JenGranger

I'm from North East Oklahoma too! Stilwell (Adair County) to be exact. I just got into leather work a little over a month ago. I wouldn't be any good for advise or tips or anything, but I make a decent friend lol.

Very nice work. You are way too hard on your self.

Thanks Hidepounder!

Thank you.

He might let me do that!

LOL

Thank you

I have the same question about small projects.

he doesn't even have a bathroom there LOL, the store is quite small and crowded and connected to his house, so no public bathroom. But, since he likes me so much, and if no one else is in the store when I'm there, he would probably go into his house to get a cup of water for me (I'm the only person in town that he will leave alone in the store).

Thanks guys. The guy that owns the store really likes me, so I bet he would let me do that.

Yeah, I wasn't expecting much of an answer on this, just kinda hopeful.

Hi, I've been learning to work with leather for about 6 weeks, so I'm pretty inexperienced when selecting leather. I get my practice veg tan scraps from a dusty, old box at the local Army Surplus Store. Most of the time I have no trouble telling veg tan apart from other types of leather. But there is this one piece of leather at the surplus store that has me really scratching my head. It looks like it may be a piece of belly, looks to be between 7-9oz, kind of grey in color instead of a tan to salmon color like what I'm used to seeing, slightly shiney like veg tan, a little less firm than most veg tan I've felt (I've never felt good veg tan, so not much to go by). The piece is $8. I know that doesn't sound like much to spend on an experiment,. But I'm on such a tight budget that $8 feeds me and my sweetheart for a whole day, so for $8 I have to be pretty sure it's the right thing. Even though it looks and feels a lot like veg tan, somithing in my gut says it ain't right. Is it possible for veg tan to come the way I described?

Thank you so much for your reply and advice. I have been reading on the forums for a few hours everyday for about six weeks so that I would be prepared for my first projects and that they would go as smoothly as possible. I'm very excited and a little nervous. I don't want to ruin perfectly good leather or disappoint Mom. I'm not too worried about a little dye rub off with the black barrette since my hair is already black LOL.

I have been practicing with my swivel knife and stamps, that I inherited from my grandparents, on some old veg tan scraps from the Local surplus store, for about six weeks now and feel like I will be ready for my first projects soon. I want to make leather stick barrettes for my mom and me. I still need some more practice because I'm still not confident in my abilities yet, but I think I have almost everything I need. I'm going to buy a piece of belly from the surplus store to practice on since it's probably a little better quality than the supper thick, warped, dry scraps I've been practicing on. I ordered an 8-1/2"X11" 6-7oz piece of leather from Springfield LC. It was a nice piece, I liked the stiffness, but seemed a bit thin for the project, so I ordered a piece of 7-8oz and it should be here in a week or two. Should the 7-8oz piece be ok? for the stick, I'm using a dowel rod from Walmart, because that is what I use for my Native Amercan beaded stick barrettes. I want my barrette to be black. I'm brewing up a batch of vinegaroon right now. I've done a lot of reading about it here on the site. If it goes wrong, I have a bottle of black Feibings oil dye. Do I burnish the edges before or after I dye, or is it personal preference? I'm going to be burnishing with water, a wooden burnishing tool and paraffin wax. something I'm really concerned about is the finish. Mom wants the natural look and mine will be black. Since the leather we will use will be some what flexible, I'm concerned that acrylic finishes will crackle. Unless I could wet form them into the shape we want, but I don't know how that is done.We need a finish that is moisture resistant because we plan on wearing our barrettes almost every day, which means we might have damp hair when we put our hair up. I have read on the site that a 50/50 mixture of beeswax and neetsfoot oil applied to the leather, then melted in with a hair dryer was a good way to water proof leather. Would that work for this project? Would burnishing the flesh side aid in making it water resistant? On a side note, from what I understand, vinegaroon will turn some wood black. I think I'm going to cut a piece of the dowel rod off and see if it reacts to the vinegaroon. I'd like to have a black stick to go with my black barrette. If that doesn't work, some of the oil dye will work on the dowel rod, won't it? Thank you for your time.

Monicaj, your work is beautiful! I especially love the barrette. And I've never seen a necklace like that before!

The color is absolutely beautiful! And no worrying about dye rub off. Just need som sun and some patience. Too bad it's late fall right now. I head you can do small projects, like a wallet, on the dashboard of your car in the fall and winter if it's sunny, just check on it every two hours or so.

Thanks!

I know this thread is a few years old, but the only Mop & Glo I found was the One Step. Is that ok?

Has anyone here tried using acrylic paint to antique their work? I think it could work. I need to practice tooling tomorrow, so I might give it a try on that piece and see what happens

Very interesting. I enjoy learning new things.

I imaging if used sparingly, and not totally sealed in, where it can still breath, it would be ok.

Thanks. I've done a lot of reading on the forum the last few weeks and knew the water based dyes (Eco Flo and such) would not work for these projects. I do know that no matter what dye and finish I use, putting our hair up when it's soaking wet will be a terrible idea. I was wonder if I should use something like Sno-Seal on the back of the barrettes? I don't know much about it, just seen it mentioned in the forum and from what I understand, it's pretty water resistant. Mom used to used mink oil on her leather jacket back in the day and she said she believed it was pretty water resistant, but I've seen I referred to as "stink oil". To apply bee's wax to the back, would I melt it fist? With a hair dryer maybe? I use bee's wax in my Native American beadwork and I am familiar with its stickiness and the fact that it is a dirt magnet. I wonder if melting it down with some paraffin wax would lessen those problems? For the leather and the beadwork?

I have one less worry with this project now. The piece of leather I ordered from Springfield was such a pretty color and really vein-y, that Mom liked it so much that she doesn't want her barrette dyed black, she wants it to have the natural look. So I don't have to worry about the black dye bleeding onto her brown hair. I don't have to worry about it bleeding on my hair either since my hair is already black lol.

Thanks! I'm a lefty too! I'm very excited for my supplies to come in. I cook with olive oil, so one less thing to buy :D

Thank you!