fredk

We all need to find a really good sealer for our dyed leather items My Resolene, Astonish (my local version of Mop & Glo) and water does a very good job of sealing. But its not 100%. A few years ago I made some items for members of a club I'm in. I dyed and sealed. I tested how good the seal was. I put items in plain water, dish washing water, water with clothes cleaning powder in it, I tried strong alcohol, vinegar, Lemon juice, wiped the items over with a rag soaked in acetone, and with cellulose thinners. I even tried hydrochloric acid. No dye came off. A month after I'd given the items away one member happened to mention that his 2 year old grandson had chewed his item and his mouth had turned red from the dye. I never thought of trying a child's saliva in my tests! back on target; to the OP. You may have done right. Mop & Glow is an acrylic varnish. Resolene is an acrylic sealer. Your dye was most likely a water based acrylic as well. M&G is more aggressive. It can dissolve itself and other weaker acrylics. When I use those same products I dip dye, but I use a paint brush to put the sealer on. I keep the item flat and I flood the sealer on. Although the sealer might be dissolving the dye a bit its not going any where and dries back into the leather. I put on several coats this way, but I/you need to be careful not to put on too many coats as the M&G varnish will start to give a hard finish that will show cracking on a belt Another thing you can do is to change to oil based dyes. Neither the Resolene nor the M&G can or will dissolve that

I'm not sure I understand your problem Its many years since I found that Resolene doesn't really seal dyed leather. Originally mine did but newer stock of it never really did much I switched to a mix of Resolene and my local version of 'M&G' and water. Don't ask proportions, I just poured some of each into a bottle. But I still got some dye coming off in the first two dips My latest version is to add some dye into the mix. Thus I have, green mix, blue, red, tan, walnut etc as well as the standard Black Resolene. Now if I get dye coming off I don't see it, , but the coloured sealer adds extra colour to the item plus seals it

I did it again, almost I got 1st, 2nd and 3rd in my class with some leatherwork at the annual craft show today Its a kinda hollow victory though My Class was for 'miscellaneous' crafts. The judge decided to sub-divide the Class and judge all the leather work against itself rather than against other crafts. I had 10 items in. My entries were the only ones so I won against my self! I thought I had missed it this year and only found out late Wednesday afternoon it was on. So I dug out some things ready made and made 4 new items. One of those got 3rd place. One really old thing got 1st place, a medieval style belt pouch I made about 10 years ago. I put it in just to make up numbers The over-all winner was a hand made child's 'push' car. Looked like a 1/2 scale Austin 7 like mine. It was fully detailed with real instruments and lights When I get the photos off my pocket camera I'll put some up for youse to see

No questions are stoopid The 4mm means that the holes it makes are 4mm apart Sharpen and polish the teeth on the punch first. That will make a big difference yes there is. you need to match your needle to the thickness of your thread and to the hole in the leather. eg. when I use 0.8mm or 1mm thick thread I use a needle 1.02 to 1.34 mm diameter, and that goes through a 2mm punched hole. Maybe your sewing hole punch isn't making good holes, see above. I use digital calipers to measure the diameter of my needles as I've found, a. wrong sized needles in a pack, b. cheap needles vary in size, c. I'm careless and get loose ones mixed up, d. I've found the size of needles in a pack are sometimes not always consistent Buy a sewing awl, with a diamond shaped blade. Use it to open up your sewing holes a bit more

Good name for the horse rescue outfit One in Ireland is called 'My lovely horse' after a 'song' in a Father Ted episode

I used to use diesel fuel diluted with paraffin oil. Used hot, and the part heated up with a blow lamp and dipped into the mix and left to soak. Repeated as necessary. Being careful never to get to the paraffin oil flash point

There are some for sale on ebay and etsy https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1501382929/2-sling-clips-carabiner-clips-military?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=carabiner+clip&ref=sr_gallery-1-25&organic_search_click=1 They are a form of carabiner

