shtoink

I have not tried it yet, but have heard of using a cheap airbrush, not unlike one from Harbor Freight, to apply even coats.

I am in the same boat. As a beginner, it's difficult to find something to say that doesn't sound more like a generic pat on that back. More often than not it seemed better to sit back and watch rather than risk my words sounds empty and meaningless. I have noticed that more than a few of my threads get very little in the way of responses. I've even noticed that threads seem to die after I respond. Crickets and tumbleweeds... It's hard not to feel like I've brought a plague with me.

Thanks! There was over 200 views with no replies. I was starting to think that at least 200 just didn't like it.

I would argue that the amount of oils deposited from fingers or directly from the blade is negligible compared to the application of neatsfoot oil, but I don't think that that was the cause of the problem. I started to thin in this one and reread the original post and the input that everyone had. I ended up doing a bit of research on what exactly is going on when your use vinegaroon to see if there is anything that wasn't covered already in the information here on the forum. I won't go into all the dreadfully boring details, but my theory is a bit different and a solution is pretty straight forward. What I gathered is that the leather was compressed heavily is places with either a pear shader or beveler. I assumed it to be smooth, though a texture was not specified. These were described as the problem areas where the blackening of the leather did not occur. Keeping the above in mind, blackening leather with vinegaroon is a chemical reaction and the the level of acetic acid in vinegar in only around 5% by volume. That translates into quite a bit of water, a small of iron(II) acetate, rust, hydrogen gas, and whatever was on the metal you dropped into it. The iron(II) acetate is the only thing we want, which is what is reacting with the tannins to produce the black color. Since the actual amount of acetate is small, the reaction can be slow. Now that that is out of the way, it's on to my theory. The reaction is already a relatively slow one compounded by the compressed fibers in the leather. Now, take into account that iron(II) acetate is enormous compared to the water it's contained within. The acetate is roughly 10 times the mass of water. The iron(II) acetate is most likely having a hard time making into leather in order to produce the desired reaction and that it may have eventually reacted and turned those areas black if given time. It's like the acetate molecules are like cars trying to get though a tollbooth in the peak of rush hour. It will eventually happen, just very very slowly. As a final note, this is just a theory and I was only able to go by the information made available. There is still a possibility that I am completely wrong, so don't take it as gospel. Also, I am glad that the persistence payed off and you were able to fix the issue with added applications in the end.

I think YOU broke it this time...

These Pro Series tools must be the ones I had heard about from the previous manager at my local Tandy last year. He had been with Tandy since some time in the mid 60's and was personally disappointed with the way the quality of the tools had gone over the years. How he heard, I don't know, but what he was saying is that Tandy was on a hunt to locate examples of all the older tools the made in order to use as a template for retooling and an effort to increase the quality of the tools. He was only able to speculate on the price point of the new tools, but did say that there was to be more of a human touch along each step of the tools being made instead of what is happening now. I don't have any idea about the standard line of tools, but I do wonder if this Pro Series is what ended up being the result of what he was talking about.

So, I was following a link provided by TwinOaks in a similar thread started by another member who was asking about Acanthus and what it looked like. I started expanding the search and looking around for interesting images that might work on leather and I found pretty amazing results. First, I must say that these are certainly not my own, I am not affiliated with them in any way, and all rights belong to their respective parties. This first one was a pair of pages that had some line drawings for products a company called Biltmore Estate Industries and range from around 1901 to 1937. Some of the images aren't so interesting, but there are some gems in there. The first link is a page specific to some bellows that were offered and the second link seems to be a listing of all the line drawings they have listed on the very same site. Some repeats, but no biggie. Link One and Link Two The other one was jaw dropping for me. Others may respond differently, however, the detail and composition are extremely well done. There are a series of six works done by the artist Alexis Peyrotte in 1740. They currently are residing in the Smithsonian's storage facility. Link I thought that these were very good images that might be easily adaptable to leather or inspirational for others to possibly spark some ideas. Either way, I felt these were too good not to share. I hope you find as much enjoyment from them as I have.

