Red Cent

A cowboy friend gave me this press. In a hole in the ram head is a bar that is rounded on the end and is held by a magnet. Removed, any metal stamp will be held rather firmly or can be easily moved by hand. Seems with a touch of water, any stamp would show on 3-4 ounce.

For me, no more diluted dye. I have a couple of pieces of cardboard on the table. After two coats of NFO. I use Leather Sheen by Fieblings. When I run out, I will go to Mop & Glo.

I added some water and vinegar the other day and today, lo and behold, I opened the container and it was clear. Well, pretty clear. I could see the bottom. I dropped another wool pad in and stirred. Muddy water. But it will turn a piece of leather black faster than you can say.........

No comments? I wanted to answer the posts but I thought better of it. It is difficult to understand the thought process that equates boning with quality. No, I do not bone. I thumb press. I get a little detail on stuff that are not cowboy. Hey, I learned something. The customer is always right. But, I knew that.

Great start.

Interesting to note that a quality holster must include detail boning. http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=755499

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=25572 Well, Zack White has leather now.

Robertmeco, the dark brown dye came out OK, although the tint is visible on any non slicked edge. I burnish the belt holders but you can see the back side a little with the tint. And there are other certain places. The interesting part is RJF gets his leather from a well known wholesale house. "Thoroughbred Leather is Jeff Ballard, who supplies Hidecrafters as well as many other clients- like RJF leather (one of the banner sponsors up above). Johanna posted that in 2010. Hope the next two double shoulders work.

Well, the customer wants a dark brown. To me that means darker than walnut. I have the Fieblings Golden Brown and it makes a beautiful a beautiful brown but not really dark brown. I have two double shoulders coming from RJF. I asked him to hand pick some firm leather. We will see.

Got a C4 and I love it. I like Steve but I don't love him.

BTW, the center belt was sprayed with dark brown last night. After the picture I sprayed another coat of dark brown on it and I believe it is more brown now than red. Why the reddish tinge with dark brown Fiebling's Pro Oil dye?

JL, this leather thing has got me so rattled about trying to figure good leather out, I, sometimes, go pour about three fingers of George Dickel and go set on the porch so my blood pressure comes down. I am not sure what leather it was. I have some Zack White, some RJF, and a little of Tandy on the table. If you laid the belt out on a table horizontal to you, about half of the belt (in a diagonal) was OK and the other half had a very dark red tint to it. After the second dip, the dark red area became a little more darker. I laid the strips out on the garage side deck in the sun. WOW! Now I know what will make a very stiff holster. Between black specks turning up from out of nowhere to this makes a feller a little frustrated. I guess it goes with the territory. JLS, was it that bad? What is interesting is that a very experienced leather maker over on Cas City (Chuck Burrows) just informed us he bought most all his leather from RJF. Go figure.

My first venture into the dipping of leather into a pool of dye may be my last. I was doing a double buckle and had three pieces cut. The main belt, the liner and the belt "strap" that encircles the main belt. I poured Fieblings dark brown pro oil dye that had been diluted 50/50 with alcohol in to baking pan. Almost to the top. I proceeded to place one end into the pan and fed the straps through the dye kinda slow. After drying, it was not fit for sale. Some long areas were lighter and some different in color. So I slowly ran them through again. Streaked. Hung them over a drying bar in front of a fan and I produced the stiffest strips of leather I have ever encountered. I applied NFO to the fronts and backs and let dry. Then I did what I should have done. I airbrushed them. Came out really dark brown but looked good. Some slow bending of the leather brought some suppleness. I (almost) completed the belt last night, thankful I didn't have to trash the leather. Here is a picture. It is obvious in the cold (90 degrees) light of day I need to put the airbrush to work a little more and finish some detail.

Didn't try. Really, it has a muddy, butterscotch look. Kinda like rust muddy. Should I throw it out?

Has anyone opened their bucket and discovered they have a bucket full of butterscotch?

Joe, I sew from one end of my belt and make a big circle hiding the backup stitches under the fold of the belt.

Well, the Oxalic acid did not work. Lightened and cleaned up the rest of the holster but the spots/marks are still there. Rubbed a lemon piece on them and they are still there. Bought some nitrile gloves and just might build something with un-dyed leather to see what happens. Probably will change a few things in my process also. Later.

Kind of a weak excuse to buy a gun but hey.............

New model or old model? NM is smaller and you can use a NM Vaquero, a Colt, or Colt clones except or the tall front sight. 'Course, both models have the tall front sight. However the frame and cylinder is bigger on the OM.

Nice holster.

Ran some water on the holster to form it. Look real close at the spots. The band around the top was dyed yesterday morning. Edges were all dry. Nothing on my hands. Looks like I need to store up on distilled water. PS: Dang, that belt loop looks bad from this direction. Gotta fix that.

Thanks.

Now I am embarrassed. Mine is the white plastic bottle. Has Bar Keepers Friend on the front and under it says COOKTOP CLEANER. Is that my problem?

Very good. Has the neat look and looks rich, figuratively and literally.

Actually, there is an unlimited supply of this stuff. And it has a bunch of aliases. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_6?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=oxalic%20acid&sprefix=oxalic%2Caps%2C236&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aoxalic%20acid