1. I use big long plastic boxes meant for storing artificial Christmas trees. The lids overlap the base part and there is a snap lock at each end. I always reckoned they were maybe just about water tight but I found out last week they are 100%. I was moving them about and put a few out in my yard and forgot about them. That afternoon, thru to the next evening we had a real big storm. Not a drop of water in any of the boxes This sort of box; the blue things at the ends are the lid locks which become handles when open Unfortunately you can only really get these boxes at around Christmas time 2. I bet I can compete with you on that. We don't have humidity - we just have rain, all the time. Actually our average humidity level is around 75 to 90%, all year. Today, a relatively dry summer day, humidity level was 80% and tonite it will be 90%. Get more house plants in. Certain ones take moisture out of the air and plants purify your air

Depends on your leather and your requirements. Wetting and drying veg tan will stiffen it, The faster you dry it and the warmer you get it whilst drying the greater the stiffness. You can dip it in boiling hot wax, or boiling water. For chrome tan, laminate it with compressed cardboard or thin MDF

Unless you've had an illness, you don't loose your ability to smell. You've just got used to the smell of leather and your brain blocks out the scent. Its like your garbage collector, he/she has become so used to the smell of their truck that they no longer notice the pong. Or my local butcher who no longer notices the smell of chickens roasting in his machine, but he notices if they start to over-cook! Like some others mentioned, I keep most of my leather in sealed boxes and I get a real knock-out smell of the leather when I open a box Maybe when you were at Weavers there was a smell of leather but it was subtle and not as strong as you are used to. Just a thought A smell for me is Castrol-R oil. Its an oil added to petrol/gas for racing car engines. That and 2-stroke oil & petrol/gas. Both remind me of of race days before we got so environmentally 'friendly' and banned those oil additives (note that the word environmentally has within it the word mental!)

oops,

I mostly use pieces of scrap leather. If it needs to be soft-ish, like in an archer bracer, I use pieces of carpet felt under-lay. Soft chrome tan leather is good, its stiffer than the felt but almost as soft

By hand would do. The way I'd do it is to pre-punch sewing holes in the leather with a stitching chisel. Spacing at about 4 to 6mm. Then use a sharp glovers' needle of the appropriate size to sew through the elastic material. You can do a straight running stitch, or by going one way then back wards you get a sort-of one needle saddle stitch, and that is what I'd do

I wonder if a 'feather' stamp, like F120, used inside the pear shader would give some leafy look?

No. You'd be best painting the details first and waxing over them and the rest of the vessel

Gezzer's is good Those are rose leaf stamps on the one you like At Le Prevo. Look under L, last two on top row - with rough edges are L948 & 949, and first two on bottom row, with smooth edges L953 & 954 http://www.leprevo.co.uk/stamps.htm#rx Tandy used to do the same ones You might have to search out your local Tandy stores or other places to find if they have them ~~ I just spotted that on the one you like the vine stalk is made using a rope border stamp

and thank you @Gezzer for finding that. I found it interesting as well but didn't know it existed

an aside; to kill glue smells, get some large fresh onions and cut in 1/2 or 1/4s and leave them out in your work area. Cut onions will also kill smells from fresh paint, put near the painted item. They also kill smells in the fridge and refresh it. You can leave the onions until they start to dry out or replace sooner. You can still use the onions for eating and cooking afterwards

I notice that you did not read what I wrote. Try again

Good tips and ideas from you both. I'll need to get 'creative' to figure out how to hold the removable punches in my Tandy punches For some sharpening I use some W&D used dry wrapped around the handle of an old artists paint brush inside the punch tube. Just lightly, not too much, not enough to enlarge the hole

When making wide hat bands, over 3/4 inch wide or so, cut the strap with a modest curve to it. It will sit tighter to the crown then

It would be nice to see the photos on here, and with some details about construction

I find a simpler way is to right-click on the photo. In a menu which opens I chose 'search image with google '. That opens a side-bar showing that photo and ones like it and you can find its origin