Zitro

Hi all, Wow, lots of excellent information here! Also, shoutout to my fellow Washingtonians! DJole, you are correct, I meant "tooling", not "branding"; thank you for making that distinction. Learning to tool looks like it will be a lot of fun, but I will start off small first. I bought a lot of scrap leather to try things with before messing up anything important/expensive Duly noted on the mink oil; I can definitely see where that would be a problem. Any suggestions on the best oil to use? I actually found a great non-custom stamp I want to use for this project, and will get started on the main wallet once I am confident with dying; I am learning with my scrap leather that how you "case" the leather will impact the final results of the dye pretty dramatically. Shoutout to Bob Park for this simple-yet-helpful casing guide I found on this forum: http://www.leatherworker.net/Bob Park/Casing Leather.pdf Thanks, all! Look forward to finishing this wallet soon, then on to something else

Hi all, got around to buying my supplies and have tested some Ecoflo waterstain dye on some vegetable-tanned leather scrap; looks good so far! Curious though, as I have heard about oiling the leather as well. I have some scraps to practice on, so should I oil the leather before staining, or after? Also, I have a simple stamp I'd like to apply to my wallet; I assume I should stamp AFTER the leather has been stained and oiled. Just looking for clarification on the order of things. The oil I have is mink oil I bought for my leather boots; should I be using a different oil? Thanks for your help; I can't wait to continue with this simple project!

Hi all, My name's Jeremy and I'm a newbie in Seattle who's really interested in learning the basics of leatherwork. My trusty old wallet is falling apart, and I thought about buying a new one, but said hey, why not make one myself? I'm hoping to start off learning the basis, enough for a simple minimalist wallet. In fact, it is this wallet that inspired me, and I'm hoping to recreate this as best I can: http://whiskeyleatherworks.com/product/bitterroot-wallet/ I'm an avid fisher, so the use of repurposed fly line as stitching really resonates with me. Anyways, that's what my first project will be, and from there we'll see where the winds take me! If you have any tips for someone completely new to leatherwork for a project like that, I'm all ears. Best resources for a newbie are welcome; I've been watching videos and reading up on other's work, and will continue to do so. I'm particularly interested in the different stains you can do on leather, and also branding. My favorite mountain range is the Tetons, and I'd love to do a simple ridgeline branding, a-la the give'r logo: http://www.give-r.com/ Any advice on an easy way to make that happen? I look forward to learning from you all, and completing my first project!