RiverCity

Brass escutcheon pins 3/4"

Block dying is the correct answer, but you dont need a block. I use a piece of tshirt (I buy tshirt rags by the box/lbs) folded over a few times, and go very lightly from there. The main trick is, you need to get most of the dye off the cotton before you touch leather. So have another piece of cloth there to blot off excess dye. Another tip is to make sure your impressions are clear and deep. Another tip on the stamping. Wet the leather and then stamp. Do not case the leather, do not wait for it to lighten in color. Stamp when it is too wet. The reason for this is to avoid the stamp burnishing the impression as best as possible. It will stay pretty much the color of the hide. Here you can see the difference in appearance on a light brown (the burnish from the stamping is close in color), black, and a medium brown. Hope this helps.

Since you are making a 'sandwiched' strap anyways, you can use thin nylon inside the strap. IMO the main strength becomes the nylon, with the added strength of the leather. It is also a good method of strap making for anything that is under a lot of tension and might stretch. From there, you can splice the leather however you choose. you can even make patchwork looking straps with this method.

Lots of good ideas for stuff you can use already mentioned. If you are going to be using them a lot, I prefer to have them laser cut out of acrylic. I always used Black River Laser. Not the best pic of the templates themselves, but this was the stack of templates for this particular case.

Ive never used theirs, but it is heavy duty http://www.strapworks.com/Elastic_p/e.htm Bear in the stretch is from rubber, so over time it will still lose its memory, be it from age or climate, some more than others of course. When you are making things that have what I term expendable parts, you need to design it so that parts that can wear out can be easily replaced. Chuck

To do what you are suggesting, I would get a standard carpenters square, drill 3 holes, one on each end and one on the corner say 9/32". Get some 1/4 20 t nuts, short compression springs( compressed they need to be thinner than the thinnest leather you plan on using) fender washers and some 1/4 20 thumb screws. Use the square that you drilled are your template to mark your table. Drill the 3 holes in the table for the t nuts. Hammer them into the table from the under side. Put your springs over the holes. The square sits on this with fender washers over the holes, then the thumbscrews through everything into the t nuts. The springs keep the square above the table surface, and can be tightened down to whatever thickness leather you are working on.All of that said, its not needed, the square works fine as a stand alone tool. But you can certainly engineer something cool that might work great for you! Chuck

If youve got a dremel or the like, get a 5-6" number 8 hardened steel bolt smaller in diameter than the washer, and grind a concave "dome" the right depth for the exposed post into the end on it. Gives a nice finished dome to the post. Chuck

Im still not understanding why 1-2 coats is supposedly a bad thing? Ive never had angelus chip off, or look gloopy. Not saying its not possible, just that Ive never had it happen. Especially if you seal it with resolene. Here is instructions straight from angelus, and they suggest 3-5 non dilluted coats for large coverage areas like shoes. Painting letters etc for me 1 coat supplies great coverage, with a touch up sometimes if it dries lighter in spots because it was too thin on that area. http://angelusdirect.com/pages/faq Chuck

I use angelus paints, I dont thin them, and I only use one coat. That might save you some time. Chuck

https://images.promotionsonly.com.au/product/corporate-glass-coaster.jpg http://www.handmadeinpa.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/sandy5.jpg Heres a couple examples of what Im talking about. Look for the thicker ones and youll save 20+ dollars. Chuck

Another way to get there on the cheap is glass drink coasters. If you hit thrift stores from time to time, you can find stuff under a dollar. Chuck

Vegetable tanned tooling leather is indeed full grain. Dont believe me, call Wickett and Craig, Hermann Oak etc and ask them. Full grain means the leather as it is taken off of the animal and the hair removed then tanned. The "grain" or epidermal layer is intact. And yes if someone was selling veg tan splits, it would still be veg tan, but the top piece with the epidermis would be still be called full grain. Top grain is synonymous with corrected grain, meaning the epidermis has been sanded etc and is usually used to describe chrome tanned leather.

Veg tan leather is full grain period. The grading is about how clear the hide is ex. range marks, brands, bug bites and other scars. The better the grade the less marks on the surface. Hope this helps Chuck

Thanks for the kind words! As for the weight, I used 4-5 for the whole thing just because I had it laying around. 5-6 or 6-7 would definitely be better if you are going to carve it, then use thinner for the pocket flaps. I had some Wickett and Craig I was using up, cause Im going back to Hermann Oak. I dont know but to me the W&C leather just doesnt carve as good IMO. It feels like youre dragging your swivel knife through p gravel where HO feels like butter. You almost have to do your cutting in when its too wet and wait for it to dry to be able to cut in smoothly. Chuck

Christmas almost done..... Couple more things to go! Notebook cover with a little Sheridan style carving and basketweave for my daughter. Chuck