Fraulein

Thanks posting extra pics of the belt! Once again fantastic work! ~Frau~

Good point @Burkhardt I work in smaller sections whenever I antique anything that big, working it in and wiping it off before it's really had much time to sink in and then moving on to the next section. Works for me, but definitely understand how some people may not like that method. Thanks for pointing that out

First off I use leather balm with atom wax on all of my projects. I really like it and definitely think you should try it out. