Leerwerker

I have been inspired by Jim Linnell to do more decoration just with swivel knife cuts. Now I am experimenting with taking it a step further and using the same style of cuts, I add a bit of subtle beveling. To illustrate, here are two can wraps that I am working on. One is just pure cuts and the second have some of the cuts beveled. Here is closer detail to show how I faded out the beveling: Lastly I added a few more cuts just to fill things out a bit. I have an entry on my blog too: LeatherByJohan

I wonder if you did not buy a latigo strap - the leather is not toolable in the same way veg tan leather will take tooling. Pre-dyed veg tan leather is usually toolable. Tandy carries a chestnut colored saddle skirting that makes beautiful crisp impressions. And so does their pre-dyed black sides and double shoulders. It just takes a bit longer to case the pre dyed veg tan. Best is to take your strap to a Tandy and let them identify it for you.

Hi everybody, I was contacted by someone in South Africa who had purchased a Billy 2shews portrait of Nelson Mandela - different from the one I have seen on the gallery here. I attach a picture of the one she has. She asked me to help put a monetary value to the art work, I assume for insurance purposes. Any help?

The deal used to be that if you bought ONE OR MORE (stamping) tools, you could get one free tool per month. Same for craftaids. Those are still being honored until the end of the year for Wholesale Club members who joined while that scheme was in place. Now there are the specials like the coupon for a free craftool in the Skiver Newsletter.

Leather Chemists Forum

X1 or Drakes Dressing is the best stuff ever! It is not an antique and can at best be described as a version of old style highlighter and leatherglow that used to be available at the same time. It works best on dyed and tooled leather and just makes the tooling pop without the black in the impressions that all the new highlighters give. It works much more subtle and effective. You can apply it just as a finish and depending on how thick you put it on, you can wipe off the excess. You DO NOT use it over a resist, as it is a finish in its own right. It really does enhance that flat color left by spirit and water based dyes. I wish we can have it manufactured again!!!!

Did some doodling with a friend and we came up with these free hand designs. Time came up with the nice scroll in bottom picture of the un-dyed pieces. We resisted the designs with Block-out and used various colors of High-Lighter over that. Look at the close-up's - In stead of using a modeling spoon to smooth the beveled edges, I used a hair-blade and it trapped some of the high-lighter to give more of a 3-D effect.

Bison, It looks like the culprit is the clear-lac - it is not resisting enough, in other words it is letting some of the antique through and some not. I would suggest either Block-out or Supersheen as the resist. But to fix this one - I really do not know. I did have a guy work for me who would be unhappy with a project like that and then strip it off any way he could, thinner, acetone, de-glazer. Then he would apply some other finish .... And the pieces that I still have of his, all look really great!

Both Fiebings dyes have one huge drawback: In the time that the dye travels from the airbrush nozzle to the leather, a huge percentage of the solvent evaporates. This means that the dye doe not penetrate as far into the leather as would have been ideal. Regular Fiebings is more of a culprit here than the Pro Oil Dye. The slightest scratches to the leather shows. The new waterbased dyes are far superior when it comes to airbrushing. Their 'solvent', water, travels all the way to the leather and helps the dye penetrate deeper into the leather. Cleaning the airbrush is also easier.

There is no problem with using ANY plant or animal oil. Cod liver oil is also very good and was originally where the very romantic smell of leather comes from. Try it - I did after one of the leather chemists at the tanneries told it to me. I soaked a large piece of leather in cod liver oil and the fishy smell lasted about three hours. Then it changed into a pure leather smell. The very good Brittish conditioner, Dubbin, is made with cod liver oil. On their forum, the leather chemists were unanimous: animal/plant oils were not bad for leather; mineral oils would deteriorate leather over time. In fact, they went further (might have been in a different discussion) to say that acidic is good for leather (pH of 4 is ideal). Leather is actually acidic as it comes out of the tannery: place pot metal on wet leather for 90 seconds and see what happens. So, I really don't think there is a major difference between using neatsfoot oil, cod liver oil and olive oil. Coloring? I have never mixed oils and dyes, so that one someone else can give you an answer....

I really enjoyed the show - thanks for a friendly atmosphere! The lighting aspect is an absolute, not just for people who want to take photographs to go and show all the beautiful in the rest of the world, but also for the people to be able to SEE the work. (The average age of attendees indicate eyesight that works better in bright light....). The light did also present a problem at the judging - at one point judges could not even see if a piece had braiding or stamping as a decorative border! (...until a flashlight was produced ....)

Thanks Ben - I have them updated with those names ...

Budd, you can look at the fotos with blue ribbons hanging (first) red (second) and white (thrid) on the photos, Where you see tri-colors, they won best of category... My Show Photos Photos by Leather Wrangler

I have just uploaded all my photos of this weekend to my webalbum. You can see it at: Johan's WebAlbum Photos If you recognize a maker and I do not have his or her name with the article, please let me know who it was that made a certain article.... Here is a teaser:

I am glad! Let me know if there are any improvements I can make...

I currently do not have any of the patterns in the Minneapolis store (working on it and will have copies again soon), but in the mean time you can go to my blog LeatherLearn and search for 'leather hat' and then look for the link to the static web pages on how to make the hat. At the bottom of that web page is a downloadable copy of the top hat pattern in 1/2 size - simply take it to Kinko's and have it doubled...

Here are the videos:

Hi everybody, A friend has these two books for sale - he is just getting older and has never really used them: Design Artistry and Leather Secrets He wants about $200 for the two or anything near that....

Managed to finish these this morning - they have been in the making over three months .... wish I had more time to play!

One of the nicest hand stitching threads comes from Tandy in really good colors: My link

Made these two for myself - the blue one just some nice stamping with a rope edge. The colored one is a cheat - a pre stamped belt where I just did the coloring - but it came out nice and it was inspired by a young scout who showed me his belt at the store - he did it from Tony Lair's book.

Ask you local Tandy store manager to demo the new Damascus blades for you - they come pre-sharpened - super sharp! they really are the tool for the leathercrafter who already had everything (before these came on the scene....)

My most valuable tools are also Joseph Dixons. The round knife sings like a soprano when you strike it! The sewing awl stays supersharp. The plowgauge gives you confidence when you hold it in your hand. The stitching clam has done many interesting demonstrations. And the old gentleman who taught me to handsew (in South Africa), sold them to me for next to nothing ... - they were his duplicates.