jfirth

Thanks for the insight; it's a great looking bag.

I have a question about how you did the flap on the bag. I made a messenger bag (attached picture), in which I folded over the exterior leather on top of the liner, but it created the wrinkling you see in the attached picture. I'm curious how you avoided this. From the previous comments, it seems that rather than folding over the exterior, you cut the exterior leather to the edge, and then attached a second strip along the edge on the interior to cover the edge of the liner. Is that correct? If so, did you avoid the wrinkling around the corners by cutting the strip to match the shape of the flap (cutting out a U-shaped strip), or did you cut a straight strip, and then somehow bend it around the corners avoiding the wrinkling?

I didn't dilute the tan kote, and the oil soaked in for probably a week before I dyed and put on the tan kote when I originally finished it. I deglazed with nail polish remover, and that seems to have done the trick ... the finish seems to be sticking much better now. Is is possible that excess dye can pool on the surface of the leather, and if not removed prior to applying tan kote, will result in the tan kote adhering to the dye particles, rather than the leather? I didn't think that I applied a ton of dye at the time, but when I deglazed, a lot of dye came up with the finish, so maybe that was the problem. If excess dye is a problem, how is that fixed in the future between dying and finishing? Would wiping with a little water be sufficient to remove the excess, or is deglazing necessary?

As you can see from the attached picture, the finish is flaking off of a belt I just made (never worn). My process was as follows: - 2 coats of neatsfoot oil - 2 coats of dye - 2 coats of Tan Kote - I coat of neutral shoe polish I've never had this happen before, but I normally don't add any oil. Could the oil be preventing the Tan Kote from adhering? It doesn't appear to be flaking off of the flesh side. Can this belt be salvaged? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm getting ready to try vinegaroon for the first time on a project, so I made up a batch and tested it on a scrap of leather, brushing it on some of the scrap, waiting a day, and then soaking the leather in baking soda dissolved in water for a few (less than 3) minutes. I only vinegarooned the very end of the scrap, but I dunked the whole scrap into the baking soda solution. The vinegarooned portion came out perfect, and all vinegar smell was gone. However, the un-vinegarooned end of the leather seems to have been significantly darkened by the baking soda solution; it's now a medium to dark brown. My baking soda solution was about 2 tbsp dissolved in about 8-10 ounces of water. So, I have two questions: 1. Can a baking soda solution be used as a cheap dark brown dye, similar to the way vinegaroon is used for black? 2. I'm assuming the darkening of the leather is a result of the baking soda burning it, which presumably could lead to problems similar to not neutralizing vinegaroon. So, is it necessary to use a specific strength formulation of baking soda solution to prevent a swing from one end of the ph scale to the other, rather than ending up in the middle?