I'm not exactly sure how it's normally done, but I was under the impression that moderators were supposed to help facilitate orderliness by relocating posts that get made in incorrect sections. I have seen several new posts created to advertise things for sale that were not in the "stuff for sale" specific section. I can understand some of the posts not being moved since there is a fair amount of overlap on the section. Say a post pertaining to something like a quiver being made not being moved if the topic of the post has to do with a pattern or maybe they had a question on how to achieve a certain tooling technique. I also think that it's bad form to create an account and your first post is only to advertise what you put for sale on eBay. I can't see that those help the forum or community in any way. It just adds to the clutter. Maybe if they dropped it in the "for sale" section under a guest account, I don't know. I suppose this specific issue is more of a grey area and doesn't need to be addressed, despite it being a pet peeve of mine. Maybe I'm too nit-picky, I just feel that the separation of sections is there specifically for the purpose of keeping the information gathered in a nice and orderly manner and that moderators are there to help in guiding us by giving us a smack upside the head when we make a mess and don't clean up after ourselves. Also to move posts to their proper location put out fires as needed.

Aren't these capable of creating a tapered lace? (One end is wider than the final end)

I think I completely missed the mark in directly answering your question with my previous post. So here is my second, less wordy try at it. The easy answer is marketing. It's a lot fluff and misinformation. They, very much, need to be sharpened right out of the gate. I would say they need to be sharpened far less than a steel blade and they probably don't need to be stropped anywhere near as often since it would only serve the purpose of cleaning off any buildup that may stick to the blade and create drag. Once you get a ceramic blade tuned the way you want it, it'll be pretty low maintenance, barring any accidental damage from dropping or banging it against something. Hopefully this and the previous post help clear things up a bit.

I hope that I might be able to add some worthwhile content. My experience has been mostly with ceramic blade material. I'm not trying to say that is what I mostly use, but rather that I purchased a ceramic blade specifically to experiment with chipping, sharpening, and how it can be sharpened. I also have to agree that stropping a ceramic blade does little for sharpening, but it does clean up the surface from any kind of build up that may occur. Giving the blade a nice set of polished bevels significantly helps in this area as well as reduce drag when in a cut. That's the bulk of what I will talk about below. I'm sure that many of you who have been able to make comparisons between old and new ceramic blades can attest to this, the manufacturing process has become a bit lacking. I don't have any first hand knowledge with the older stock, however these new blades from Tandy come out of the box in rough shape. They have the equivalent finish from that of a medium grit grinding wheel. Hell, I looked at some that didn't even have the cutting edge centered. There is very little effort, if any, put towards cleaning up those rough bevels. They will cut leather and depending the quality of polish you are used to before you use one the ceramic blades raw, they may be better or worse than what was just previously in your swivel knife. Those that polish their bevels to a mirror finish and can shave with it will say that it drags heavily and those that are still working on their sharpening skills will say it cuts better. The thing is, both camps are correct and it's based on perspective. With this new ceramic blade in my hands, I inspected it closely. I was presented with ugly machining marks from a medium to worn-course grit diamond wheel and immediately started to device a way to remedy the problem. What I wanted to find was a cheap, readily available to anyone solution. I will say that it is certainly not the best or only way, but it works and can be done without exotic tools. If you have 2000, 3000, 5000, or better grit DMT diamond honing plates, by all means use them. They are excellent, but expensive and most of use don't have them and probably never will. With that said, here is the list of things I was able to make my ceramic blade highly polished and shaving sharp with. 800, 1000, and 2000 grit 3M wet/dry automotive sandpaper. A pane of tempered glass scavenged from an old scanner. (any sufficiently large, very flat, water resistant surface will work) A sharpening jig from Tandy. (I'm sure that others have made them, too. I can't recommend one enough) Dish soap, water and plenty of patience. Lots of elbow grease. My first attempt to clean up the blade was completely different and chipped up the edge. I bother to mention anything else about that blunder, but it served the purpose of finding out if it could be done. I now had chips that needed fixing, which contributed to the time it took fixing my blade. Firstly, you and most of everything around you is at risk of getting wet. Decide upon an appropriate location to do this with that in mind. Second, you must not succumb to the urge to apply pressure in both directions of the stroke if you are using the wet/dry paper. You must only apply pressure on the pulling stoke (the stroke in which the cutting edge is NOT leading). Here's why. When the paper is wet, it absorbs a small amount of water and becomes slightly spongy. When you apply pressure on the forward stroke, it causes the paper to curl and over the cutting edge. It's very minute, but it's there. What this does to your cutting edge is actually create a very fine radius and the actual angle to the cutting edge will be far steeper than anything you want. This means that your blade will still feel dull despite all your hard work. You need to find the proper angle of your bevel. The jig can be finicky, but be patient with it. Depending on the angle you are going for, you might want to find that angle differently, but for the sake of my example, I use a 30-60-90 drafting triangle. I was able to fiddle with the little set screws on the jig until the shaft on the jig was parallel with the edge of the triangle at 30 degrees. The good news it that once you have your angle set for one side, the set screw for the blade is all that needs to be loosened and it can be flipped over. Start by laying out the 800 grit paper and getting it plenty wet and add a few drops of dish soap. Use the length of the paper to your advantage, just don't run the jig off the edge of the paper as the thickness of it is enough to change the angle at which the blade is getting ground. Your focus is on removing those machining marks and, if required, centering the cutting edge, so there isn't a need to try and count strokes. You can flip your blade at this point and repeat the above on the other side, but since my blade was already centered I just kept on working the one side. Since ceramic won't form the typical wire that rolls up along the cutting edge, it doesn't really need to be flipped back and forth. This is pretty much your choice, but keep in mind that it requires messing with the set screw more often and could lead to other problems if you aren't careful. There isn't a huge amount of material being removed, but it's a very hard material, so the process seems much slower than working with steel. It might only be about 0.005" to 0.01". Those diamond hones would speed this up, but, once again, they aren't cheap. You may or may not need to use some sort of magnifying glass to see this, but it can help in letting you know just how far you've got left to go. Once all the grinding marks are removed from the bevel, the hard part is over. You can then start moving up to the 1000 and 2000 grits. The details are pretty much the same as for the 800 grit section, but your focus is now on getting the bevel polished instead of removing material. Dish soap and water, pressure on the pull stroke, wipe off and check regularly. It helps to hold it up and look at the reflection, since it's white and difficult to see what the surface looks like directly. Once you have worked the one side, you can flip it over and do the same on the other. That is, if you weren't flipping it over between previous grits already. If need be, I might be able to get some pictures of the before and after, but that means I need to get another blade and find a way to get some decent shots. I will also be able to answer any questions that may arise. Just keep in mind that this is specific to ceramic blades and absolutely not the best or only way. Just a cost effective and readily available method to make your ceramic blade perform orders of magnitude better than when you first pulled it from the little plastic baggy. I hope that this has been easy enough for those of you interested to follow and I hope that you also find it helpful and use it in good health.

