DavidL

If i had regular veg tan, clean it with oxalic acid, oil with conditioner, dyed it light brown, buff the dye, add a conditioner again (neatsfoot) or some sort of fish oil, and then add waxes and hand burnish with box wood. Would this prevent: bleed off of the dye?(is resolene or a sealant important to prevent dye running off) water resistance/ sweat most importantly prevent most stains like, water or dirt. 1. Does a sealer like atom wax, or resolene cut 50/50 make a huge difference in bleed off? Im curious because in a short video of baker leather in england they only showed wax or what they call dubbin being added to the leather. 2.It would make sense that after a full day of dyeing and buffing the leather thoroughly that the dye won't bleed off once the the conditioner and waxes are introduced (no resolene). Will the dye reactivate after touching water, sweat, or conditioners?

Its personal preference whether you dye one side or both sides. Both ways work. I like the look of both sides dyed, that way dye getting on the back of the leather isn't an issue. Reducing the dye with isopropyl alcohol, using less dye or using thicker leather will help with dye from getting through to the back. When the leather isn't dyed gum trag or burnishing gum alternative can be added to the flesh side (back side). The front of the leather could be burnished with boxwood to get a darker colour.

I think you need to make a tighter bond with the pieces so they act like a single piece - contact cement and slick/compress pieces together. Maybe a rougher grit sandpaper? I would sand it aggressively till its level and only then add saddle soap and burnish.

Thanks. volume 2 sounds interesting.

Thanks. I should be uploading more projects onto this site. A lot of my time is spent practicing so theres a lot of leather squares with lines of stitching or prototypes. Usually the pictures on my samsung s3 are good but these came out faded.

yup..

7 spi - .58mm thread (532 fil au chinois) Bottom of the bag 7 SPI - .8mm thread Few mistakes on the bag, it was my first one but I think it looks good.

Can you explain what type of cases are in the book? Are we talking about suit cases, luggage cases or backpacks.

Good luck on your purchase.

Based on what you hear and see and from what others say is a good indication of something. I've never had the osborne iron, but I saw how big the teeth are and in my personal experience with my dixon iron (which wasn't the slimline) the teeth were even smaller than the the osborne based on the pictures. The dixon size teeth are known to be large and in my personal experience with it, unless its thinned down its unusable as the cut is too large, roughly 4-5mm if you measure the diagonal cut. Its now somewhere between 3-4 mm from thinning it down, which is somewhere near the size of the slimline. If you can prove to me that the osborne is on par to the dixon I'm willing to listen, and if I am wrong il correct how I think about the osborne. To me it looked like you were trying to pawn off your osborne iron before he had a chance to evaluate the different irons.

Depends on what your making - wallets, small bags, check books or things to this nature it wouldn't matter as much as a saddle. Wallets/bags (made in china) that are made from thin cotton thread at 6-7 SPI, also not an issue I have made wallets and bags from .58mm thread at 7 SPI. Again 6 SPI at .58mm is within reason for fine stitching, not for saddles. Asthetics is mainly a personal choice. The sizing is the Fil au chinois thread 432(.63mm) and 532 (.58mm).

I have a dixon, vergez and japanese pricking iron. I have seen the osborne pricking iron on the site and the discussion was that the osborne has different angles depending on the SPI. Also they posted a picture of the iron teeth impression and of the iron itself. Osborne is rarely talked about for pricking irons and their tools arent that great (again IMO) In my opinion dixon is best for the money, vergez is the best tool in terms of finish and is a more polished tool. heres a direct quote from macca, we are basically saying the same thing: If you are talking about pricking irons, Blanchard are a bit higher quality than dixons, finished off a bit better, I've compared them side by side.

I would go with a hakko soldering iron. Somewhere around 70 dollars for a heat adjustable iron that can be set to whatever degree, important for soldering because too hot or too cold and it won't work correctly. 90 dollars for the upgraded hakko comes with a little station that you can set to the exact degree. For 30 bucks it will be hard to find an iron that is reliable as the hakko.

