know a gal at my local leather and fireworks place. LOL uses a hand drill to punch all her leather. I just used a car buffer to buff a leather purse. I also found out that a Jollytime popcorn 8 pack box fits 6 bottles of Angeles 3oz dye in their boxes perfectly. That way I can label the tops and they are contained and less likely to be dashing around in my box. (Little devils) A tackle box works well as a leather tool box too if you aren't able to set up a shop area where you can leave things out. A small vise and a book makes a great temporary stitching pony. A spring loaded center punch is a great marking tool. I even use some of my map making tools for their stenciling abilities. (That reminds me, I need to make some map weights) I used a piece of a G string to de-burr one of my groovers recently. not THAT kind of G string! The G string on the guitar. lol I also discovered that my paint brush and double sided water reservoir is awesome for this purpose. it holds my sponge on one side and I have water for the paint brushes on the other side. This sort of reminds me of something that I became aware of during the past few years. It seems to me that many of our "young ones" have lost their ability to imagine the other possibilities. I think that is because they spend to much time playing with things like the computer and other "instant entertainment" electronics. I sure hope it doesn't come back to bite us. (or has it already?)

We use it... sometimes. I remember back when I was in 3rd grade or so they tried to convert us all to Metric. Ha! Frankly I don't see well enough to be certain of how many millimeters I am looking at.

Don't go buying a "stamping board." Just go to your local Granite Counter Top Place... and ask if they have any off cuts or sink cuts you can have. I got a nice hunk of Granite counter top about the size of a sink... for free. Saved gobs on shipping. This stuff is just scrap to them and it's already been paid for by the person who had the counter top installed... more than likely you'll get yours free too.

Hi Ara: I know what you mean. I spent several months trying to understand the different leather weights. I found this and bookmarked it. Perhaps it will help you. http://www.brettunsv...onversions.html I hope that helps some. I can't find it now but I did see a site somewhere that compared the thicknesses to American coins. **** ha ha ha... just saw that Coin info near the bottom of that page! Syl

uh oh, now you've done it...You got the frustrated engineer in me going..... my husbands drill press is in serious danger now. LOL Why couldn't one use an existing drill press, build a block to raise the bed and just use it turned off? Just chuck the hand tools as is... and mash away?

I would say that the skull thing started in recent history as a logo for the Hells Angels. From there Heavy Metal, Gothic and now Screamo Metal etc. all seem to perpetuate the image. Perhaps it is a fascination with death, the dead and who knows these people may be frustrated Thespians stuck in an ever present "Alas, Poor Yoric, I knew him well...." state of mind.

Gingher Knife Edge Scissors are awesome. I had a pair already... but DO BE CAREFUL with these. I recently cut a nasty gash in my index finger. OUCH!. Now I am going to have a battle scar. LOL Daddy always said "Never use your hands as a vise." Now I know why. If you don't have a stitching pony, you can use a small vice and a hard backed book as a temporary one at least until you can make one or buy one. The book needs to be fairly thin... but it works!

Most of what I saw was finished goods. You might call your regular supplier and ask if they have a source.

This isn't exactly new... but you might try wrapping your sponge in some tightly woven material like Chino fabric. Add the dye to the wrapped sponge, blot off excess on a towel... then apply moving in circles. Try it on a stamped and carved piece of scrap. What happens is the dye applicator floats above the deeper carved areas and leaves them nearly free of dye. I also found this video which I find to be an interesting technique. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttEuPUey3jc

I think Dry Milling mimics the process of pounding the leather to soften it. http://www.leatherresource.com/drymilling.html

Hey Zonker? Have you considered using hot roller clips? http://www.folica.com/tools/butterfly-hair-clips/conairpro-pro-clips I bet they would work nicely and already have a rounded shape. If you want, you could glue some leather inside the clips to protect your work. I use these a lot when I need to make sure a garment doesn't get in the way of the hoop when machine embroidering. Best $10 I've ever spent.

