LionCrownLeather

Hi I am planning to try out water based dyes. I do not want to continue with fiebings pro oil dye, It just isnt my taste, especially after I apply the Resolene afterwards which makes the entire project look syntethic so I am leaving Resolene as well. Now my procedure is going to look like the following: * I dye the project and let it dry * I apply neatfootsoil and let it dry * I condition the leather (is this required if the neatfootsoil is applied in previous step?) * Now...How do I finish the leather? Since I dont want to use Resolene I am thinking of a good quality leather wax. Any recommendations? I have heard water based dyes have more rub off then oil based dyes and since I live in a rainy climate I would really want to use a good wax that seals and makes the leather shine, rather no darkening since neatfootsoil already darkens the leather.

In nigel armitages video he demonstrates with these irons and punches all the way through.

https://crimsonhides.com/products/french-style-crimson-irons What is the difference between the french style Irons and diamond chisen exactly?

Thank you for taking the time to do this! What I have learned from the comments here so far: start punching holes from the bottom center and work my way up one direction and then start from bottom center punching holes towards the other direction. I got to say having consistency in angled holes like these around corners requires good skills, I used a two prong diamond chisel around the corners but to get that slow turn to look professional a one prong would maybe be ideal but then again the risk of punching bad angled holes increases as they number of punches increases. Now my keychain consists of two pieces of 4-5 oz leather folded and glued on top of eachother. I punched through both pieces directly and the back side did not turn out any good, a quite common problem.. Probably need to punch through each side seperatley and then fold on top of eachother.

Hi I just bought a good quality diamond chisel set but I am facing some troubles, not with the quality of the chisels but instead how do I get a consistent look. I will attach an image, I started on the right top side and worked my way down and then I used a 2 prong diamond chisel at the lower right round edge and continued to the left top angled edge (half a circle) and then I used my 9 prong chisel and punched a straight line to the top left part. Now would you have done the same? Is this a good consistent look regards to the diamond chisel punch holes? I feel like I am doing something wrong here.. The angled holes dont look consistent, on the left side they point more down compared to the right side the holes are almost vertical

Once the neatfootsoil dries the stains are not as visible. I purchased fiebing deglazer and rubbed gently in circular movements on the leather but without any success. Conclusion: Got to be careful with Tokonole!

Interesting, I will try purchasing Fieblings Deglazer and see if it will do the work in removing those stains. Thanks!

Hi I am complaining about the lighter spots. I did apply the lemon juice evenly :/ I noticed now it might be the Tokonole, I applied it to a piece of leather, waited ten minutes and started rubbing some neatfootsoil and I got the same spots, the lighter spots do not absorb anything. I now have another question, how do you apply tokonole without it getting on your leather? I only use it for the edges but it can sometimes get on your fingers while you rotating your piece and applying. This is veg tanned leather but I assume on predyed /prevaxed leather tokonole wont have the same effect. I tried to rub the spotty tokonole off using lemon juice but without any results. Maybe if I let the neatfootsoil dry into the leather the unoiled areas wont be visible..

Hi Since I bought this leather is has been very hard to work with, reason is when I apply dye or oil suddenly all transparent stains become visible. I dont know if this is tekonole which by accident gets on the skin before I rub it off or if it is the dilluted lemon juice I clean the leather with but I wonder if this is not a manufacturing issue. All my projects have been affected by this issue with this leather. Any ideas what might be causing this?

Hi, putting some life into this thread.. I want to order a couple of irons from crimson hides. How have they worked for you so far? I dont understand why do they offer 3.85 and 4 mm? the difference is so small.

Thank you, I will try this.

Hi, Maybe there is a problem with the website. My question is if you have a corner and the corner radius is not so much and you intend to stitch with 4 mm spacing. When the template is finished you notice that on the bottom left and right corners of the card holder you don't have a stitching hole, you have one on the line going straight up and a hole on the bottom going horizontally, meaning there is no hole to connect the vertical and horizontal stitching line. After punching the holes from top to bottom corner do you rotate your project 90 degrees and then punch holes on the bottom from top to down? I feel like the connection of stitching is important here, I don't want the stitching to look unnatural between side and bottom of my card holder, maybe it is recommended to use a stitching hole at the corner between the two lines to make it look more consistent?