Clearly you taking the time to plan out your next step after completing the previous one has paid off. The results are very stunning. I was in the middle of admiring it when my wife walked by and commented that I needed to make my work look more like that. Clearly, I have something new to strive for. Thank you very much for sharing the progress with us!

This isn't exactly leather work and it isn't mine. However, it was very detailed and could potentially be used to create a hardened, articulated leather gauntlet, or you could watch it and just "ooh" and "aah" over the final product this guy makes. Which is pretty much what I did. I thought that it was well done and too good not to share. I hope you guys like it...

If I might be so bold, I highly doubt that any tooling will help this effect. Embossing a little bit, maybe, but in actual Damascus steel there isn't a large gap between the different steels used. I also doubt that this effect is achievable with any real success without the use of an airbrush. Brushing it on by hand and getting the blend of the colors, albeit possible with skilled hands, is going to be very difficult. The transition between the colors will be smoother and more believable, as that is one of the things an airbrush is really good at. It's debatable what should be used to get this effect, too. You could use acrylic, water color, RIT Dye, or anything other medium. Rather than starting any mild arguments, I'll just leave it like this: Use what best creates the desired result. It will take some time and experimentation. Aside from having it printed directly onto the leather, there just isn't going to be an instant solution. Even if there were someone here who was a master with brushes and paint or an airbrush, they'd probably only be able to point you in the right direction. If it were me, I'd work my way up to it, but I am kind of weird that way. I still take on projects, now and then, that are outside of my skill level and I regret it every time. It always reminds me that I still have plenty to learn. Also, this isn't exactly an easy task, even for someone with a good deal of experience. I fear that taking on this complex of a project as a beginner is going to a bigger bite than you can chew and you'll end up getting discouraged and abandon the whole thing. I hope you don't see this an me discouraging you, I only want to point out that there needs to be a of of planning and experimentation before moving from one stage to the next. This is, by no means, an easy color effect to create and will take some time to figure out. My suggestion above was only a guess at the process and I am certain there are many steps that I missed as they had never even occurred to me.

I am afraid of seeing the price tag for all the stuff I have invested in to do with leather and working on it. I'm also scared of not getting my projects started and it going to waste.

