Tugadude

FWIW, I rarely ever buy leather at Tandy. Last bit I purchased there was some veg-tan belly that they were practically giving away. Used it to make some coffee cup wraps and a coaster set. It was perfect for that. Tandy has all sorts of bags of fasteners, hardware, etc. and when they have a sale on tools, the prices on their Craftool Pro series is pretty affordable. I enjoy using their Craftool Pro Diamond Chisels. So like I said in the post above, when Hermann Oak has all of those things I guess I won't need Tandy. But until then...

When Hermann Oak starts stocking hardware and tools, I will start going there.

I assume you're referring to edges? If so, then I would dye the edge then burnish. If you slick the edges, in my opinion you are inhibiting the ability of the leather to accept the dye. It might be a fraction, but it has to have an effect. A secondary question is whether you burnish while the edges are wet or dry. Some people use gum tragacanth or saddle soap on the edges and burnish immediately. Some wait until the edge is dried and then burnish. I burnish the edges while they are still wet. Works for me.

Don't have any specific recommendations, but I will offer a couple of things for you to ponder. You don't say WHY you aren't comfortable with what you are using. Is it the feel of it? Does it not behave in a manner you find agreeable? Is the problem the blade? As you know there are several types of blades, degrees of slant, ceramic, etc. Is your blade sharp? If the blade is not the issue, is it the feel of the knife that bothers you? Is it the action of the knife? Does it not swivel in a controlled manner? \ Lots of stuff to consider before maybe jumping in and buying another one and finding it doesn't work for you either.

Stopped into me local Tandy on Friday. Great sale on tools and hardware going on. When I checked out I was offered a 2019 catalog. It is thick and chock full of information as well as products. Good resource for beginners. It describes where different parts of hide come from, how tannages differ, etc.. It also has a glossary of common terms, weight to thickness guide, and more.

Yes, over here road crews changed from blaze orange to yellow for the same reason. Human nature.

YinTx, you are so right. We've given away liberties like they were worthless. But those liberties have come at great price. We need to remember that.

Never done it myself but I did a quick google search and did find several sites where they discuss using the core strands as thread in emergencies to either sew someTHING or someONE up! As in sutures. Makes sense. The problem I see is that the inner strands are actually two strands themselves in many instances and when free, they unravel pretty quickly. Assuming you can wax them and get them threaded onto a needle, maybe you will be OK, but maybe not. So the easiest thing to do is to try it! The inner core doesn't stretch, so it has that going for it. It is supple and probably should last a long time, so no issues there. The only thing I can see is getting the strands to behave. Thickness is also an issue. If the diameter of the core strands is suitable, great, but if not? And it is only one color. Interested to see if anybody else has tried it. It is a good way to conserve material since the only other thing it is good for is filling up trash bins.

Hi, and welcome to the forum. What you have there is as you said, cheap leather. It is chrome-tanned as evidenced by blue/gray middle section. The tanning was done too quickly (time is money) and the middle is essentially not tanned at all. The outer layers seem to be splits, meaning they are not the top of the leather hide, but what is left after the outer hide was stripped away. Having said all of that, if your goal is to practice, then go for it. You indicated you bought it to test, and for that purpose it is fine. When your skills improve and you are ready to make a keeper, then invest in a better quality of leather. By then you will probably have a notion of what type of leather you desire. Leather can run from luxurious to rustic and everything in between. There are different colors, finishes, textures, you name it. I don't know your location, but if there is a Tandy or similar leather store near you go in and ask them to "educate" you on the various types of leather they sell and the types of projects they lend themselves to. We are a friendly bunch here and always happy to offer advice based on our experiences. One suggestion is to scour the internet and look at leather straps until you find one you really like. You can sometimes find in the advertising it refers to the type of leather used, for example, Horween chromexcel or such. Sometimes there are no specifics, but we can usually nail it down based on appearances, whether the edges are coated versus burnished, etc. In your post you mentioned that the leather you have cracks and changes color when bent. That is because it is a split and the leather fibers are flexing and separating in all sorts of directions. Full grain leather will have a tighter grain on the outer surface and should not crack unless it is too dry. BTW, a good source of finding small leather projects to attempt is to go onto Pinterest and search for small leather goods or something like that. You will find key fobs, wallets, electric cord wraps and hundreds of other things that should keep you busy for a while. So good luck, keep the questions coming and we'll help support your progress! Ray

Thanks to all who posted about the issue of knife violence. On this side of the pond there hasn't been a lot of attention on it. Honestly, I sometimes feel the BBC does a much better job of delivering news than what we have over here. Violence is violence and no matter the weapon of choice it is all bad. Sorry for your miseries. I hope the underlying causes are addressed over time and that things become more peaceful.