Hi Travis. I come from the tie dye arena so mixing dyes is something we do a lot. We normally buy, turquoise, yellow and magenta for dyes. For me to get a Olive Drab color I would have to mix 4 parts Magenta (mixing red) 5 parts yellow, and 3 parts Turquoise. There is no black or if I use black it would just be a few drops. I don't think Pro Oil has the colors you need to do this. To get a better idea of how colors mix into other hues, try this online mixing gadget. http://painting.abou...ingpalette1.htm I would avoid the Rit dye because the colors on the bottles aren't necessarily what you end up with. Fiber Reactive Dye's found at Dharmatrading is what I use. You could mix those with alcohol but strain them through a fine mesh strainer to avoid blotchiness. I just got some leather dye from Dharma too "Angelus" brand dye ... I ran a test swatch and I think if you get Rose, Yellow and Light Blue, you can get the color you want. Good luck LOL I just realized how old this post was. Oh well, perhaps my info can help another someday.

Hi Bill: I use a point and shoot digital camera. I find that if I am having a problem with glare, a piece of plain old kitchen wax paper (grease proof paper to you Aussies), taped over the flash diffuses the light enough to stop that problem in it's tracks. You might give that a try.

You got it... young folks doing the designs that give NO thought to tired eyes or those of us who are visually impaired in some way. It looks good to them so off they go to the printers.

Hey JB. The place was called "The Dalles Tanners" I'm not sure it's still in business, though I found a few "yellow" page entries online. Another place called Muir - MacDonald, inc... was located in Dallas, Oregon, but I understand they shut down in 2005. Then again their information is still showing up online. http://www.powerprofiles.com/profile/00005140925137/MUIR-+MC+DONALD+CO+INC-DALLAS-OR I know there is a leather shop in Portland and Eugene. Here is their website. http://www.oregonleatherco.com/ Good luck, I hope you find what you are looking for.

Hello Hosscomp: I am under 60, but I know what you mean about fine print and lack of contrast. I wear glasses and even then I sometimes have difficulty reading websites, until I do a CTRL+ several times to size it up. (Which is why I detest sites that are flash based and won't allow that feature.) I don't know why but it seems the "design practitioners" these days, seem to think grey text on off white is a good enough contrast to read. It's not and I see it a lot these days. Anyway I have a couple suggestions that may help. For those Tool numbers: I use a Jeweler's Loops. I have a good one that is 30X power and a quick peak through that and I have the numbers in short order. It's also handy for reading tiny numbers on diodes, capacitors, potentiometers and resisters. It's also great for looking for burrs on your knives and tools. (I carry mine with me) For those annoying low contrast labels: Once you determine the color, etc., just use a black sharpie and write the color as large as you would like on the label. It won't help you much while you are shopping but when you get it home you can grab the color you want at a glance.

Phil: Try these boots again but use some fabric instead of leather. Try fabric that isn't woven but a knit. You can play all you want while you figure this out without damaging leather. If you want something more "robin hood" try this tutorial on constructing a pattern to fit... it's several pages so read through everything before you begin. http://www.seamlyne.com/design/costume/footwear/footwear_index.asp

Did you find any solution? Inquiring minds want to know.

K-man: Did you ever order your beveler blade? I see that they are available one the website, maybe they are in stock again?

HI Julia: I understand your confusion because I've recently gone through this myself. From what I gather, Eco Flo is a non toxic Dye which provides a transparent color to the leather. As you apply successive layers the color gets deeper and more rich. Eco Cova is an Opaque color that is basically an acrylic paint. Antique Gel is used to give a well worn or old look to the leather and Hi-lite is similar to the antique but is designed to settle into the cut carving and cut work to bring emphasis to the work. I've not read anything about the All in One but I think that is pretty self explanatory. Fiebings and Angelus both have "spirit dyes" that are considered toxic. Oil dye, (Pro Dye) I gather, not only dyes the leather but the oil helps to ensure that the leather softens. If you are looking to get a few colors and are trying to save some $$ I would go to http://www.dharmatrading.com and search for Angelus. They are the least expensive that I have found after about a month of searching. It's funny because I searched and searched for leather dye and it wasn't until I had the brilliant idea to try to mix dyes from my Fiber Reactive Fabric Dyes and sought to learn how from Dharma... that I found the least expensive source for leather dyes. LOL Dharma has a pretty good selection and if you buy more than (5) 3oz bottles they are 2.89 each. They have the acrylic leather "paints" too. Sylvia