RNicholas

Thank you all very much! I've managed to get an effect I'm happy with thanks to all of you. Also, next time... I will use search. Sorry. :|

Hi all! Second post here. I recently ordered a 6-7oz tooling shoulder from Tandy Leather Factory. The quality is fine, not amazing, but fine for what I'm doing with it. However, I wanted to see how some black dye would look on it so I cut some scrap off of it and tried to dye it (Gloves, wool dauber) and I found that the dye mostly just pooled on the surface of the grain and barely absorbed in. I could get it fairly well in after MANY coats, but I'm wondering why this is happening? It DOES look quite smooth, but is that it? I tried it out with an old round I had and the scrap side by side and the round absorbed the dye straight away but the newer shoulder just had dye sitting on top... Any advice? Will I need to sand it down or something? Concerned, R.

Hello 50 years Thanks so much for the quick and informative reply! Yes, I have a store called Packers Leather fairly nearby that are supposedly pretty famous for their kangaroo leather apparently (Used in all the indiana jones movies, according to their spiel). I only have 6-7 oz veg tanned tooling leather for the back and 1 - 1.5 oz pigskin lining leather for the lining (hence... lining leather... nevermind). Also, I only have a stanley knife or a hobby knife for the purposes of skiving... will these work acceptibly? I've looked at the safety beveller from Tandy that is for skiving apparently (go figure from the name), would this work for skiving off the edges for a wallet? Thanks again! R

Hello all! This is my first post (how exciting)! I've just started out with leather working and have done some Tandy kits. I'm fairly happy with the quality of the work so far (no pics yet, sorry), a few rookie mistakes. A small splash of die in the wrong place on one wallet and tiny little tooling imperfections. Anyway! I don't really like the Tandy wallet designs. Might be because I'm from Australia and we have different wallet culture... or it could be that Tandy kits are weird. So, I want to start making them from scratch so I can make what I want and feel some real pride in my work. I'm trying to find a pattern to use and/or learn from but I'm having a really hard time finding any decent ones. I'm happy to pay for one, I just can't find one. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I'm looking to make a bi-fold in the same vein as the pic I've attached (ignore the red arrow, not relevant). The second part of my enquiry is about acrylic paints. I want to make a wallet that has a design painted on the front part (not near any bends) but I've heard that the paint can wear off pretty badly... On the other hand the paint manufacturers claim that their paints are fine on wallets. Does anyone have any advice about this? Should I just avoid it entirely or will it go fine if I put some finish over it? Thanks in advance for your help, R