Warhauk

One reason is honestly just because the first videos I started watching on leather craft were from weaver leather on youtube and he likes to keep the back of a lot of his stuff natural. I pretty quickly decided I liked the full dye look better but my wife said it looked weird and preferred the natural back. The tipping factor was that I'm afraid of dye bleed and figured I'd play it safe until I have enough experience. I've actually dyed 2 bracelets Im wearing around, 1 with resolene finish and 1 with aussie leather conditioner as the finish. I want to see how long it will take before it bleeds with normal wear. So far so nothing.

I was pretty hesitant using suede also because I personally dont feel it would be very confortable but my wife was insistent that it is a good liner. Then I asked the guy at tandys bc i was going to either pick up some pigskin liner or some of the colorful cowhide liner they have and my wife said they dont feel very good. He said he lined everything he did with suede and loves it so I just assumed I was the incorrect one. Good to know that I shouldn't line hilsters with it though. Do you think it would be fine to line a phone holster though? My dad still wears one and I'm going to make him one for christmas.

So a normal magic marker? I've seen the empty markers you can fill and am considering that but are normal markers something people use? I bevel my edges before dying. I will admit that my applicator is probably a big part of the problem. I'm using a wool dobber that just barely has any dye on it. I use the duck brand blue quick release painters tape. Ok so they make an edge paint that I can use rather than a dye. Do you usually match the paint color to the leather or is it something where you can usually just go black and call it good? So I believe you did recommend on my other post using a liner, which for the stuff people would be wearing, I have decided to put a suede liner on all of those. I just didn't really feel like a suede liner on a dog collar was a good solution, but I could easily be wrong. What would be a good liner material for a dog collar? I guess I never actually mentioned this is a dog collar. I should probably specify when I post since I am making collars for both people and dogs currently.

I've been told to tape the back, which I have. Applying dye to the grain side is no problem but then, even when I'm trying to be careful, I get some bleed over while doing my edges. Is it just something you need to practice until you've figured it out or are there any tricks or techniques someone can enlighten me on?

I bought a big bunch of 100% cotton dish cloths for my buffing, dye application, etc. I wasn't sure at first because they aren't the nice smooth kind of rags but so far they seem to be working alright. Maybe I will pick up some of the smoother shop style rags later (recommendations anyone?). I have some questions involving reusable cloth (I'm more of a disposable guy but my paper towels aren't strong enough for some of the stuff and start to fall apart while I'm working). I saw a video from weaver where he just has a neatsfoot rag in a ziplock bag that he uses for application. If color bleeds on to the rag from applying after it has been dyed, is there a high risk of that moving over to a different piece if I use the same rag? Also, how safe is it for me to toss all my dyed up rags into my washing machine? Is there risk of it getting dye all up in there and transferring to the clothes in my next load? I use a variety of dyes, including ecoflo leather dye, ecoflo waterstain, and tandy pro dye.

Yeah it is amazing how heavy some of the stone is until you've tried to lift it. The slabs I got are both probably 150lbs each. It took both my wife and I to carry them, not only because of the weight, but the size and she was practically dying by the end of it.

Funny enough, all the places I normally shop seem to be completely sold out of mop n glo (or only have the 3 in 1 and reading those ingredients, felt it was very iffy to be using it on leather). So I ended up just doing the 5 collars I was working on with resolene and also made myself a 1.5" wide bracelet that I dyed and finished the same exact way for me to wear around purely to test bleed off potential. I've learned that a resolene coating against your skin is not particularly the most comfortable experience and also, while I was putting the barcelet on for the first time, I created a tiny crack in the resolene near the edge (which I just tossed a bit more resolene over). I admit that I'm not sure I applied the resolene well. I did a pretty heavy coating of it, let it sit and soak in a bit and gave it a little wipedown before it started to fully dry so it didnt come out uneven and on the back, i worked it in with a bristle brush then just let it dry. After it dried, I gave it a second coat. Both time, I was experiencing dye coming off and I'm not sure if that means I didn't properly remove all the surface dye or if that is a typical thing. If it is typical, wouldnt the dye mix with the resolene as it dries and just bleed off of that? If it isn't normal, then how do I do a proper dye removal beforehand? I gave it a really good buffing with a dry cloth until nothing was coming off before applying the resolene.

