adams484

Thanks for all the help folks ... But I finally figured out the issue. It wasn't the leather after all as it was jamming up with the Herman Oak in the same weight as well. I will put up a YouTube video demonstrating the issue and how to fix it for anyone who has the same issue and I believe there will be others if they purchase a Cobra 14 and want to use it like I do to take real heavy saddle skirting and bring it down to 8 / 10 oz. or less. Oh by the way here is the answer to softening up a whole side at a time as well since it seems no body has tried it here and maybe needs to. Take a spray bottle with water and dampen the whole hide roll it up and get some shrink wrap at Home Depot and wrap it up and let it sit and even up for a while. It did the trick for me and I am still tempted to try adding a little Lexol to the water but haven't tried that yet. For you folks that have a clicker or die cutting press and have had some real dry hard to cut leather this will take some of the strain out of cutting as well. Again thanks for all the input here I really appreciate it.

Hey guys I sure could use some ideas. I just bought 2 sides of some economy leather at 10 to 12 oz in a drum died tan. The reason I went with the economy stuff was for the color and the price of course. With the waste it still comes out ahead of Wicket and Craig and Herman Oak does not do a drum dyed tan or I would buy it like I do their black and brown. Ok hear is a laugh or two for you... I also just recently bought a Cobra 14 splitter so I could start buying only one weight of leather and split it to my needs. So I go to stick a 6 inch wide chunk of the economy leather into the splitter and it goes about 2 inches and jambs up. After fighting with the thing and futzing with all the adjustments I finally figure out it is the leather not the splitter. My clicker with it goes to 20 tons of pressure and just barely cuts it and that's with super sharp dies! After this I try something that has worked for me in the past with real hard to cut leather I dampen it just a wee bit to soften it up and well things start work but barely and with a lot of careful pushing and prodding. So now I sit with these two huge sides of 12 oz to 15 oz on the edges and wonder what to I do with it. I only have a couple of hundred into the two sides but I would like to use it for something at least. As I see it now I have some choices: 1. I can find something else to make with it other than holsters and belts. Belts are out of the question as this is economy hides and there are a lot of defects to work around so big or long projects are not an option. 2. Try to soften the leather and work it. 3. Put it on the shelf and stare at it daily to teach me not to be so cheap. My preferred choice is to soften 8 to 10 inch wide strips and run it through the Cobra 14 but water softening is not preferred solution. I was thinking maybe Lexol thinned down or something else sprayed on with a paint gun. I could hang the hides outside spray them there. If any of you folks have had similar fun with leather and leather machines please share anything you have found that might help me with this. I any of you have a process to soften leather a whole side at a time please let me know about it. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

I use eco flo professional dye exclusively on my products. I can't speak to the all in one dye/finish but I have found that damp leather will dye more evenly but will look butt ugly until FULLY dried. This may be true for the all in one. First thing I would recommend is to not use it. Dying the leather and sealing/finishing should be two processes in my opinion that way you can control them more. Dying and finishing take some experience to get a truly consistent process. There are others that dye only fully dried leather and some that dampen it first. Both approaches will work just fine but have differing techniques. Over dying will often change the color completely like the eco flo tan. It will turn red if over saturated. If under saturated it will streak or look faded. The Bordeaux will be more sensitive to under saturation and will really look faded if under applied. So you see each color and each dye whether alcohol, oil, or water based will be a little different. Then after you get the project dyed it will most often be not very appealing until the finish is applied. This also varies from finish to finish and experimentation will be necessary. As a beginner I would recommend using an acrylic as it is in my opinion the easiest to control. On your first project start with a light coat and always let it dry completely before judging the results. Acrylics will often look very dull when partially dried but will shine up as the drying process completes. Sometimes too shiny if overdone and will take on the appearance of plastic, clear coat etc... The best advice I can give you is to pick a product, stick with it until you learn to get the most from it then decide if that is good enough for you. I would try many and have tried many and found I keep coming back to the same ones. You will too in time. But I would definitely not try to combine two steps into one. You loose creative control of at least one of them or both. If your goal is to end up with an oiled finish then I would use an oil based dye. Alcohol based dyes dry faster than water based dyes and water based dyes dry faster then oil based dyes. Keep in mind the drying goes on after the leather feels dry. An example is the Eco Flo Dark Brown will often seem like light black and I have had customers claim it looked like black but in two weeks it was a real nice rich dark brown. Sorry if this was inappropriately long but had I had some of this information when I was learning I would have saved a ton of hours and money learning it the hard way.

