gandgphi

@YinTx that looks great! This is going to be a really dumb question then but is a "finish" required? Or can I dye leather and leave it as is?

@YinTx the way I applied the dye was as such: I dampened the belt a bit with a wet sponge and then used a wool dauber to begin dyeing it black. I spread it in circular motions along the length of the belt probably 4 times until it looked even and let it dry about 36 hours. Once I had buffed it and no dye was pulling off I decided to make this finish since the leather balm with atom wax was removed the dye off a scrap piece I had dyed similarly. The beeswax concoction went on easy enough but even that was pulling dye off the leather, albeit at a much lesser rate than the atom wax. @alpha2 I definitely agree that I will make plenty of mistakes and learn on my own. I was mainly trying to see if I was doing something wrong or using a bad product because I don't want to keep spending money on dyes and finishes or whatever that people have negative experiences with.

I dyed a veg tan belt last night using black EcoFlow dye from Tandy. I was told I should use leather balm with atom wax to finish it by the employee there (I’m new). I let the belt dry overnight and applied atom wax to a scrap piece I had dyed as well. The color is completely coming off. I even buffed the scrap piece before applying the finish. Am I doing something wrong or is it just a bad product I’m now stuck with?

Gun trag goes on after dyeing correct? And when you say go heavy on the first coat you are talking about the dyeing and not the leather balm right?

Hi all I recently made my very first belt but did not quite love the end result so I am going to make another. These are the steps that I believe I must do in order to make a belt. Critique and insight very welcome Using a Tandy belt blank I measured out where the center hole that fits me goes I punch the center hole and two holes on each side about 1" on center I make another mark and cut about 4" away from the outermost hole Used #3 beveler to shave the front and back of each edge of the belt Dampen the belt and apply the eco flow leather dye until the desired color is reached on both sides and edges Wait a few hours for belt to dry Buff the belt Moisten the edges of the belt about a foot at a time and then burnish using a wood slicker Apply finish (leather balm with atom wax) and buff belt Attach buckle What I didn't like about the first belt I made is that the back of the belt was fairly rough and fuzzy. Is there anything I can do to make this better? Also, it seemed like some of the dye came off once I applied the finisher as there are visibly lighter areas where the original leather color shows a bit.