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This is an old post, but, I have been doing a bit of experimenting as I work towards my first bespoke pair of shoes. I an trying to get to a light grey, which is almost imposible with a dye on a brown leather, but, trying... I have diluted the Angelus jet black with Angelus clear (which acts as a reducer) - roughly 20:1. I get a grey, but, not as light a grey as I would like. Attached is a sample piece that I am experimenting on. The light grey ring is Clyde's leather balm, which I have not had any success getting to penetrate tooling leather. The folks at Clyde's have been awesome and are sending some leather prep to try before making another attempt. The darker gray is the diluted Jet Black, airbrushed on very lightly. The really dark was trying to dial in the dilution.

I have to say, with the size 140/22 needle running the thread above, the only way I could get this thing to sew on Hermann Oak 10-12-oz leather was if I soaked it first. 4-5 oz stuff it sails right through. whether it is veg or chrome tanned leather. This makes sense to me, as, being a cobbler's sewing machine, that's really about as thick as I would expect shoe leather to be. I had better luck (but still not great), after treating the belt leather with leather honey a few times, and really bending/working it around to soften it up. After 5 slow stitches, I sped up, and got another dozen before the thread popped. Re-threaded, and got another 5 slow stitches before it popped again. Moral of the story, for now, is to not expect too much of it... :-D

Hi Folks! I started my leatherworking journey back around the start of the whole Covid thing, with a need to make a sheath for my ax. Well, as long as I am making a sheath, I may as well make a strap to hang the ax from my shoulder. Well, as long as I am doing that, I may as well decorate it, right? Got a couple cheap tools, one fairly expensive stamp, some ReaLeather from the local craft shop, and start figuring it out. Fast forward a few years, I have started my own custom and bespoke leather business, made purses, belts, coasters, etc, and eventually decided I wanted to add a sewing machine to the mix. I liked the idea of the shoe patcher, largely because, being inexpensive, and simple enough even for this caveman to work on. Of course, I went a bit overboard and kitted out with needles and thread. Thinner shoe leather, it behaves nicely. Doesn't seem to care veg or chrome tan. It just sews without complaint, and it sews as straight as I do. Tooled leather, the teeth on that foot will rip things up. If you file them down too much, it doesn't move the leather like it should. Heat shrink tubing around the foot seems to help. A 3d-printed plastic foot works great until it breaks. Right now, I am trying to convince it to behave with a 140 needle and T135 thread on some Hermann Oak belt leather scraps. I usually get about 5 stitches in before the thread frays above the needle, and it eventually breaks. I suppose I have some filing to do in the needle driver to smooth SOMETHING out before that will behave better. Overall, I think I may have gotten a decent one. In retrospect, I probably should have bought from Bantam, where they buy them, fettle them, and sell them in great working order - that may be a present to myself down the road. If you like puzzles, and like to figure out "now why the *$)#( is it doing THAT??" I believe they can be a great tool, with some troubleshooting and work after winning the gamble of not getting a broken/incomplete one. If you want more of a sure thing, Bantam does that hard work for you. They're not $120 like on Amazon, but, they're also not a $1000+ Adler (and they don't sew like them either).

Resurrecting an old post, it appears. I am relatively new to leatherworking. I got some leather from the local craft store (ReaLeather), a pair of shoulders from Tandy, and some various bits n pieces - belt blanks, etc, from European Leather Works on Amazon. Nothing high end, but, I have churned out a purse for my wife, recovered a footstool, and made a checkbook cover for myself, a few belts, and have started churning out some cast iron pot holders. I have been relatively satisfied by the leather I have gotten from Tandy, as being far superior to the ReaLeather and ELW stuff, from a tooling perspective. It has taken impressions well, stamped well, and, when I have kept my tools sharp, carved relatively easily - occasionally a little "draggy," but not anything I have been unable to control. I have never tried Hermann Oak. That's next on the list, and I am looking forward to it! With all that said, I stopped by the Tandy store, this week, and picked up a small piece of the 5-6 oz Oak Leaf, to make the checkbook cover. Maybe because it was already stained, I found it pretty miserable to work with. When I sprayed it, to case and start tooling, the water just beaded up, so, I assume it had been "finished" in the store. I ended up spraying the back side to get it dampened. Once I had, it took impressions reasonably well (when hit with a heavy mallet), but did not carve nicely at all. Once I was done tooling it, I had a checkbook cover I was not too dismayed by. I used my airbrush to fade to black on the edges, and sealed the edges with Fiebings black Edge Kote, and it looks pretty decent. That said, I would not offer it up for sale. I don't intend to buy more; the plain shoulders I bought tooled much nicer. The way I see things at this point, I can use the remainder of the shoulders I bought from Tandy to make some things for around the house, and make tap offs. I will look forward to seeing how those transfer to a premium leather, and am eager to try making some pieces to sell in the near future...