Natalie O

wow! Love the flask!

Thank you for the tip. i ll try that next time....I was getting frustrated as i see all this fine tooling online, with very thin designs and just cant figure out how they do it! Not to mention my work looks ok after i ve dyed it....but theirs even prior to dying looks awesome. I know i still have a lot of practice to do but just couldnt figure out what they did for these fine lines.

Thanks mike!

Hey everyone. I used to use a normal metal swivel knife and just got a new ceramic one, thinking it might be better. However it doesnt seem to be very sharp. Do i polish it the same way as the metal one? With rouge? Or what? Also im having trouble with cutting very fine lines. Like small corners or triangles. They are my personal nightmare. Cause after when i try to bevel them, the top of the leather gets wrinkly in the corners ir comes off. How do i deal with that? Would it be better if i just tooled these areas without cutting them first with the swivel knife? Any ideas? Thank you!!!

I just wanted to thank everyone for their advice. I have been working on the floor this morning (since its sunday and all stores are shut to buy a piece of marble) and soaked the leather a bit better and it did wonders. The tooling looks very good. I only have one last question. Is there anything i can use instead of contact cement to keep my leather from stretching during tooling? Any tips on that? (i dont believe i can find contact cement here).

The center does appear a bit darker. And i did the test with the water....there's bubbles coming out of everywhere so i guess it does take in water well. Jax if it is rawhide is it ok for tooling?

Hello, well to start, it doesn't have that grey line at all. I cut several edges and the color is just brown with the top layer a bit lighter. I did soak better and tried stamping on my floor and it was a lot better! Thanks! Unfortunately my neighbors where having a fight downstairs and may now think i was telling them off . As for the supplier, i did explain him what i wanted it for and told him that veg tan means that the leather wasn't processed with chemicals. He seemed to understand. I will try to find a harder surface. So if i do find a piece of marble i just put it over my working table?

It absorbs it and changes color right away unless it has a lot of water on top. In that case it takes a little while to spread. What concerns me and i havent had it with my previous leather is that when i look at the edge of the leather, it looks like the top 'coat' of the leather is from another material. Basically it looks like two different materials glued together.The top just looks lighter in color and glossy. I am not saying they are. It just looks like that. My previous leather looked even on the sides.

Now i use a heavy mallet. Its not wooden. However maybe i am not letting my leather dry as much as i should. Mike, what does that mean? If it is what you say, is it still possible to use it for tooling?

ok that may solve the noise issue but i still don't get why my tools dont imprint on the leather, even though i ve tried getting my leather cased with a sponge, spray bottle, wet cloth....everything

Well i realise it may be wrong but i read that in a leather crafting book so i thought i would give it a try..... And i dont have a rock surface unfortunatelly. Just a wooden working table.

How do i upload a picture here? i cant seem to find a way....

<p> How do i upload pictures here? i am a bit lost

Hello, and thanks for your reply. I m going to upload some pictures of it right away. You see i did that. All of it. i have a rubber mat over my working surface. and on top of that a plastic cutting board. I wet my leather prior to tooling. Could it be the thickness?

Also could it be the thickness of the leather? Is there like an average thickness that works best for tooling?

Hello everyone, I ve started leather crafting not long ago, watched a lot of videos and read a few books. However there is still something that is puzzling me. Since i live in Greece the things i can find about leather are a bit limited. I have explained to my leather supplier the kind of leather i need (veg tan tooling leather). He looked kind of confused so i just explained what i wanted it for (im guessing there aren't a lot of people here that tool their leather over here). Anyway, even though my leather looks like it is supposed to (compared to videos and pictures on the web) i have the impression that it is too hard. In all the videos i ve watched, the tooling looks like it doesnt take too much effort. The stamp just imprints perfectly on the leather without a lot of hammering and therefore, noise. In my case even though i make sure i crease my leather right, i really have to hammer my tools like 4-5 times to get a decent print. Not to mention the noise! My neighbors are starting to complain and now i need to find a place outside my house to do my leather work.Is that normal? Or do i just have the wrong leather? (I also tried some neatsfoot oil to try to make the leather softer. Results still the same. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Hello Mike, And thank you too for taking the time to give me some advice. I am now waiting for some new leather to try some of the advice people have given me over here. So here's a a question that might be a bit stupid, is super sheen always acrylic? Cause my bottle says water based. And would you think its better to work with acrylic dyes and antiques instead of water based dyes? What is most commonly used?

Hey Chavez When you say that the acrylic resolene takes time to learn to apply (and since i have some issues with patience) is it really that complicated? Any tips on how many layers and how you apply it? Thanks! And a last more general question. I ve read a lot about the advantages and disadvantages of every type of dye, and in the end i m still confused about whats best. If i used acrylic dyes or antiques would i still have this problem? And which dye actually gives a better result?

Hello. We do have quite a few products like that over here. Especially for wooden floors. However i don't know if all of them are good. Is it possible for them to have some sort of chemicals that will destroy the leather?

Hey! I would like to try the oil or wax based finish but since i live in Greece and i can only get stuff from the internet. So far all i can find on amazon or ebay is super shene ,acrylic finish by fiebings, satin super shene, acrylic resolene sealer and fiebings saddle lac spray. Should i use that last one since its spray? Is there any other products you would recomend that i can get here? Thanks for the advice

I dont have an airbrush but i ll try the spray bottle idea. Thanks! And by the way how do you know? I did that too actually. When i realized the paint was coming off with the cloth i took a paint brush and tried to apply it on the dyed area. Guess what! The coat was so thick the dye just floated away and my brush is now green! I nearly gave up. It was so frustrating! Seeing that a lot of you had the same problem is a comfort though. Hopefully in a few days i ll have something decent to show you!

Aw, thats too bad. Thank you though. I ll try that. However, if i use a cloth, i ll still have the dye coming off. And if i do apply 2 coats to the area i dont want dye on, and then dye the rest of it, well in the end the dyed part will need a finish coat too. Is there a risk of the finish being too thick if i apply another 2-3 layers on the whole porject in the end?

Thank you all for your advice!!! It has been really helpful. I was so frustrated. I had spent hours making that project and now it looks like something a kinder garden student made.I surely will start testing everything before i use it. And now i got more things i have to buy. Is everyone here from the US? I live very far from that, and cant get nearly anything here. I'm afraid leather crafting is not that popular in my country. I get most of my things from amazon. If i don't find the Clear Lac whats the next best thing?

Hello. I guess i could try that, but using oil would still make it ok for me to work with water based dye? Thanks