Dogfisher

Thank you. I appreciate all the info. My methods are taken from Don Gonzales youtube videos. I am very new to all this and there's so much conflicting info out there. I think I should turn my focus to dying the veg tan to achieve my color instead of letting the finish dictate the color.

Anybody?

That's sounds great! How?

Can I tool Harness Leather? I love the look and feel of Wickett & Craig's Harness Leather in Buck Brown. If not, how can I get that look and feel with bare tooling leather? For instance, I would like to make a saddle bag from W&C harness but I want to tool a design on the flap. I am very new to leather but I have tooled a few Veg Tan belts and made a few aprons and bags from Chrome Tan. I've been buying Veg Tan and Chrome Tan from SLC and just sort of making due with whatever they send me. I haven't tried any W&C harness leather but it looks amazing. SLC's harness doesn't look as nice as W&C.

This is my first completed belt and some test pieces. Learning through doing so I wasn't going for precision. I've taken a majority of my tooling and finishing knowledge from Don Gonzales. To start, I hate the belt and the dark skull. They turned out way too dark and too shiny. They look like plastic and have very little flexibility. The lighter skull is just olive oil followed by Tan-Kote. (Looks flat with no antiquing.) Also when do you punch stitching holes? When do you finish the edges? The skull is going to sandwich some straps so I will be sewing on a veg tan back piece. My process for belt and dark skull: 1. Tooling, 2. Olive oil 3. Fiebing's Pro Resist 4. Fiebing's Antique Finish 5. Bag-Kote

I am setting up a small, one man, leather business. I have logo artwork but I want to make a leather stamp out of it. The art needs to be cleaned up a bit. I also want to include stamped cards with branding and info. So I need a rubber stamp too. I know I can Google it but I would like to hear some opinions first.

I realize the tooling will create noise. It's my bench the amplifies the noise. Suring up the bench and the rubber mat might work. Thanks for all the input.

I'm sorry, I meant the noise of tooling and punching straps.

I usually make my own workbenches and I was wondering if anyone has a trick to dampen the noise from stamping? I use a granite slab on my shop bench and it's too loud to work after I put my kids to bed.