Micah

thx electrathon. I'll give the brushing a try anyone have ideas on my other 2 questions??

I bought a couple of cobra skins from snakeskin.us and they arrived today. one is a monacled cobra with the head that is going on a strap I'm making for a friend, the other is an orange-dyed spitting cobra skin w/o the head that will go on my own strap. mine (the orange one) seems pretty smooth, can't feel the edges of the scales, but the other one feels like the scales are raised a little and may flake off over time without some sort of protection. I read in another post to use Leather Balm with Atom Wax or Carnuba Cream. It also says to use Neat Lac, which I have. But will the Neat Lac remain flexible enough over time to use on a guitar strap? I've only been using it for a couple of months on non-flexing items, so obviously not enough time to know how it wears over the long haul. Another question on the snake head... it has been stuffed and still has the tongue, which I'd like to reshape to look as though it's flicking, not lopsided and curled up like it is now. any pointers on what to soften it up with to do that? is water suitable or does it need something stronger or better for the tissue? EDIT: also, is there a way that the skin can be "bleached" or have it's hue changed a little bit? it has kind of a muddy brown tint, which is ok and I guess expected for the species, but I'd like to at least lighten up the whiter areas if not reduce the brown. any help is much appreciated

that's just awesome!! how can you not stay positive with support like that? and being able to leathercraft while in rehab will surely be a huge help in his recovery!

Oh man! Terrible news but very glad to hear he's keeping optimistic! I will as well. Pullin' for you bro, hang in there!

thank you all! the color really loves to play in the light (made it a real trick to take its picture, too). Indoors under ambient light, it is very dark maroon, but put a light on it and it springs to life! Regis, all dye work was done by hand using wool daubers (and a toothbrush/needle for the spattering). I wish I had an airbrush, the shading would have gone a lot faster! Instead I built it up gradually from the edges with a lot of rubbing, but you have to give the dye in the dauber a few days to dry out first or else it goes on too heavy.

he already knows the risk of the buckle, and he uses straplocks, but those are good points to mention (I wasn't aware of those problem areas in the beginning). I jammed around on it with my $1500 all maple/ebony (heavy!) guitar for an hour, serious, hardcore jamming and the strap performed great. I wanted to make sure it would handle some abuse (with my most prized possession!) before I would feel comfortable sending it to him. I was concerned about the beefiness of it until I tried it out, I love it w/o a doubt now. He had also complained about the flimsy leather straps most places are selling these days, so I think he'll like this :D thx for the compliments and feedback guys! I learned a lot from this project that will make my next one better

This weekend I finished the guitar strap I've been making for a good friend. I now have 3 more to make and think I will keep one of those aside for myself, given how pleased I am with the results of this first one! This was surely an educational process and I'm gonna miss this strap after it ships Tuesday. Anyway, the low-down... ~8oz veg lined with 1.5oz velvet pigsuede dyed red (Fiebing's pro oil dye) with black borders, Chinese writing ("fire horse"), and spattering, then shaded with more black Artist signature done with a Sharpie neatsfooted (new verb?) grooved, thonged, and handstitched slicked, dyed, and burnished edges sealed/finished with Resolene hand-distressed zinc/nickle roller buckle hand-brushed nickle/steel rivets black latigo lace for acoustic guitar tie adjustable between 38"-53"

Hey! I resemble that remark!

not sure I follow. I already had the digital images (gif and jpg, which I resized in PS) so a scanner would serve no purpose. a printer on the other hand would be a faster alternative to tracing it on the flat screen. oh wait, maybe that was meant for Dragons Pearl... yes, if he has a scanner and a graphics editor (most scanners come with some sort of editor) he could definitely do it that way... scan that page of the book and resize the image in the editor, then print or trace.

here's something I just did an hour ago. a friend sent me some images he wants for the design on his strap. I don't have a printer/copier or a pantograph, but I do have photoshop and a flat panel LCD monitor (the Dell finally came in handy for something, LOL). So... 1. Open the images in photoshop (any graphics editor with a zoom feature will work). 2. Zoom the images to the right scale (use a ruler, layed on the screen, to verify). Side note: if you can specify an exact zoom amount, like 122%, all the better. 3. lay some tracing film over the screen. The screen has some natural static electricity to it which helps hold the film in place while you grab your painter's tape to secure it down. 4. use a standard pencil (not an eversharp) and LIGHTLY trace the pattern. If you can see rippling on the screen where you are drawing, you are pressing too hard and could damage the display. use several lighter strokes to build up your lines, rather than one or two heavy ones. 5. remove the tape/film... presto! It also helps a great deal if you can tilt the screen back. the more horizontal the better I'd thought of doing this for a couple months now and finally had reason to put it to the test. works great!

