fatbob1945

Good luck my friend and if you find one please share the link with me at e-mail fxdf96@gmail.com------------thanks. I have spent a half day looking for one,guess I'll just sit down and draw one up or find an old one and copy and modify as needed. There is kind of a nifty pattern for what is called a Mitty wallet on highonglue website that might interest you.

Can't believe I can't find a pattern for just a plain trifold men's billfold pattern on the internet nor here on the leatherworkers site. Guess I'll just have to sit down and draw one up or go borrow someones old one and do it from scratch. I did get the Mitty wallet pattern from highonglue.net but it's really not what I am looking for although it is pretty nifty.

I'm going to add to my last comment that I used to make wallets with some people who had made their embossing press using two heavy rectangular squares of steel with a large worm type screw thru them. You just layed your cased leather on the bottom slab of steel,put the plate on top of the leather and screwed the top slab of steel down tight onto the bottom one. Very similar to the early printing presses. These are very easy to build and there is no end to the variety of materials you could use to build one. While not fast they work well and it would depend on the size of the leather you are embossing what size press to build. When I do use an embossing stamp I use just a plain old C-clamp on a hard surface to transfer the image especially on the new 3D stamps,but as I said earlier I'm not a big fan of embossing and since most people don't know the difference between handtooling and embossing it has created difficulty getting a fair price for something you have spent hours creating by hand as opposed to stamping it out in 10 minutes.

I have entertained the ideal of finding the wringers on an old wringer washing machine and trying to build one or perhaps an old mop wringer or chamois wringer like they used when there were real gas filling stations around. Remember that when man originally started making things out of the hides of things he had killed,he couldn't just run down to Tandy and buy a tool or stamp. Someone made all the things we now take for granted and made them by hand and ingenuity. The problem I see with embossing is the cost of the plates. I guess they could be made by yourself by starting with a wooden mold and then casting into metal,but that would require a lot of tools and time not to mention knowing and having the skill to do it without a forge. If time is all you have along with minimum cash-----be creative---use your hands and noggin.

use fiebings deglazer before you dye or burnish the leather. It's cheap and is also great for cleaning up your brushes and drips and spills from your dye. It also will clean most smudges from your leather and make it accept the dye more uniformly. Don't smoke when using it kinda stinky but goes away fairly fast.

Very nice professional looking work sir!

I use a #3 edge beveler on belts made of 8-9oz leather and then burnish them with gum trag and a roller burnishing tool chucked up in a cordless drill. You can also use some 120 grit sand paper either by hand of a palm sander and then finish it off with a finer grit paper before putting on the gum trag. If you don't have gum trag like they sell at Tandy to name one,just plain water will work but the gum holds down the little rough particles on the leather better. also you can use pariffin (sic)or beeswax. Be creative!

I'm needing one and have some old wood laying around. This looks like a good example---thanks! I'm thinking that a hole drilled through both uprights with a couple of washers and a toggle bolt would help hold the work in place and not mark the leather as long as you don't overtighten. Good job!

My wife is my critique also but I learned the first time I asked her----expect to get your feelings hurt! It's been good though and my work has improved a lot. I don't ask her anymore she just comes over and looks at whatever I am working on and tells me what is wrong---LOL. Oh well she has dye on her carpet now and takes it fairly well.

Where are you finding Mop and Glo now days? Please reply to e-mail----fxdf96@gmail.com

Very nice! I'll have to try the latex,thanks!

I use the medium brown a lot on belts and billfolds. After the antique dries for a few minutes I have been using the Tandy Tan-Kote and then after it dries I use Kiwi saddle soap in a can and brush it after the saddle soap dries with a shoe shine brush till it shines and it works for me especially since I am on a tight budget.

Thanks fellows,---yep wasn't using the proper tool,I'll go and get a C-clamp and a ramsfoot next trip into town!

I figured out the problem---I wasn't using the proper tool. Looked the stamps up in the catalog and read the fine print,which states that the proper way to use these particular stamps is to use a 4 pronged "ramshead tool" instead of just a regular handle---it spreads the impact out over the entire stamp instead of just the center when using the snap in handle. They are not expensive and Tandy has them in stock. Thanks to everyone for their replies and I hope maybe this will help someone else out also.

It takes the larger part of the image ok,but not the fine letters etc. I'll try putting it on a piece of marble.