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battlemunky

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Everything posted by battlemunky

  1. I looked at everywhere I know to look (Abbey, Buckleguy, Guimer, OTB) and 2" was the largest I saw. You may need to taper to 2". Wish I could be more helpful.
  2. Don Gonzalez has a great YT video on how he preps and seals his projects both dyed and painted. I believe he uses TanKote IIRC but I'd have to rewatch it and see. I think he does a light coat of olive oil (but you could use whatever oil you had on hand), dries, then TanKote, dries, then antique, dries, then TanKote again to remove some of the "muddy" look that comes with antiquing and also seals it. His stuff always looks killer. I have yet to get mine to look as good as his and I follow the same recipe. He's a master, IMO, though. I'm a plebe crawling along until I learn to toddle.
  3. I've only used chrome tanned bison and it was as hard to edge and as supple as regular chrome tanned cow. It smells quite a bit different and is pretty friggin tough, similar to deer or elk in toughness. I bought a remnant bag from Weaver or Tandy, can't remember which one, and it had several nice sized pieces, enough to make a few wallets, which I didn't like near as much as veg-tan cowhide in comparing them. I think it was like 10 bucks. I've had some Horween Chrome-Excel and their other grade of chrome tan (colonial or whatever its called) and prefer it to bison. I've had all sorts of other chrome tanned bits and pieces of unknown tannery but prefer veg-tan, Hermann Oak specifically. It's what I learned on and it behave much more predictably for me. It took me a long time to get veg-tan pre-dyed even, now I prefer that except you run out of room quick every time you need a new color for a project.
  4. Whatever you end up doing, post up pics along the process!
  5. I haven't made mocassins but I have made a few pairs of slippers and some huaraches using veg-tan. I never had a problem with the veg-tan and traction in my huaraches and they performed very well when damp/wet. I only used a single layer of 8-9 oz and it was plenty, I think a full 1/4 inch would be severe overkill. One of the reasons folks opt for mocs is so they have better "connection" with the ground and I'm thinking 1/4 inch thick sole would completely disconnect you from feeling the ground under your feet. Maybe as an option for customers after you talk it through with them. Alternatively, there is a place you can get powdered rubber that you can mix into a slurry with Barge cement that is excellent for making a really good sole that gives excellent traction and keeps you in touch with the ground and greatly extends the life of the moc sole leather. I can't seem to find the link now though. Found some on Amazon but its sold out. https://www.amazon.com/Rubber-Crumb-Synthetic-Infill-Material/dp/B00BS0ZV0K
  6. Good to know @Stetson912, I'll check it out. Here's the link. It's $30, maybe rainy day or if it's ever discounted. https://elktracksstudio.com/products/wood-grain-texture-leather
  7. Is that the Craftaid press plate? I've been chasing woodgrain for a while and it's tough to nail down. I really like the green leaf, it pulls the woodgrain theme around nicely.
  8. I've tried both wet forming then tooling and tooling then wet forming and I'm not happy with either so I usually try and avoid it. I'm hobbyist level so I don't get commissions very often so to avoid making something I know is going to look like crap, I don't mix tooling and forming. Like @Grey Drakkon said, there are issues to either. Bottom line, you'll lose some detail and/or some shape whichever one you do first.
  9. Yeah, snakeskin inlay is on my "one day" list as well.
  10. This seems like one of those slippery slope kinda questions... I know this doesn't seem helpful, and completely NOT directly answering what was asked, but if you want it and the price is good for you, and you feeling putting in the sweat, go for it. Personally, I'd be all over it if the price was something I was comfortable with simply for the journey of restoring it. You may struggle getting replacement parts but there is a certain amount of fun in fabricating your own, hunting down an original, or finding a suitable work around. If that ain't you, I'd stay away. Me? I'd end up with a garage full of them trying to chase down some odd spring or arm.
  11. Beautiful work all the way around. I'm a sucker for neat bar grounding and this has it in spades. Your coloring is really well done too. Very nice.
  12. In complete honesty, it is pretty fun. I think everyone that is even remotely interested should experiment with the 'groon. It's almost free its so cheap and it works really well. And not to complicate things but you can limit expose of the steel wool to vinegar a bit and vary the intensity of the blacking that occurs. I had this super cool gray in an experimental batch once. A fully saturated solution of vinagroon is great. If it isn't fully saturated there can be some smell of either iron or some vinegar. You'll know its "done" when you can add more steel wool and it no longer reacts. That is the point where the smell seems to be as neutral as it gets. Make some practice pieces first! Post pics too. I love me some 'groony goodness.
  13. Sounds like a job for....vinagroon! Get some steel wool and white vinegar. You may want to also get some acetone to rinse the steel wool in to remove oils. Let it dry. Chuck a hunk into a jar and cover it with vinegar. Cover it loosely, leaving some vent. Check back in a few days and it should be good to go. It actually reacts with the tannins in the leather and changes the leather color, not just adding color to it. Give it a quick rinse in some baking soda water and then clean tap water and allow to dry. Then proceed as if you would normally. It has worked for thousands of years so far.
  14. Exquisite work. I love the dye work on the family crest!
  15. It was either Maverick or Montana...I get the companies mixed up. This did have some ragged parts on the flesh side but I was able to hide them for the most part. I'll get some pics up one of these days. I enjoyed working with it. It was still really soft but didn't dimple badly when sewing.
  16. I just made a knife roll out of elk. It's is beautiful stuff and super strong. Good work @garypl!
  17. You are welcome. Post some after pics so we can see where you end up :-)
  18. Looks great @corkscrew! I like the texture on the boring part of the leather, how'd you get that? It's also grabbing antique really well too.
  19. Looks great Yin, regardless of its upsidedownedness.
  20. I'm no saddle expert but here is a link to a guy that is. https://dgsaddlery.com/what-kind-of-oil-should-i-use/ Best of luck!
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