Studio-N

Gotta agree with you 100%. I know a lot of people who had to save up to buy each individual volume at $79.99. Now they want you to fork over $200 all at once. That isn't always possible. But I guess when you live in an ivory tower that doesn't matter much.

check out the Feibings oil dyes. SLC is where I get mine since they have a larger variety than Tandy.

The touch-up jars from preval work well. They are 3 oz bottles.

One corretion Ed. Eco-foo-foo is simply what Tandy calls their Line of products. The current EF dye, highlighter, and All in one are still made by Fiebings. Your right, the water stains are made by fenice. I think it was a BIG deservice to put the eco-foo-foo label on the waterstains. I know a lot of people didn't want to even try them because the had the EF label and they thought it would be the same junk. They should have left the Fenice labels on it, but I do understand they want to have a consistent line of products. I definately agree that they work well. totally agree on the pricing. I don't think it's going to get any better.

Hello. I think you're right. they have put all their stock into the new water stains, which i have used and like. I have never liked the eco-foo-foo dyes because they run. I do use the highlighters and all in ones on occasion since they are acrylics. They don't usually announce what they are discontinuing, but you usually get a clue by what they put on big sale in June-September. You should be able to call any store and ask them to look up what stores have a particular color left.

Looks good! Yankees and Jim Beam. Somehow that seems to go together well.

Hello. thanks for looking. I'm putting these here to give the LW members a first chance before I decide to put these on eBay. Up for sale is a vintage Bowling ball kit. I've examined it and everything is there. The leather has some dark areas but shouldn't be a problem if you're dyeing it. Price is $45 plus shipping. Up for sale is a Tandy Satchel Kit. Pretty good kit, everything is there. $60 plus shipping. Just PM me. Payment by Paypal please. Here are the picts.

The new catalog is available this week as the stores get their orders. Get ready to pay more.

nice work. Is there anything special you needed to do to clean the carbon after it is burned?

Springfield Leather is offering some biker wallet insides already assembled. You just add the outer piece which gives you the opportunity to tool it and put it together rather quickly.

I finally get to go!

To further show how little they care for thier business customers, the new FO Baird reprint books are on sale. Wholesale members and businesses are being offered $0.01 off thier regular price.

Well I'm lucky in that I work the local flea market on the weekend. My buddy and I are the only leather guys there, so they usually find us and are willing to sell them cheap. I'm not getting rich on it for sure at $2 resale. But it helps that Tandy is down the block selling them for $10 each.

I buy them for $1 and resell them at the flea market for $2 each.

The idea behind the corn starch is that it gives dirt and dust something to cling to and then you can brush it out. Since it is a rug, you can treat it as such and throwing it on a line and beating the dirt out of it like the old days.

AGREED! They will also be combining the 3 Stolhman saddle books into one volume and discontinue the individual books. I'm sure it won't be cheap either and now they force you to buy all 3. Greed reins supreme at the evil empire.

that and they don't really care if their employees and managers even know leatherwork. Only that they sell and up-sell you. That's why they have replaced the majority of the older 'expensive' managers. It's amazing how many past customers still come to me for advice vs. the store.

The bunkhouse rolls are generally have a larger diameter than the tandy and tippman rolls. There are some that will fit, but most will not. I've gotten a couple where i didn't read the whole post and they are too large for the tandy embosser I have. As long as it is within 1/2" diameter of the tandy size you should be ok. I love many of the rolls they offer. I just wish I could use them. -Nick

The new plan to try to mask their high pricing for the 2014 catalog is to convert all the leathers from being sold by the sq. foot to selling it by single price. So a double shoulder like their 9052-02 will be like $133 (retail). Problem is their sizes are so inconsistent, you might get a 12 foot shoulder for the $133 ($11.08 sq.ft) or an 11 foot shoulder for that same $90 ($12). They are really counting on their customers not doing the math. They have already started selling them by the piece as 'specials'. and they no longer list an 'average' square footage. Corporate greed reins supreme at the evil empire.

by their nature, anything that has dye stuff in it will never be bright. One missing component is that there is no 'white' component to the dyes/stains. Covas are paint so you can mix them to create a color and are brighter than any dye/stain will ever be. I don't think you'll have a good solution to this one. It also sounds like you didn't get to the finishing part. Some of the brightness will come from the light reflection you get from a hard finish like super sheen (acrlyic) or a lacquer (neatlac). Take one of your failed pieces and add a finish and see the difference.

FIrst off, you're not having a problem with the dye coming off, else you'd get bald spots on the leather. What you're dealing with is loose residue. Buffing it before applying the finish is the first thing to remember. There is nothing wrong with the leather getting wet else you couldn't case the leather. If you really have a problem with residue, it is simply ok to wash the leather. Just run it under water in the sink. It will get a lot of stuff out. This obviously works on the individual pieces, but since you have it put together it's more problematic but it is still possible. Good luck.

use a small stamp to make an impression somewhere you will punch a hole. It if the impression takes, it is veg. then punch the hole to get rid of the impression.

Most of the clearance items here are out. That's usually the case on their clearance sales, just something to help the stores get rid of the discontinued stuff.

welcome to the forum. Good stuff on the website. I wish you success. Nick

Very nicely done.