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I'm in the same boat. After a couple days of experimentation, I think I will use heat on the first coat or two to encourage adherence, then sand and apply more coats without heat to ensure that it's even. I couldn't consistently get an even surface, but the heat definitely seems to help it stick. After making a dimmer box and trying different soldering tips, I think I may just try a cheap, teflon-coated iron to see if that works.

Any idea what the temperatures are for glazing with Fenice? When I heat treat, it's changing the color and I'm not getting an even finish. Can't tell if I'm running it too high or too low.

I don't know if it's possible, but when you stock more colors, I would buy 8-10 if they came in smaller bottles (1-2 oz, say). Even 4 oz bottles would be easier to swallow the cost of all at once. I'm making watch straps, so I really don't need a lot. Thanks!

Beautiful!

It's anodized aluminum. I got plain anodization, but you can select colors, raw aluminum, and perspex. You can select the thickness also. I went with 3 mm because it was less than $1 more than 2 or 2.5, but 4 mm was like $6 more. I used their program, which is pretty awesome. My favorite thing about it is it gives you pricing for your design internally. You can "value engineer" your design, get your pricing on the spot, then submit the order all from within the program. I was initially going to engrave "18/16" on it, but it ended up increasing the cost 50% so I just used a sharpie when it got here. I loaded DXF files into it from my CAD drawings but it reads SVG also. With DXF, it only reads the outlines, but I don't know about SVG. You can add holes and engraving in their program if you want. There appear to be a lot more options than FPE for this kind of thing if you're using Illustrator or Inkscape. I'm not a CAD guy, but it's way more intuitive for me than those other programs. I also wanted aluminum rather than acrylic, but I see that Hermes uses acrylic so I'm sure that would work and it opens up lots more options.

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I'm finding that a light touch and multiple passes with the knife really helps. Also, I drew up a tapered strap template in CAD, and cardstock didn't cut it. Just got these from front panel express.

Beautiful work. Nice straps from all in this thread. I'm getting the stitching, construction, and edges down on my watch straps, but one thing I'm really struggling with is cutting tapered straps. Charlie, how are you cutting your tapers? I have done better by cutting slightly wide, gluing, then cutting to an outline or template once folded. Even this hasn't been totally consistent for me. I have seen videos of people cutting exotic leather tops and other linings separately with scissors but I can't imagine doing that myself without the edges being totally off. I actually drew up what I wanted in CAD and printed to card stock for 18 mm lugs and 16 mm buckle. On softer stuff like suede it's hard to keep the template in place and keep the leather from moving enough to cut accurately. Sometimes I cut along a template and I find that I had the knife at a slight angle in spots while I'm trying to follow the curve instead of running the knife along a straight edge. I also contemplated getting my CAD templates for a few sizes made on a CNC machine so I have a metal template to hold down tight and run my knife along the edge. Do I just need to work on steadying my hand, or is there a better way of cutting even tapers? Thanks, Alex