I hate it when people make things look easy, LOL! Did you notice how easily (and evenly) the dyes and acrylics brushed on?? guess I just need more experience wonder what sealer she was using.

Ok, so I have this guitar strap I'm making for a friend and he has requested I put my signature on it, specifically for it to be part of the strap. I have informed him my autograph looks like total chicken scratch, but he still insists, LOL. I've been brainstorming ideas for doing this... carving it in, burning it in (with a woodburning or soldering iron, or even just a hot needle), painting it on with dye, or writing it on with a permanent marker. My first reaction to any option OTHER than writing it is that it becomes less personal or "valuable" to the owner. I might as well use a rubber stamp like some politicians have done, much to the dislike of the recipients. So, my first question is... are there any long-term ramifications to using a Sharpie? FWIW, the leather at that point would be dyed, but not neatsfooted or sealed. Just wondering about fading and/or discoloring. I didn't notice any bleeding or strange behavior when scribbling on a test piece today. I tried the burning option, but it doesn't look (or smell) so great. Nice effect but hard to control. Think of trying to write with a pencil by holding it at the eraser... while it's on fire, LOL! The painting on with dye option seems to be the safest bet, though it involves a couple extra steps (tracing over the best-looking signature I can write, and transfering it onto the leather, then painting over it), but seems kind of "cold". I also don't want it to look more important or catchy than the other designs that are going on the strap. It's not about me Anyway, please share any thoughts you might have, thx!

thx for all the thought you're putting into this. maybe it was just an isolated incident? I will have to try it out on a different piece of leather, it might have just been the one I was using. Either way, I'm interested in checking out these Ceramcoats, for the price and selection if nothing else! here's the finished fob, btw. removed the red acrylic (which turned out more orange anyway), and brushed on the black oil dye in its place. on the flip side, which is lined with black velvet pigsuede, there's a little pocket for a guitar pick. side note, you can see the makings of my friend's guitar strap in the background (the extension/adjustment pieces). I took this pic to show him how the black on red/black would look. certainly looks a lot better than the red acrylic did, LOL!

cool! I just had a friend ask me if laser-engraving worked on leather. I went out on a limb and told him I'm sure it would, glad to know I wasn't wrong

nice work, Dale! in answer to your question, no I have not yet had any difficulties with this piece of hide. but... like I said I have only done some small work on it with the acrylic, lines less than or around 1/16" wide. the calligraphy lines were to be as much as 1/4" in some places. no issues at all, on any scale, with the oil dyes or finishes either. Also, I have not applied any waxes or finishes to the leather yet, and I cleaned the surface with rubbing alcohol prior to dying but no deglazer or anything. the bottles of acrylic say "rendered useless upon freezing". could that have been it? could they have been stored improperly at the supplier or in transit to them? I ordered them during the summer so no cold weather in sight.

thx for your help Fortunately I didn't do any carving/tooling on this piece other than a slight impression where I transferred the design on with a ball-point stylus. I've had ok results with this acrylic over the oil dye before this piece but it was limited to very, very small stuff, like thin lines (and I had better results with the white than red), but never a larger area like this, guess you can only get away with so much, LOL. thx, Kathy, for the tip on the Ceramcoat! I will look for it as I'm not ready to give up on the acrylics yet Fortunately, I was able to remove all of the acrylic with a damp sponge and some rubbing (very small circular motions). this did degrade my black-to-red background shading a bit but I can recover that with some touch up dying. I'm going to go with black dye for the symbols this time (that's convenient too as I have a customer who wants this same look on his project). It's just a key fob I made out of scrap for myself, a testing platform really.