I'm in St. Louis, where Monsanto is headquartered and news like this isn't good for the locals.

Speaking of which, I just saw this today on Linked In... Bayer’s stock was jolted for a second time in less than a year after a jury in San Francisco determined the company’s Roundup weed killer caused a man’s cancer. Bayer lost a similar case in August that resulted in a $289 million verdict, which a judge reduced to $78.5 million. The German company acquired Roundup last year by purchasing Monsanto, an acquisition that “has now become its biggest potential liability,” says The Wall Street Journal, as it faces 11,200 lawsuits.

If you like that thread, stick with it, it looks good to me. It is advertised as waxed but probably lightly is my guess. You can get roundish thread or flat. Ritza 25 is flat. Some like it, some don't. In your other thread closer stitch spacing was discussed. Did you try it? I think what they call 1.0mm would look great with 3mm Craftool irons

Yes, you said it very well. But hey, at least somebody is profiting off of it!......

As a former employee of a major construction chemicals manufacturer, I can feel your pain. Products that we sold the heck out of in other states were verboten in California. Then it spread somewhat to Utah. Parts of the Midwest also are enacting stricter standards on VOC's and other ingredients. We developed and introduced products to try and satisfy the customer's needs, but at the end of the day they were a pale comparison to the "standard" formulations. Some were as good, but the substitution of key ingredients made them more costly.

It doesn't REALLY bother me, just frustrating and I'll explain why. When I worked for a global chemical manufacturer I was invited to be a member of the safety team for a time. I noticed that behaviors in regards to safety were all over the board. Some employees took it seriously, most didn't. There was definitely a "boy who cried wolf" thing going on. Most people didn't think our emails and informational campaigns pertained to them. We even tried to broaden our safety messages to include hazards in your home, but those seemed to fall on deaf ears too. In the end, I realized that messaging is difficult and it is easy for the target audience to tune out. Some messages were "read" for 0.17 seconds. The recipient, opened and closed the email immediately just so that it appeared to have been read. Shame.

Surely you have some scrap from the project you can experiment on? Burnishability (a new word?) is a combination of factors and the way a leather is tanned has an impact in addition to the source of the leather itself. So the answer might be yes and might be no depending upon the tannage.

To me the frustration is that when a warning becomes so pervasive that most folks ignore it, then is loses all validity. Does anyone pick up the hack saw and put it back on the shelf after seeing the warning on the package? Doubt it.

I was curious if a hand tool would have a similar warning since it has no electronics. Sure enough, the hack saw had the Prop 65 warning too.

Notice the warning near the middle of the second page...

This is from November 2018....California violations of Prop 65. Tools are specifically called out in the first section. Any tool with plastic as a component has a probability of containing an offending chemical under the prop.

5 oz. leather is approximately 2mm in thickness. So 6/7 oz. will be a little thicker is that matters to you. I had good results in using some 4/5 oz. buffalo culatta from Springfield recently. It was a book bag for one of my daughters and was essentially a tote as you are describing. Is your tote going to be lined? That might impact your choice too. I made a tote out of some really nice latigo one time but when I finished it, I regretted using the 7 oz. thickness due to the weight. Even empty the thing was a beast. So make sure of what you want before diving in. You may want it to be a tank, so heavier is better.

BTW, maybe by "Reproductive Harm" they meant in the hands of Lorena Bobbitt?

I worked for a chemical manufacturer. On new products, the packaging had to be evaluated by a team in both the U.S. and then Germany (where the parent company resided). The process would take up to 3 months and one of the main reasons was legal conformance. Companies with deep pockets are easy targets for lawsuits and even smaller ones like C.S. Osborne must take great pains to prevent themselves from being easy marks. What bothers me is when the warnings cease to be about helping people stay healthy and companies shielding themselves from tort action. How is that really helping anybody? It is sort of how everything is "green" these days. It went from a good thing to simply a marketing ploy.