Rawhide

No they are not the same. A high level view of each: Tan Kote is a resin based finish and will leave a mellow gloss finsih. Supershene (old one) is an acrylic based finish and will leave a high gloss finish. Supershene (new eco-flow) is a water based finish and will also leave a high gloss finish. Neatlac, isn't produced anymore, but is a laquer based finish and will give a high gloss finish.

Thanks for all the replies. Kate, a special thanks for taking the time to take a post photos of your explinations. Makes it a lot easier to understand.

I use a charcoal type filter that looks like a surgeons mask, but not the type that looks like a gas mask. Should I get one of those? Also, pictures would probably do a world of good!! Thanks for the suggestion. Also, what about ventilation? How do you vent your spraying activities, especially when it's cold? I have a large room (closed in garage that's about 400 sq. ft) but other than opening a window or two....

Sounds like you're not quite ready to tool this saddle. Custom tools won't help you a whole lot. Even though the learning curve is shortened, nothing will beat practice. My suggestion would be to practice using what you have, then dive into the custom tools as your work improves to the point you're satisfied with most of what you do, then the custom tools will help bring the satisfaction level higher. Just my .02

I'd like to do overall dyeing (solid color for large pieces), blended (shaded eges) I guess this would be called shadowing, Not sure of the terminology. Nothing really fancy, but I thing this will help to get more even coverage and not saturate the leather with dye.

To avoid hijacking another thread I started this one. I just bought an airbrush, a badger 150-5, and I have a small 3/4 gallon tank with, piston type compressor. I'm looking for some basic instructions and suggestions from all the airbrushers out there. Thanks.

Kate, Ijust bought myself an airbrush, and I'm looking to learn some basic techniques with it, Any suggestions on usage or instructions?

Randy, don't look now, but the 'oil' dye is also a spirit dye. It just has much better quality dye stuffs and alcohol in them, that's why they penetrate better and cover more evenly.

I would pm Artisan Dave and tell him to have Steve call you. Dave may be able to help as well.

You can use a head knife or a french edger. (lot of work for the french edger though)

For tooling tools, I like the Barry King line. See here. They are expensive, not the most, but they are more expensive than tandy. Hidecrafter's has a much better economy line than tandy, and an intermediate line that's about 10 to 15 bucks a tool, that most on this board are very satisfied with, including me. Other makers include Robert Beard's Pro Series Tools, Wayne Jueschke, Chuck Smith, Bob Douglas, and Paul Zalesak and many more, see the main page for a list of them all.

I groove both sides if the leather is thick enough. When stabbing the holes, I line up the awl with the mark and begin to push, I watch on the back side to see if the tip is going to come out in the groove, I adjust as needed then push the awl through. Once you do a few, you kind of get a feel for it and you don't have to watch each stab.

Yes It is possible. Assuming you let it get fairly dull with no nicks in the cutter, you can use progressions of wet-dry sandpaper to bring it back, followed by stropping it. What you do is find the bevel of the cutting edge and lie it flat on a piece of 800 grit paper glued to a hard flat board. Pull the bevel along the sandpaper, away from the cutting edge and at the same time rolling the tool to cover the entire cutting edge in one stroke. do this several times on 800, then 1200, then 2000 grit. Then strop it on a rouge board with the same motions. If you keep it fairly sharp and just need to touch it up, you can get away with just stropping it, or using the 2000 grit, then strop. Good luck.

I think the "twist" is to give the user a better view of the work so that the proper angle of the awl is visualized. The "lean" is to compensate for the work being above your center of gravity and helps to keep the awl straight when piercing the leather, so that the back stitchline, is as straight as the front.

Looks like your post made it to the forum fine Peter. Season's Greetings to you and yours as well...recycled of course.

That's a beautiful piece of work. Very nice. You'll be able to pass that on for generations.

That's a great idea. Thanks for the tip. I will incorporate this in my work. Thanks again.

Once you cut the loose ends as close as you can with an x-acto knife or scalpel, you can burn the ends with a lighter. Be careful not to cut the stitch, just the loose end.

He does not. His contact info is on the supplier's link on the main page.

One other suggestion: Bob Douglas

Some boot top inlays from Peter Main.

I highly recommend you getting The Art of Handstitching, by Al Stohlman. Here is a scan of a page from that book. (pulled from the knifenetwork dot com site). It shows how to properly align your awl blade. I align mine 45 degrees in the other direction, but the principle still applies exactly the same.

You'll get a bunch of different answers to that question. Some like round (from drilling) some like diamond from awl. I prefer the awl for three main reasons. I like the way the stitches lay if they are done properly, two, the awl is easier to control where the point comes out of the back. This will give you as straight a line as the front, three, the holes seem to disappear with the proper awl and the proper thread. Yes it's a little more work, but I'm more fond of the results.

The difference is that the sewing all is for making holes for hand stitching. The thonging chisels are for lacing an edge. For drilling holes most people that do so use the smallest drill bit they can find, and a dremel tool to drill the holes. That being said, I don't use the drill method as I feel it makes the holes too big for fine stitching. Also the Tandy awl in the pic is WAY too big for making proper sized holes for most hand stitching. I use several awls for different projects. But they are probably 1/4 to half the size of that Tandy one.

Depends on the application. I prefer the oil dye on my edges, and the regular spirit dyes for general coloring. The oil dye has a deeper penetration and tends to last much longer on the edges. I like them both equally, just in different respects. M.