YinTx

me: Why do I have so many stitching irons? I need to sell some of these off. I only use a few of them. also me: Oooh, thats a pretty stitching iron. It looks nice with my other irons. I bet it makes a perfect stitch line.... ______ me: Why do I have so many dang knives? I need to sell some of these off. I only use a few of them. also me: Wow, I bet that knife cuts awesome, and you never have to sharpen it, and after a fast strop, it'll skive vellum to an angstrom thick! must have it.... ____ me: What am I going to do with all this leather??? also me: What a great price on this fantastic bridle leather! I could make so many awesome things with that! and so it goes, on and on.... YinTx

How did you manage to get the perfectly rounded ends? Tool looks great. YinTx

Yes, States, and yes, Texas. Got most of my Sedwick's from overseas, but some from here: Tandy sells it now, it is pretty expensive. Local store has a hard time moving it I think due to price. Barenia is from France, but sold here in the States also. It is considered by some the quintessential Hermes leather since that is what they started making their saddles with. YinTx

I am quite tempted now. Do you have to complete the lessons in the 4 days, or can you set them aside and do them when you have time? I suspect after this thread, he'll get quite a few sales YinTx

All that you say makes sense. And the Hermann Oak smell really comes out for me when I case it - particularly the older leather I have. And the veg tan that stinks---I have some of that crap! I thought it had been ruined by a cat or dog or something - I tried to clean with Oaxalic acid, etc - helps, but wow! Nice to know it is just the tannery formulas doing that. I haven't used it for anything but prototyping it smelled so bad. If you are curious, I can always send a bit of the Barenia and Sedgwicks for you to see/feel/smell. Beautiful stuff for sure. I don't do "English" work per se, but I like to use this leather when I can. I have quite a bit of the Sedgwicks now, and can't wait to use it on something. YinTx

For me, I was referring the the cost of Cary's DVD's, I think around $115 new. Agree, $20 seems ok if you get some decent content. It is frustrating to get nickel and dimed to death with inadequate content floating about the world, so I am always a bit reticent to spend. I've bought my share of not so great stuff and not been so happy - low price and high price. And I won't sell any of it on to someone else and make them feel the same way, so it sits on the shelf or goes in the bin. I can understand why the OP is asking for some good references regardless of cost. Unless it's that feller that sells em patterns on that there web place for holsters for that unreasonable price of a click. Even that came with some decent recommendations, tho. YinTx

I am curious about this (what leathers have you seen this with?), since I have found the opposite. Example, Barenia leather is quite expensive, and the treatment they use is odiferous. Same goes for the Sedgwick's leather I have, very significant smell, they use a lot of oils in their leather, and some of it is fish oil, I believe. The mimosa used to tan the Chevre Chagrin gives even the goat leather a very unique pleasant smell. Even some of the US leathers like Horween's Dublin has its own odor. All of them cause people to go "oooooooo I smell leather!" Some of the cheaper oil tanned and chrome tanned leathers I purchased a few years ago tanned in Asia do not have much of any odor at all. As far as veg tanned, most of the South American tanned leathers I have seen don't have much odor at all, but the Hermann Oak leather has a smell that I enjoy. Wickett and Craig seems pretty neutral for me. This and a bright pink hide I got on the cheap (which smelled like fish 3 years ago, and still smells like fish today, hence why I haven't used it yet) have been the exceptions to the rule for me. YinTx

Interested in this as well. I saw someone had Cary Schwartz' Floral Design DVD's for sale in the classifieds section, and I've heard these are good, but have never seen any excerpts or anything that would make me want to shell out the bucks. YinTx

Outstanding. Fantastic art, clean edges, great layout, perfect stitching, awesome color combination. YinTx

Thank you! Thanks, Ross. Maybe not a bad learning curve, but a painfully expensive one this time. Both in time and materials! Thank you Wedgetail, and very accurate description of the Chevre Chagrin. I was fortunate enough to get a client that liked my previous work well enough and was willing to pay for the quality materials so off to work I go. I keep thinking would be nice to have something from this kind of leather for myself, but interestingly enough, my current minimalist wallet is made from the worst scarred up bug bitten piece of scrap leather I had on hand, dyed black to hide the flaws! Works great, and I love it, expect it'll never wear out, but it's no Barenia or Chevre Chagrin! YinTx

A few years ago tried to make a dopp kit from soft leather... didn't like the way it came out. The very first thing I made was an overly complicated dopp kit that was ruined in a house fire, but I liked it. I imagine the softer leather version would be easier to pack in luggage, so all I can say is try it both ways, see what you like! My preference is the most recent version I just did - not veg tan, not soft upholstery leather, so now I'll have to make one for myself... YinTx