Hi folks, I have a about every dye available to man for dying leather. Yes I do. A ton of stuff I will never use again. So I thought before I change the acrylic I am using I would ask some of you here what you like and why you like it in acrylic finishes. I make holsters mostly and need the features that most acrylics offer. I have used Fiebings then went to Eco Flo satin which I like but I noticed Angelus has a satin finish too. I usually buy in larger quantities so I wanted to see if any of you have used Angelus satin finish or have maybe found something you think is a better acrylic in a satin finish before I commit to something for the next 100 or so holsters. I have found that you need to work with something for a while to truly get the best from it. Please post what you like about any acrylic product, the features that you find most appealing, and let's face it life is a trade off most of the time so mention what could be better with the product as well. Your experiences would be very valuable to me and maybe some others.

I make holsters and often wet mold after dyeing. I have tried every dye on the market. All of them. The ECO Flow professional dyes are the best as far as color fastness. When I use Angelus or Fiebings a yellow tinge (with the black dye) will develop in the water when wetting the piece. However with the DRIED Eco Flow I never get this bleeding of color. It has some kind of wax or something in it the seals it when dried. My holsters are mainly sold here in the south where we get good and sweaty in the summer so this color fastness issue is real important to me. My customers often wear a holster next to the skin and I don't want them telling me they got a yellow tinged backside because of my holster. I really hate to say this but after you get used to Eco Flow it is hard to go to anything else. Oil based dyes are good but take forever to completely dry. Alcohol base dyes dry fast but bleed like heck. Yes guys I know if you seal it with acrylic it won't bleed until the acrylic wears through or the leather gets soaked enough. The reason I hate to say Eco Flo is because the only place you will get it is at Tandy and they have been getting difficult to deal with. That is the reason I have tried everything else and it failed to stand up to the Eco Flo. You might try an oil based dye if you have the time for drying. But seal it well or have yellow wrists.

I make holsters and use Tandy's water based dye. I often dye the holster first then wet mold it. The waxes in the dye seem to do a very good job of stopping bleed even when wet molding. But back to your problem. It will probably stop bleeding when all the spirit based solvents leach out in a couple of months. Not what you wanted to hear? Well if it were me and it has been me in the same fix, I would just use acetone to remove the oil based dye and re-dye it with Tandy's water based dye. After re-dying put some Lexol or some other good conditioner on it to keep it from drying out too much and cracking. Then seal it and forget it. Take my word for it a CCW (Concealed Carry Weapon) holster often sets against sweaty skin in Alabama and I have had only problems with Alcohol and Oil based dyes that I just don't have with the Tandy's water based dyes. Give it a try.

I too do a lot business with Tandy. Fortunately I am only a 45 minute drive from the Birmingham store. Like all businesses that deal with merchandise like leather there are times when the stock is up and the stock is down to left overs. Being able to go in and pick my sides I have gotten some extremely good deals. They treat me like a valued customer and are willing to go the extra mile to get me what I need. I usually buy the top quality leather and have had no problems except when I got cheap and tried to use economy grade. You get what you pay for so don't buy an economy side or double shoulder and expect high grade European leather. I have used every dye available and keep coming back to Tandy's water based dyes that some on this forum have complained about. They have good quality products for those willing to pay for it and economy leathers for beginners to learn with. But I too have no problem with Tandy. I can't speak for the other stores but the Birmingham, Alabama store is well managed and staffed with the best people I have every done business with.