I'm using some L20 snaps that I got from hobby lobby when I first started buying hardware for my leather. I'm not sure if it is me or the snaps causing the problem, but I just can't seem to set the snap straight. It comes out misaligned every time and all the tips and instructions I've found in videos don't really work. Setting rivets goes perfectly though. Any advice would be appreciated.

Funny enough, it actually was a bdsm themed craft market and I was in the process of making several cuff/collar sets for it. Unfortunately. the website my wife found the market on was incorrect on the date, and it had just passed, as opposed to being 1 week later.

The place I got the slabs from also had a MASSIVE scrap pile. But it was a no access area because of how hazardous it was. Before I knew it was a no go, I went up and removed a 1 sq foot little slab that seemed to not be supporting anything, and a small avalanche occurred that I luckily got away from.

When I eventually get a real work space, I'm probably going to partially cut one down and make a few smaller, more portable blocks to place strategically around the area or for when I just want to do some tooling elsewhere.

Wondering what kind of pieces people have been able to find for a steal for their slabs. I happened to be driving by a countertop manufacturer a few hours from my house on a completely unrelated trip and figured I'd stop by because I was currently searching for a slab and most places I was calling in my area were quoting me at $30/sq ft for granite. I didn't really need anything big. When I asked, they told me $5 for a piece, just go right out the door and to the left and anything on the pallets was up for grabs. I assumed they would be a bunch of small irregular pieces but that was still okay with me so without looking, I gave them $10 to grab 2 of the pieces. When I went out, these slabs were massive. I picked up 2 that were roughly 28" x 48" x 1 1/8". It perfectly covers my coffee table (That I actually bought secondhand as a temporary work table). They had even larger ones but I was driving my smaller car at the time and simply couldn't have fit anything larger. As my wife and I were loading them, some guy came out from the actual work area and asked me a couple of questions. He then gave me the go ahead on the 2 slabs I grabbed but I get the impression that the front desk was probably not supposed to have done that. I'm not a stone expert, but I think both are granite. One is a river stone granite that has a cool pattern within it. The one pictured is my current slab because it was blander and I don't need it for looks.

Well it isnt that she doesnt have skills. The tshirts, she actually does custom images and screen prints them (or sometimes heat transfers with cricut). And her other crafts also arent bad crafts, they are just marketed on the cheaper end purposely. She is still finding where she really wants to go (im going to guess jewelry). My big problem is not that I'm afraid her lack of skill will reflect poorly on me, it's just that my leather brand (which is currently non existent but hopefully will start to build at least a little reputation eventually) will seem worse simply because it is sold along side a bunch of completely unrelated stuff, making it seem more like a general craft project than a well made leather piece.

Ive also tried the japanese skiver (it came as part of a 3 piece set with some bevelers) and i will definitely need to get more practice with that before i feel confident. As for the super skiver, i start on the edges and go to work into the middle and i can get a bite on the edges, but when i go to even out the middle, even after thinning both edges, it just scrapes the surface and I'm afraid to take too much off of the sides to create enough of a slope in the center.

I appreciate all the input. It really does make me feel a bit better about the scarring, because personally I agree but I'm just not sure what general expectation is and don't want to be putting out low quality work. My specific concern was actually about the dark stain look that came from the neatsfoot oil and, those 2 pieces are actually going to be mostly bwhing another front pocket and I will be able to hide most if not all of that darkness, I was just wondering if it was something I did wrong. As for applying neatsfoot before dying, I have tried that on a few pieces but they are still stiff after I dye them. How do I soften them back up?

