Wulfing

lovely, the handle is very neat!

Using leather paints on veg tan is not good. The paint cracks and fades over the years BEFORE the leather ends its life whereas dye lasts the length of the leather. I wasnt after an opinion on this. I have seen many many examples that make this true. With that in mind my question was is there a way of more accurately applying dyes e.g. making them thicker so they dont bleed so much etc etc. Thanks for reply :-)

Hi all Has anyone ever tried adding something to pro dye to make it thicker so it would be easier to 'paint' / apply it to carved leather designs? The reason I ask is that I hate using leather paints as they reduce the life of the leather when they crack etc. I'm surprised fiebings or someone hasn't come up with a product like this yet??

Hi what is a glass slicker? Thanks in advance!

Nice to see someone else from Dorset. Is the hardware copper rivets? Looks nice. great design. Le prevo sell buckles like that - good to see what they look like on a belt.

yea the watch bed is seperate. You can put any watch in it if you wanted

Ive been making belts and selling them for a while now, adding this to the 'collection'! I'll wear it for a few months to see how it holds up before i make more and start selling them. It's made with italian calf leather, solid brass buckle. Inspired by a watch strap James bond used on a few films. Test pilots used to wear these incase they experienced extreme temperatures at altitude. It would stop the metal on the watch burning their skin. What do you think? How can I improve it?

Nice. Green n black make a good contrast with leather.

Use veg tan goat leather for the card inserts. Its very strong and under 1mm thick so doesn't get too thick

Nice. Very tidy straight lines. How did you achieve that colour yellow? Was it dye or acrylic paint??

Just dont leave a nice piece of italian calf leather rolled up on your work wench where you were previously dying something.......... Im sure those little stains will just add to the charm of the finished item :-(

I dont know how much straps are in usa but over here 4 pre-cut straps like that cost the same as a half shoulder of veg tan. Better off getting a shoulder and cutting your own. Last week I brought a side of 4m thick veg tan. It's a great shape for straps. I got loads out of it. More beer tokens for me next month when ive sold em lol

Just thought I'd share another idea. Use resolene to make the brush stiff and hard giving it a fine point. Then dip it in dye. Good for colouring fine lines on leather tooling. Perhaps better than a sharpie. Just tried it. Works really well. The brush didnt go soft.

type into google image search Billiards line drawing. You might be able to use a round seeder to do the balls then colour them. In the gallery on this forum there is a picture of a cowgirl playing pool, have a look for that.

Just ordered the tandy refillable dye pen that someone mentioned above as I hadnt heard of them b4. Only problem is they say it will only work with water based dyes. For example if im making a wallet, i do my tooling and bevel then dye with oil based dyes and let it dry over night When its dry and buffed the next day if I use the water based dye with the refillable pen to touch up fine lines on the tooling will the water dye cause any problems / reactions when applied on top of dried oil based dye?

I've strted using a fine tip sharpie to neaten up the edges of my tooling as I struggle to apply dye without it bleeding over the lines a little bit as I suspect my tooling lines arent deep enough. Still learning though. Without the sharpie it wouldnt look neat enough to sell to public. I need to get better at applying dye somehow lol

I've just ordered several edge creasing attachments for a soldering iron (Single edge,1,2,3 and 4 mm gap attachments) Im going to use them to create a crease and lip on the fine edge of my belts and maybe on wallets and other projects too. Do I need a 30 watt or 60 watt soldering iron??? Would overheating it cause damage? Also would you do this type of hot crease after dying or before?

Basically I make belts but hope to do other stuff in the near future. I use that nylon mallet to create borders with stamping tools, to bevel cut lines and set rivets / snaps. For l the hole making and heavier stuff I use my new arbour press rather than hitting tools with a bigger mallet. as to your question My nylon mallet has never moved or slipped off. I like it as its top heavy so feels good for stamping.

You need full grain, thicker the better veg tan leather that hasn't been dyed or finished yet in any way. Also leather that has waxes and oils added dont take stamps so well if at all. Case the leather properly first (youtube search for casing leather for stamping) Whilst its easy to get right, its even easier to get wrong. Bruce cheyney does some amazing videos on youtube to look up as does ian atkinson. I use the attached nylon leather mallet. About £10 on amazon. Works fine. Not to big. In fact quite small. I never hit more than once for a basic stamp that leaves an image impression inthe leather. Hitting 2 or 3 times risks missing your lines and creating a blurred image. Obviously beveling cut lines needs lots of taps but if you keep the cut shallow you wont have to bevell so hard. Its also worth mentioning that there a lot of inferior low quality stamps for sale on the net that dont leave much of an impression due to how they are constructed. Even the tandy stuff is good compared to some stamps ive bought on ebay thinking they were a good deal lol Also worth mentioning that with the bras stamps that fix a handle to you can purchase a hefty handle which is chunky compared to the normal handle. This hefty handle is much better. the key is to do lots of research before starting. I've only been doing it for 6 months and learn stuff with every project and there are people on here who have been doing it for years and say they still learn new ideas and better ways all the time.

Even ms paint that comes with windows can resize pictures. Photopad editor suite is a free one thats ok too

Oil tanned leather can refer to different things. I hate chrome tanned leather, even when they call it oil tanned. I hate this trend for using a variant of chrome tanned leather for products traditionally made with veg tanned. I've only made bags and belts in any quantity for the last 6 months so im new - so have only brought a few offcuts to test oil tanned leather. One that I liked called 'veg tan shoulder softy' This stuff is nice and the bags turned out really well. It's full grain, Really strong and only slightly waxy feel to it. Takes dyes and brands but not stamps very well. The edges burnish as well Your customer prob means that stuff American companies are using at the moment that is described as pull up leather where it's heavily impregnated with oils and waxes. As you're in America Horween do a nice leather that's part oil tanned and has the pull up effect. Apart from a positive experience with veg softy shoulders I dont like it, especially for a belt? Maybe line the oil tanned belt with veg tan leather and stitch it to give it the strength a 'gun' belt needs? PS I dont think you can tool a design onto oil tanned leather

Hi I'm looking for conchos that are shaped like vampires teeth for a custom mask I'm doing for a customer. Cant seem to find a supplier? Any ideas where I might look?

Im having similar trouble. I think the trick is to use really thin leather for the inserts. Slightly thicker leather for the outside piece. Use a v gouger to help the wallet bend. Make a good size gap between the 2 halves so it bends. Less is more so no need for 20 inserts... People who carry more than 4 cards can buy from somewhere else lol. Concentrate on straight neat or parallel lines with leather and stitching. A lot of what I see other leather workers doing I don't like or want to do better and after working with the real thing I cant stand the style you find in the shop anymore.....

Love the bag. Nice lines, seems Very accurately put together. I tried to make a briefcase and lets just say the bottom was bigger than the top lol (just like my ex girlfriend :-)

here's a few pics of Hank heres a few pics of hank. Hes 10 now so getting a bit grey round the chops lol