My guess is that a series of masking operations in conjunction with an airbrush is what you want to use. You'd need to have your masks cut out of some sort of adhesive vinyl, spray one one set of colors, spray over with a removable resist, remove the mask, spray your second color pattern, remove removable resist, do any touching up needed, and apply your finish(es). The thing is, I don't know if there is such a thing a a removable resist or at least one that you can use successfully with leather. Other things that come to mind are bleeding of the colors, but I suppose that depends on your paint/pigment being used and where you might get the original Damascus pattern to have someone CNC cut into vinyl. It does seem like it could potentially be doable. The other thing that comes to mind is to seek out someplace the does DTG (direct to garment) printing and have them shoot your desired image right onto the leather. Then you can finish the leather and continue on with your project. I try some test pieces first, just to see what needs to be tweaked in order to get the results you want.

I would say that this is a roller press. What it was meant to press, I don't know. It might have been used to stretch a piece of leather in different directions, create a uniform thickness, or even remove excess moisture from your laundry. It's hard to say without possibly more information or pictures. I did try to look up more information in the company and found that they did make quite a few machines that were specific to shoe making, but I saw no other machines that resembled this one. I realize this isn't exactly a complete answer, so maybe there is someone here who might be more knowledgeable than me and my internet searching skills.

After seeing the pictures and the rest of the post, the thread title makes way more sense. A first I was like Then I was like And then I said " that's amazing!"

Simply amazing! The bag turned out extremely well. I might suggest the use of a thimble or similar protection for your fingers. Moving them out of the way of the needle might help, too. From personal experience, that is far easier said than done, though.

This was my thought as well... I have pushed forward with some experimentation in different materials to both test the materials and hone my skills with a new machine. What a treat that is, I went from a PITA Chinese made lathe to a Sherline. It's not that those SEIG made lathes are entirely bad, but you need a machine shop and extra cash to make it reliable. I had neither, so I saved up for something that better suited my needs. I effectively went from an AMC Gremlin to a sporty Mini Cooper. I have gotten feedback from a couple of sources about my first functional prototype, which led to making more prototypes. So far, the thing that seems consistent is that the knurling on most knives is pretty aggressive and unless you have burly, calloused hands they can prove uncomfortable for prolonged use. Weight seems to be a concern as well, but it seems to go both ways. Those favor of heft might have something to do with the opinion that heavier always means better quality. All these opinions are the exact reason I deferred to those that have far more experience than I. Those opinions were developed somehow, and I wager it was though experience.

Thanks Chief! That was exactly what I was asking for. You made my day with that one.

Unfortunately, there was only a limited amount of details on what was liked or disliked there. I was hoping for some information along the lines of what I had asked in the post at the very top.

Now where's the fun in that?

I have noticed that at around 40 page views with no replies. I can't help but think that I may have been offensive or off putting somehow. I'm not sure how, unless there has been some misinterpretation, but there isn't any way to know that without any replies. Maybe it sounded a bit too much like some type of market research, maybe nobody wants to share their opinions on such things, maybe I wasn't clear enough. I do want to point out that I wasn't looking for anyone to badmouth any tool makers' tools, in fact knowing the maker of the tool isn't even a requirement. I was really hoping to just hear what people had to say so that I might have a better idea on the direction my project should take and aid in me not wasting time and materials with bad design features. I deferred to those of you with far more experience experience in hopes of learning.

I'd like hear from you guys about your preferences in swivel knives in an effort to try my hand at making a nice swivel knife. Since my experience is somewhat limited when it comes to swivel knives and preference in how a knife should feel is very subjective, I'd like to here from you guys what it is that you prefer. I debated making a poll for this, but decided against it due a high probability of completely missing out on some key details with the poll options. I'd like to know what it is that you do and don't like. Things like materials, texture, grip, diameter of the barrel, size for the blade shanks, anything that comes to mind. Having a bunch of data from multiple sources helps me identify common features and also have a direct effect on what things should or shouldn't be added as features for my experiment. As stated earlier, I'd like to give a shot at making a swivel knife and it would be very helpful to know what makes a "serviceable knife" versus a "great knife." This endeavor might lead to other things, but for now it's more proof of concept and getting familiar with my new lathe. Knowing what is preferred in a knife can help me make better choices about how I approach my project. I don't want to just duplicate something someone else already makes, that doesn't help. I also know that there are bigger fish out there, so this isn't any sort of delusional attempt at becoming a tool maker. I may end up making a small run, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it. This boils down to one thing, I am an engineering student. If that doesn't clear it up for you, then you probably haven't met any engineers before. Simply put, It takes a special brand of crazy to find enjoyment in the things involved in being an engineer, but that's better left for another topic.