Ounce? and who is they? Us? Them? maybe we should be using thousandths... YinTx

I see there was a glitch in the matrix... YinTx

Sheilajeanne, The note books, 3 ring binders, padfolios etc. that I've done, I case the entire piece before I start. I use a casing solution of my own mixture, based on a variety of casing solution recipes on this board. If I remember correctly, it has liquid glycerin saddle soap, neatsfoot oil, brown listerine, some lexol leather conditioner and a lot of purified R.O. water. As I am working, if I feel it is beginning to get to dry, I'll mist the entire thing with a water mist bottle, wait a few moments, and carry on. I have seen one individual case his leather with 50/50 saddle soap and water, seemed kinda extreme to me. But, I never get hardened leather. And I don't soak it until the bubbles stop as many do. Just enough to get the leather the correct moisture content throughout, and that usually means waiting a bit for it to even out. When I am done tooling and it is dry, I'll add any dye, and after that a very light coat of neatsfoot oil if I feel it needs it. Then on to the finishing touches such as leather balm, tan kote, antique, resolene or whatever suits your fancy. I can't imagine leather so hard it'll crack after tooling. Usually it takes hot hot water to get this reaction. YinTx Sheilajeanne, The note books, 3 ring binders, padfolios etc. that I've done, I case the entire piece before I start. I use a casing solution of my own mixture, based on a variety of casing solution recipes on this board. If I remember correctly, it has liquid glycerin saddle soap, neatsfoot oil, brown listerine, some lexol leather conditioner and a lot of purified R.O. water. As I am working, if I feel it is beginning to get to dry, I'll mist the entire thing with a water mist bottle, wait a few moments, and carry on. I have seen one individual case his leather with 50/50 saddle soap and water, seemed kinda extreme to me. But, I never get hardened leather. And I don't soak it until the bubbles stop as many do. Just enough to get the leather the correct moisture content throughout, and that usually means waiting a bit for it to even out. When I am done tooling and it is dry, I'll add any dye, and after that a very light coat of neatsfoot oil if I feel it needs it. Then on to the finishing touches such as leather balm, tan kote, antique, resolene or whatever suits your fancy. I can't imagine leather so hard it'll crack after tooling. Usually it takes hot hot water to get this reaction. YinTx

Looks good! and yes, lots of skiving. The leather I had used was pretty thick. I really need a bell skiving machine to get nice and even, as well as faster. Even with the skiving, I added a cotton binder to the inside to clean up the look some, but still it was a bit much for my taste. Not sure what one could do about that. YinTx

For a "rush" job, I'd say you did fantastic! now to make one for myself... I feel like the cobbler with no shoes somedays... YinTx

Thats the one, for sure. Look forward to seeing what you come up with! YinTx

Rossr, I just did some math and sketched the pattern out myself...turns out I screwed up the math, so the dimensions weren't exactly what I was expecting, but came out ok anyhow. Since the math was off, I tossed the sketch. Here is one I just did so you can see the shape. It is stitched inside out obviously, and turned. The two matching pieces of zip are on opposite sides. Let me know if this makes sense to you. YinTx

Did I read this right, you have to pick it up? Bit of a drive for me, sadly. YinTx

The cutting edge on that mallet die/slot punch looks really rough and banged up. How long have you been using it for it to get in that condition? Also, a lot of well known makers out there like Osborne, Blanchard, etc make this type of punch, any comparison to them on price/performance? YinTx

I saw a video where they floated yellow and black paint in a large pool of water, then dipped an electric guitar in it. Removed the floating paint, pulled the guitar out, and voila, black and yellow swirled guitar. Maybe same concept? But would think dipping a piece of veg in a pool of oil is asking for a lifetime of oil soaked leather. YinTx

Looks like some mis-haps I've had on leather in the past, where the dauber dumped the dye in the first pass, then didn't really dye much after that. Could be done by applying a very diluted coat of say Fiebing's 201 Light Brown to get the light color, then streaking on the full strength dye on top of that for the dark areas. Kinda looks like dauber swipes or wet rags (wet with dye) wiped in an arc to me, but just a guess based on past difficulties getting an even dye job. YinTx

awesome, thanks for sharing this. YinTx

Generous offer, I'll take you up on it if you will take some type of leather in trade. Anything in that range you would be interested in? I have Horween, Wickett and Craig, Hermann Oak, etc., even could consider Barenia... YinTx

Sam, Barenia leather is a calf leather made by the Haas Tannery, one of the most important leather suppliers to Hermes as I understand it. Chevre is a goat leather made at the Alran Tannery, although there are others as I understand it. Both are French tanneries. Both are quite expensive, and the three wallets used up an entire side of Chevre, and most of a half side of Barenia. Companies like Fine Leatherworking and Rocky Mountain Leather Supply sell these kinds of leathers. Anyone that has better info on these two leathers is welcome to chime in. YinTx