Beyond thinning with water vs straight from the bottle, does anyone have any advice on getting acrylic paints/dyes to look good with a brush? I'm using Fiebing's acrylic dyes and having particular trouble getting it to build up or go on evenly. I am trying to paint some Japanese calligraphy on a piece of veg belly using the red acrylic over a previously dyed deep red/black background (using Fiebing's pro oil dye). I've tried building up to the color I want for the characters but it seems to be getting nowhere fast after several coats, all thinned with water (~50/50 or slightly more acrylic). Trying it straight from the bottle is not working either, it puts on a fairly solid stroke but when I try to brush it out a bit it takes it off that stroke and puts it on the new stroke instead (leaving hardly any behind on the previous). Also, I am letting each coat dry for, at the very least, 2-3 hours but more often overnight. Does the brush material itself make a lot of difference? I bought a pack of assorted "artist brushes" and there are at least 4 types of bristles used. I've been using the ones with the finer (probably synthetic) bristles thinking they would be less likely to hold on to the paint than a coarser brush. But ultimately I think my problem has something to do with brushing technique or thinning and applying the stuff, I dunno! Help?

This might be old hat to some or many of you but I was just playing around and found a great way to blend from one color to another without resorting to airbrush or other tricky methods. One of the guitar straps I'm making will be deep red blended to black borders so I've been experimenting with that for a while. Anyway, I grabbed the wool dauber I've been using for pro oil dye red. It has not been used in at least a week or two but still contains enough pigment inside to gradually rub off onto the leather with some good rubbing and rolling. Next I did the same thing, but working in the opposite direction, with my black dye dauber. You can see the results on my two test pieces below (the hard black border and kanji on the fob were done before all of this, fwiw). Took a little bit of patience and keeping an eye on the big picture to get the shading right but it looks a megaton better than the other stuff I have tried! This might take some time to do on the strap, given it's size, but I can deal with that right now. So, what I've done now is set aside 2 daubers for each color of dye, then by alternating between the two I will always have one that has some leftover "juice" to it without having to wait for it to dry out enough first. Anyway, like I said you probably knew this already but maybe it'll help sombody else out

Bill, thx for the tips! I will keep my eyes peeled when I go out later this week Also, I used the finer side of the file to smooth out the burrs. It looks mangled but feels pretty smooth! Peter, thx for the warning! Earlier I "cooked" it over a candle flame (outdoors, fortunately!) for about 20-30 minutes, rotating it periodically and allowing it to becomes completely covered in soot. Of course, the soot wipes off (minus a few areas that vigourously rubbing with a rag didn't get at), but the heat was enough to very mildy discolor the metal. A higher heat would probably be needed to have more noticeable effect but I will be cafeful about that now! Gonna try your vinegar idea next. Here's a pic of it so far...

Been searching around for ways to distress one of my belt buckles but coming up short on ideas. The buckle is nickel-plated zinc, btw. I took an old, meaty metal file to it... beating and scraping it silly, which really marred it up nicely. Now I'm trying to figure out a good way to "age" it, meaning make the pitting look blackened and maybe bring down the overal shine. I read to use black petina but the results I saw made the overal piece look too dark. Anyone know of any homebrew recipes or products that might work (without having to goout and buy a specialty product)? Hoping I have something around the house already that might have some effect. Also going to try torchng it. Anyway, just curious :scratchhead:

thx! I just did a search for "stitching groover" and found that S&D Trading has them... and I just placed an order with them 3 days ago, ARGH! LOL! Well, going to Hobby Lobby again soon so I will see if they have anything similar before I shell out for shipping.

I have one of those edge groovers and like the way it removes the dyed top grain to reveal the natural color, kinda like a chisel effect. I have some pieces on which I would like to make inscriptions and/or designs with that same look, but due to the offset of the groover blade it is difficult for me to get the blade to go where I want it to. Is there another tool that would work better for this, or maybe a carving technique? I've tried using various knives but they only seem to cut and, at most, bevel the grain but not "chisel" it away.

yeah, will do! On the Neat-Lac, is there a major difference in result quality between the aerosol and bottled versions? I figured as with most sprays the aerosol is more convenient to apply but maybe has lower quality results. thx for your help

Cool, thx Kate! And now I know I'm not off my rocker with this coaster idea, LOL. BTW, I have some of that Fiebings Leathercraft cement and was wondering just now if it is suitable for wood/leather bonding? Of course, I think some of that cork comes with an adhesive backing, too, if I go that route.

Very good topic and answers!!! thanks everyone :biggrin: