thekid77

Thanks for your advice Larry, I am going to stay away from the roller idea....seems like frustration and disaster waiting to happen lol...since the last comment, I've had luck swirly on a thin coat of resolene cut 40:60 resolene to water, applying it with one of the high density sponges from Tandy in smal circular motions.

Hi Rocko, thank you for the reply unfortunately I put the clear coat on the pieces already...but I dyed a new piece and folded it up without the clearcoat to get the distressing out of the leather. Then I went over the leather with some neatsfoot oil and that seemed to make the lightened areas blend with the dark areas. Now the leather looks very natural.. Hi Chief, I think you're right. Unfortunately though, dip dyeing requires a ton more dye than I can afford at the moment, but I may try that in the future....thanks for sharing your advise!

Hi friends, I have been dyeing leather with the Tandy Eco Flo Waterstain tan color. It seems like no matter how richly I apply the dye, after the leather dries, if I bend or fold it, the leather dye color in the areas that have been folded lightens up dramatically. Does anyone know of a way to address this problem? I only get this happening with certain dyes like the tan waterstain.....it doesn't happen with black or other colors....thank yo in advance for any insight you might be able to shar with me!

awesome!! where do you order the kangaroo from?

I love it! What thickness is the kangaroo? How about the cowhide?

even with a high density foam? the reason I ask is because I have wiped the resolene on with the HD foam and not gotten bubbles, just streaks

anyone?

Hey Jake, good questions I really think that both the diamond awl and the diamond chisel shine in their own way, depending on the application... The advantages of the chisel would be that it is designed to punch all the way through the leather, and you are punching multiple holes at a time, which will save you time...also, you are guaranteed a straight line of holes as long as you keep the teeth of the chisel steady on the stitch line. I make wallets with stacked pockets (t-slots). When I am going through the leather with the chisel over the stacked slots, I am guaranteed that the line of stitching will remain straight. If I am using a diamond awl, if one of the holes I need to punch is between where the card slots meet, it's hard to see where I'm going through the leather with the awl. If I'm off by just a little bit, the line of stitching will look bad on the opposite side of the leather. The only diamond chisels I've used so far are the Craftool Pro Chisels from Tandy. They are really nice, but the only thing I don't like about them is that the teeth of the chisel cut too long of a hole. I feel like this weakens the leather along the line of stitching significantly. I found this out when I stitched a wallet with the chisel on some really dry leather, and I could literally just tear the leather along the stitch line like perforations on a postage stamp. The really nice thing about the awl is that generally, most awl blades I've seen poke a much finer hole than the chisels. The thread sits tighter in the holes and it's not cutting through as much leather, thereby maintaining the strength of the leather. Hope this helps!

just curious to see if anyone had done this....i had the idea to do this since sometimes the resolene pulls up and causes streaks in the dye.... I was thinking it might work?

Thank you so much for the info Ken! I will definitely follow up and see about that!! Thank you Nash, I will check it out!

Thanks for the reply Ken, but I thought Terry was a knifemaker exclusively? He makes awls as well?

Hi friends, I am looking for the old antique lacing awls (they are about 1/4" wide) for buck stitching. Please message me or reply if you have any for sale....thank you!!

Thank you for sharing that! I will definitely be following your advice, much appreciated!!

Hi friends, I was wondering what the method is for pre-stretching or getting the stretch out of leather lace is? What is the technique used to stretch the leather before cutting it into lace? Also, I have heard that some people cut the lace wider than the final width, then cut it to size after stretching.....what are they using to cut the leather lace to the final width? Because most of the time when I have read about people doing this, they are starting with a 5-6mm wide strip of leather, then cutting to final width from there... I want to make my own lace, but I just don't know what the workflow should look like....thank you in advance for all of your help!

+++ to alpha, stetson, and 480....ditch the groover......I've been making belts and wallets for four years now and not one of them has had the stitching fail....I was happy to get rid of the groover after completely destroying quite a few projects and wasting tons of material with it. To this day, I have never seen thread wear or fray that has been stitched without a groover......not to mention the groove tends to flatten out the neat twisted rope appearance of the saddle stitch....but each to their own