CelticPrint

I used plain Ivory soap, don't know what it is about, probably its lack of additives. An older leather worker told me to do it. It helped my tighten everything up and then I had to rinse it like crazy and condition with mink oil or whatever your conditioner of choice is. Little bit of skiving and then rolling the whip wet between boards to round out the braid helped a lot for uniformity. It was more time consuming than it was difficult but well worth it. As a test for the end project I attacked some encroaching brush on the side of my yard. I chose two weapons. A machete sharpened with a dremel rotary tool and the hand made whip. With a proper over head wind up and full crack of the whip it actually cut through small brush and vegetation cleaner and sharper than the razor sharp machete, at a much greater distance too. Be a might be timid to be hit by one.

If you are going to practice fixed blades a very common knife, at least in the U.S., is a 6 inch clip point. The Buck 119 is a very common knife and people do order replacement sheaths or upgrade to personalized decorative sheaths. You can practice on the Mossy Oak knock off, I'll post a picture of both. My 119 was 50 bucks, the Mossy Oak knock off was 10, both are razor sharp and fully functional, I just bought the Buck so my father wouldn't roll in his grave.

Just had to google what these were, turns out two of them exist down the road from me, what a great resource. I make a lot of my own stamps by hand but to find out I can just email a drawing to someone and pick up the stamp the next if not same day is quite the advancement.

EVOO turns rancid the fastest of all oils. Most will tell you to only use animal oils/fats like mink and neatsfoot but some get away with some of the more stable vegetable oils by blending it with some bee's wax. I've gotten pure shea butter mixed with bee's wax going on 5 years without it turning rancid but I generally use a mink oil paste after hearing so many things go wrong on others projects.

I installed a wall safe for a woman that only used it to store designer clutch purses. She never carried them and bragged about their rarity. They all looked like the plain black clutch kit sold on leather crafting sites except each had a different emblem or logo. It was all fun and games til I pointed out a Prada clutch of hers that had a slightly misaligned emblem and reeked of old hot glue. The certificate it came with looked like it was worth more than the imitation purse she clearly over paid for. I guess the way to get top dollar is to make up some fancy name and print limited edition numbered certificates for each piece.

Well if I got anything from this video it was following the comments to see this ↑↑. I think I like ruler and clamp just on the fact that I can put it away, I don't like clutter and that thing screwed to the table in the video would drive me crazy. Also I feel like I could slip and mess up a strap using the method in the video.

Ordering some Lanolin now, never used it on leather but we use it on our hands up in here in the mountains and it definitely lays down a solid protective barrier on skin so I'll try it in a few blends. I was worried rendering tallow in the kitchen, thought it might make the whole house smell gamey but there was little to no smell and the finished product barely has an odor to it. Neetsfoot always seems to be a solid go to from every thing I've searched so I'll grab some of that tomorrow, strangely I've never used it, always just used mink oil because it was the first thing given to me. I used the tallow alone on a test piece of 8oz veg tan 2 inches by 8 inches. Rubbed it in and set it down, came back 5 minutes later and the leather was extremely supple and could be bent and twisted with ease. I will experiment with blends tomorrow. One of the reasons I always save my scraps from making projects is to test all these blends. Not sure I have access to rosin but since I'm obviously on the computer I'm sure I can find some. I've heard use of pine tar as well and I can get that from the back yard.

Picked up 2lbs of suet, rendered it down to 12oz's of tallow. If you've never tried to make your own tallow it's this simple. Grab a pound or two of suet from the market, ask your butcher if you don't see it out in the case. Clean off any parts that look ragged, fleshy or bloody. Chop into cubes and place into a small crock pot with 1/4 quarter cup of water and set it to low. The water is just so the crock won't shatter and will evaporate out. After a few hours and a few stirs you will see most of it rendered. Some recipes say to wait until the fat turns crisp and brown, to me that's over cooked. Once a few hours have gone by and a fair amount has rendered out pour it through cheese cloth and sieve. It will be yellowish as a liquid but dry and harden to a white waxy look. This alone is now tallow and will keep for a very long time if sealed in a jar even at room temperature. I'm just throwing this out there because even though I over paid for the suet I still saved 3 times the money I would have spent to order pre made tallow. If you know a butcher or do your own butcher work the savings will go even further. I plan to mix a test batch with bee's wax to make a dubbin of sorts, if anyone has any advice on ratios I'd appreciate it.

Just added it to my Amazon wish list, 5 stars out of over 1,500 reviews...with that many people they must be on to something.. Thank you.

The current stuff I'm using is just a tin of "Peak" that I picked up for 3 bucks at a local store but I also have a blend mixed with a little bee's wax. If you go to a soap supplier online bee's wax is like 10 bucks a pound. There are better mink oil products than Peak, it just happened to be on an end cap when I was buying a pair of boots so I gave it a run. Experiment with blends to get what you like, too much wax is hard to spread and even when rubbed in makes the leather feel tacky or skippy when run your hand across it, very little is needed in a blend and depending on the feel your looking for maybe none at all. I use mink oil on my boots and I'm not afraid to walk through puddles all winter long so it holds up alone for sure.

I hear you on wanting it to survive in outdoor environments. I live in the New Hampshire white mountain range, we beat the daylights out of our gear. Rain, ice, snow, heat and submergence, sometimes all in the same day that's not even counting how many times a strap or piece get's dragged across a rock or between bush. Resolene is a great sealer but it's too rigid. Find a dye that won't scuff or bleed and then just condition it with mink, neats, tallow or lard mixed with a tiny bit of bee's wax and it's waterproof enough to scuba dive.

Real nice, that's something I'd pay for.

Shipping is the hidden killer in many projects, my first order of leather was only 45 dollars but 16 in shipping. The only thing you can do is divide the square usage of materials and pass it on to the cost of your finished project. You as the worker should only have to supply the know how and the construction, not the cost of the material nor the shipping of said material.

What type of dye are you using? I switched from Fiebings basic dye to Fiebings professional oil dye and that alone gave me more flexibility. I stopped using Resolene a while ago because my last gift my father in law joked that he thought I used plastic instead of leather. The pro oil dye doesn't bleed after it's been dried and buffed and for a sealant I use mink oil paste with a tiny bit of bees wax. It's waterproof enough that water beads up on the surface and just rolls right off the piece and much more flexible than anything I've ever resolene'd.

Thanks for the advice, butcher pointed to the loose cuts section, it's not as cheap as I thought but 1.49 a lb won't kill me. Gonna clean it up a bit, cut it into chunks and have a go at the crock pot. Looked it up on a few pages, the consensus seems to be 1/4 of water so the crock doesn't shatter and chop the suet into clean chunks. Cook it for 6-8 hours then strain through cheese cloth. By the end of the 8 hours the 1/4 cup of water should evaporate out I assume but if not it's not that hard to separate fat from water.