Thank you for your input. I wouldn't want to do a dog specific thing because it isn't actually my specific interest, I was making a bdsm collar and showing some people I know and a buddy mentioned he would like to buy a dog collar from me and so I made a test one for one of my dogs and a few other people liked it and nade orders. Thanks for pointing out regulations because I hadnt thought of that and I'm sure my wife hadnt either.

Are you referring to the turtle wax ICE seal n shine? I looked it up and it says it is a floor 'cleaner'. Is that the same product you are referring to?

I've recently gotten into leather craft and I've sold a couple of small items, mostly some dog collars. I'm considering going to a artisan/crafts market they are holding in my area soon but I intend to have an etsy shop made beforehand so I can pass out business cards with the shop link. My wife also does crafts but hers are more general, random crafty things like dry erase dinner menus and custom t shirt prints, etc. She wants to just set up one shop that sells all of our stuff but I feel like it might...for lack of a better phrasing, water down the brand image for my work. Maybe I'm completely off base with it, but I personally would feel a lot more confident buying a good quality leather wallet or belt from a dedicated leather company rather than from a shop that sells a bunch of random crafty, trendy things and also leather items. In more experienced peoples eyes, would my assumption be correct in thinking we should keep the 2 things separate or am I overthinking it?

Thanks for the suggestions I'll definitely look into the mop n glo and compare it to resolene.

I just saw a video of a guy whose preferred method for dying leather is an airbrush. I would have assumed that you would get very little penetration of the dye using an airbrush but it seems like an interesting application method. Has anybody had any experience either using or receiving a piece that is airbrushed? How does it hold up, how consistent, etc? How do you think it measures up to the other methods of dye application?

Yeah thats what I'm afraid of. Would resolene be able to stop that? I've already made all of the collars (dying the back also) and just need to put on the top coat and hardware. Do I need to just scrap them at this point?

I've recently started working with leather and I'm making several dog collars for my dogs (I have 6). I decided to dye both the front and back of the collar (Which afterward my wife commented she prefers the back to look natural). I know that pretty much everything in leather crafting seems to be a matter of preference and opinion but I am wondering if more experienced people can lend some of their knowledge. Does it look unprofessional to leave the back natural? If not, do I need to be really careful to only do the front and sides and make sure there is no color bleed to the back? Additionally, I would assume that if I dye the back, I need to use something to seal the dye in to prevent bleeding. Should I just use resolene on the back also or are there better methods to seal the back without making it harder/uncomfortable? I imagine the difference wont matter much to a dog because they have fur in between anyways, but say on like a choker or something that would go against the skin.

I heavily diluted some pink eco flo waterstain to get a light pink color which turned out...slightly worse than I had hoped. After it was completely dry, I applied some neatsfoot oil to it , what I thought was evenly and let it dry. Now it looks like this after roughly 24 hours. I'm wondering if I made a mistake in the process (like maybe I shouldn't have used the neatsfoot at all?) or did I mess up in applying? Or is it okay like that and maybe will come out alright in the end? Side note, I'm pretty sure the creasing/scratches were there when I started because I'm using cheaper leather sides and I just didn't notice them until I started the dye process.

I have a super skiver and I just can't seem to get it to bite when trying to thin things like the foldover section for a belt buckle. I've watched several videos on it and they make it seem like it just bites in, you go parallel and cut. Am I missing something?

I've just started using some leather dyes (specifically eco flo leather dye and fiebings pro dye). On my first few projects I just used some leather balm over top of whatever color the scrap piece I was using. I'm currently making a couple of dog collars out of 7-8oz vegtan and have a few questions as to the process and precautions. Is it better to dip dye or brush dye? If I do brush dye, should I leave the back natural or dye the back also? After buffing the excess dye off, is using leather balm as a finish adequate or are there certain types of finishes I need to use to make sure the color doesn't bleed off?