When you reach a corner with the diamond chisel how do you place the chisel? for example I have a card holder I am doing right now. The holes begin from straight up to down and when I am going from the top line to the bottom I'm not sure how to hold the chisel here? see attached image

When cutting the pieces after gluing what I like about this idea is that you can decide which color you want the edge to be. In my case I always dip dye, and if I want the edges to have the natural leather color I simply cut after I have dyed, but if I want the edges to be dyed I simply cut before dyeing. thank you

Thank you, I will definatley think about putting the lion on the bottom left so that it will face inwards towards the center, good point!

Hi I just finished my leather card holder with my logo stamped. It is made by a thick 2.5mm veg tanned leather from italy. I dyed the leather by myself using fieblings pro oil dye. I already recieved some feedback on the thread I use and spacing between my stitching lines for this project and it turns out it can look neater if a smaller pricking iron is used (I used 5mm for this project) also many recommend the diamond chisel. I experimented on a piece of leather using a groover to cut out and mark where I wanted my stitching line. I used a 4 mm diamond chisel and punched through in the grooved line and hand stitched using saddle stitch, it looks much more professional, the groover helps the stitches to lay down, the diamond chisel offers a much more beautiful look on the stitches and the 4mm distance is perfect. I will continue making my card holders with this new method.

If I compress the fibres wont that interfere when I apply glue to hold the pieces together? Because tokonole closes the fibres and I think those asisst in making the piece glued harder together?

I bought mine on Internet from China. I didnt know the diameter of the pronges but I can tell you this: the diamond chisels I got from China I always fail with, they dont cut through very well and the handle is not thick so hammering it causes the chisel to go through at an angle. If you are using round head chisels which ones do you use and if you by any chance use diamond chisels which one do you recommend?

I use the round chisel because I always fail with the diamond chisel. The diamond chisel is beautiful on the front but the back even when I go through all the way it always ends up inconsistent. The round head is a safer choice for me but ofcourse the diamond chisel if used correctly gives beautiful stitching lines. I have different sizes for the punch tool I am using, 6 tooth, 4 tooth and 2 tooth. I usually go with the 6 tooth and then with the 2 tooth at the corners.

When I stitch my card holder I marked the with a line using a wing divider, then I punched holes using 5mm pricking Iron. I started from the top right to the lower corner and then top left to lower left corner. I did the bottom last and realized that the spacing will be inconsistent... How do you usually do here? I tried to add some spacing between two holes to fix this but I am not happy with the result. Do you mark with your chisel before punching? Corners have one stitch at an angle and it has to be in that place for it to look good.

Hi Whenever I work on the edges of my leather projects after dyeing my projects I sandpaper, burnish with water, sandpaper burnish with water, sandpaper burnish with tokonole e t c. I can sometimes by mistake get some of the tokonole (fingerprints) on my project after turning it around to burnish all the edges. I used some neatsfoot oil to rub it off, it looks better but I was wonder if you guys ever tried using some leather deglazer or lemon juice before applying the finisher to make sure it is free from all kinds of dirt? Usually this is the first part of every project but have you done this the middle of the process? I am afraid maybe the dye will come off? I use pro oil dye maybe the dye would come off if I use water based dyes? because once the finisher is applied its hard to go back I guess. I am not a fan of drying out my leather so I think lemon juice dilluted with water would be preferable?

Thank you for this useful information

Interesting post. He does not use any slicker which is quite odd to me. I have seen other posts where they dont use a creaser but also get great results. Apparently every person seem to have their own way of treating the edges.

Thank you. While I have you on the thread I have a second question. If I dip dye my projects and want to dye my edges with another color compared to the primary dye I used for dip dyeing my project how do I do that? I always dip dye because when I dye my projects with a dauber I always get dye on the edges giving the piece an unconsisten look. Maybe I should bevel after dyeing?

I used fieblings pro oil dye, the same dye I used on my project. What do you use for polishing the edges? You mention Ironing the edges, how do you do that?