Not that great of an iron from what I saw. Teeth for the iron are slanted at different angles depending on SPI. Iron teeth are also huge. Dixon slim line (special order from factory) is the same price and better quality. My understanding is cs.osborne just recently made pricking irons compared to the generations of experience of dixon or vergez. I don't think in western work they use pricking iron so this is most likely a recent addition. Not the same kind of training or dedication. For 35 bucks if you grind the teeth down it might be worth it. vergez > dixon> cs. osborne

Done it before. Looks all right to me, although it is stretching it a bit. 7 SPi at .58mm is perfect size imo. Not sure how its bad advice but.. ok.

My technique is I count the stitches as I am hitting them. For instance I'm using an 8 prong iron, I hit the iron once count is 8, overlap by 3 prongs and add 5 to the count. So it goes first hit is 8, next is 13,18,23 and so on (counting hits of the iron works too). When I go and hit the opposite piece I do the same thing so that the amount of stitches are the same. On top of all that I measure 4mm or whatever distance from the edge to the first stitch with a compass to match the first stitch. Do use the proper thread to SPI. General guide lines: If you want fine stitching go with .58mm threads for 6-9spi, .63mm thread for 5-8spi, .73mm thread for 6 and under A thicker western style - .7- 1mm for 4-7 spi

Personally I would get a dixon if cost is an issue or Japanese pricking iron. If the item cost 18 dollars each they probably cost 6 dollars in material and labour. Buy one pricking iron test it out for a month or two then buy the set. Haven't tried the chinese ones but for such a precise tool I wouldn't cut corners personally. . You could buy a dixon, vergez and chinese and sell/trade after a month or two in the marketplace. I own a dixon, vergez and japanese iron and the dixon and vergez work well for my needs. Vergez being the best, dixon best bang for the buck.

have you considered sewing the bottom half of the bag using a different style of bottom? For example with leather stiffener on the bottom or with leather reinforced edges to add more emphasis to the bottom part on the bag.

43mm is the one I would go with for 7 or lower. 56mm for me was too large, however the one I received was defective and uneven from the start (should of gotten a refund). 38mm was okay for 7 and 9 which is what I'm using. 38mm:7+ spi 43mm:5-7 spi 53mm 6 and lower spi

one option is to wet mold leather to the buckle and stitch to hold it together. The metal rod that goes into the belt - a small rectangular piece of leather could be placed width wise (Glued and stitched) and she could use that leather bit to prevent touching the metal piece.

I had no issues on the page loading slowly. I did have an issue with the inability to see the finished product ex. using nike.com sneaker customization you can see the colours you add on the shoe as you are customizing. I wouldn't customize on this website unless I could see how the finish product would look. Other things I found are that the website wasn't up to par with other websites selling 700 dollar bags. Website is dark and uninviting. Cluttered - black bars on the left and right make the page too small and compressed. Would invest getting another graphic designer look at the work and change around the composition to make it more streamline. On the design aspect and photography angle: The website is very dark - too much black Photos should be taken on white background or light background to emphasize the product. Storyleather logo on the left side looks like toryleather Black bar that has all the category (Home, Phone case, wallets..) would look better again with a lighter colour. Too many different typefaces On the left or right where the black space is: on sale, recommended items. Twitter, Facebook, instagram should be put somewhere near the top if it can fit without being obstructive. http://www.storyleather.com/traditional-leatherware/business-card-holders/custom-made-style-90710-woven-card-holder.html - The part that says "The woven leather card holder... Handmade genuine leather card holder" the text are too close together. There are probably more things that need tweaking but is a 70 percent complete website and the rest needs to be polished

Thanks, I will check out the machine skivers. Any difference between a well built chinese machine skiver vs a renamed chinese skiver sold in USA or Canada besides warranty? Does any one know the difference of a bell skiver or round knife skiver, also the top and bottom feed differences? If anyone has a review of a chinese bell skiver I would be interested.

The schmedt skiving machine is the one I'm looking at. Has anyone purchased one for veg tan and chrome? Is it easy to use and does the blades last long? The description shows that it comes with a few different rollers, how large is the longest one?

Barbours thread or some coloured irish linen 4 ply. I would in this case groove, pricking iron or overstitch in the groove and use an awl. Keep in mind a sheath has a lot of stress and some people do groove for added security. Not 100 percent necessary but gives some extra protection.

thanks!