HellfireJack

I was about to say the same thing. Your needle placement looks like it had been switched. You have to use the same exact pattern while stitching or your stitches look like that.

I would imagine a small triangular jewelers file would do the trick.

Here are photos from my test pieces. The first one is Herman Oak 9/10oz. Turned a nice dark brown. Cut it in half There was a slight difference in color near the center. It's not stiff or anything. The set of three is Tandy 3/4oz. Also dark brown through and through. The thin stuff has a bit of stiffness to it now. The edges curl up a little but they also curl with just plain water. This is the original piece I tried this out on and a shot showing the edge The 4/5 oz Tandy looks horrible and I didn't take any pictures of them. They were brown only while it was wet and then as they dried they lightened. Only the edges stayed dark brown. I think this method would be perfect for molding pouches. Dip and let sit for the reaction to happen then rinse thoroughly and put in your mold.

I used cold water as well. Are you using baking powder or baking soda? What kind of leather as well? I've done a few more tests on both Tandy leather and Herman Oak and they all are turning brown. This time I measured. I used 4 tablespoons of baking soda in one cup of water. I'm charging my camera now to get better pictures this time. Using different types of leather I'm noticing definite differences in color change and shade. I tried a 4/5oz and the 3/4 oz Tandy and a 9/10oz Herman Oak. The HO is a fairly solid brown. Looks good. The 3/4oz samples are lighter this time but I gave them only 10 second dips. I would say they're light cocoa. With he 4/5oz samples I gave one a 10 second dip and two pieces I let soak in the mix for 30 seconds. The one is a little mottled and you can see where it absorbed on some places better than others. The two that went for a bath are both brown already. One has a slight mottle to it but it was pretty old scrap so could have had oil on it or something. I'll give pictures soon.

I would say less than 30 seconds. I also stirred it around in the undissolved baking soda. I didn't rinse it off until this morning though so technically it was reacting for hours.

I checked my test piece this morning and it is now a very dark brown. It was stiffer than regular leather but not something a little oiling wont fix. It smelled of baking soda still so I finally gave it a thorough rinsing under the tap. I'll oil it up and take another picture of it when I get home tonight.

I read some where on this forum that you can turn leather brown through and through by dipping it in baking soda mixed in water. Just like vinegaroon, which turns leather black, it works via a chemical reaction with the tannins in the leather rather than trying to force pigments into the fibers of the leather as you do with a dye or bonding pigment to the surface like a stain or paint, Also like vinegaroon the longer it's in contact the darker it gets. I tested it and it does appear to work. I used a light colored piece of 3/4oz veg tan scrap. I didn't measure anything I just grabbed a bowl and dumped in some baking soda and filled it half way with water and stirred it up. The picture is horrible and doesn't really do it justice. I just wanted to show the contrast from before and after. I would say it's just a shade off from chocolate brown. I cut it in half after and it does indeed go completely through. I think this and a coat of oil would make it pretty much dark brown. It's still a little damp. almost to the carving stage. I'll check it in the morning when it's fully dry and see if anything changes. You might want to experiment similarly. The only caveat I can think of with using this is that you probably want to make sure to rinse it off well when it reaches the shade you want, especially if you're making a holster or sheath or something. I have no idea what baking soda would do to metal over time.

LOL! I hit Shady Maple for breakfast mainly. I stop at Cabela's if I'm going to do the Yeungling brewery tour whenever I feel like a long drive and free beer.

Welcome JaRay, I'm just outside of Philly too. I go to the Allentown Tandy myself. I also am concentrating on stitching, moulding, and construction. I've been to Hummelstown a couple of time to go to the Indian Echo Cavern and I'm at Hershey a couple of times a year as well.

I use GIMP for image manipulation and am working on my Inkscape skills for pattern making. Both are free either way.

Thanks for the explanation Kevin!

What color is it now? Antiquing would probably be your best bet if it's light colored.

How exactly do you transfer a design to wet leather like this?

Sorry double post.

Sorry Snapmyfenger, I wasn't actually responding to you in particular. I see what you mean though. I've never seen a metal one either. It's brass so it's soft metal and easy to work with using a hacksaw and drill. You could probably make one or have one made at a local metal shop. FWIW I stripped out my plastic one in the first day I had it. I got a slightly larger and longer screw with larger threads and put it in using the screw to rethread the stripped hole. Haven't had a problem since.

Suicide, In one of the videos it shows that he free hand draws his patterns on the leather with a modelling tool. The only template I've seen him use is a simple circle template for the basic placement of the flowers. It looks like he's been doing this a long time and from the stacks of leather cut outs he's working on he's probably done thousands of each item he's making and has simply memorized the process. There is no doubt that this guy has truly mastered these items. It's amazing to watch him do it. If I asked you to draw a simple line drawing 5000 times by about the 300th one you should have it memorized and be able to do them without a reference. For what it's worth, From the title spellings of his videos he is probably Japanese. He has a verbal knowledge of English but not too good at the written side. "muvie" = movie "wacht" = watch and so on. Also the Japanese love American music just as much as they love American baseball. It's no surprise to me that a Japanese person would listen to it while working. Has anyone every worked with the sonic cutter he uses? Wondering what they cost and how easy/hard they are to use. Not that I'll ever probably need one....

I've never seen a template or kit like that for what appears to be a bible. I assume it was made to fit a specific book size so probably hand drawn. In the first picture it looks like they're Barry King tools. The 5 seed cam, a braid border and the celtic basket weave. http://www.barrykingtools.com/images/border5seed_lg.jpg http://www.barrykingtools.com/images/borderbraid_lg.jpg http://www.barrykingtools.com/images/basketstamps_celtic_lg.jpg The second image is all a waffle pattern maybe King or possibly the geometric from crafttool with what appears to be a craftool border stamp. Cant tell for sure. Not clear enough. Doesn't look too complicated. A french curve and some time and you could probably knock out an adequate replica in a few minutes. leave room for the width of the book plus about 2-3 inches on either side to accommodate the stamping and the curves.

The second book of Paul Burnett's Designing with Stamping Tools touches quite a bit on creating/designing borders.

Pick up a book on macrame.

I'm not 100% positive but I've read somewhere that tailor's silver pen will work on leather and just wipes off.

I love the look of this. Is this style shown in any of Paul Burnett's. I'd like to learn it.

He's talking about the fold not the stitching. Some people groove folds with a V or U gouge to make them fold easier.

You may have to skive the edges down to fit the hardware in that kit. And don't forget that you're going to have to match the pre-punched holes on the guts to your stitches. I'd definitely do some practice sewing on the thicker leather before doing this one.

Leatherworking is like just about any other hobby. You're going to pay to do it. Like electrathon said, sign up for their emails to get the sales announcements. Follow the sales fliers for a few months and watch the prices and you'll see where you can save money. But I got bad news for you though. Tandy is the cheap source unfortunately. High end stamps can run easily over 50 bucks a pop. High end hand tools over 50 as well. Some, like round knives, are easily over 150. We're not even talking about leather or hardware yet. Tandy's quality on the very inexpensive stuff is hit and miss but at least you're learning for less. The gold membership easily pays for itself btw. You get about 2-4 50% off any item but leather and machines offers a year and you usually get a free crafttool stamp or similar once a month in their newsletter. That's on top of their normal membership discounts.

Don't they have Sno-Seal in Finland? I figured they'd have that there.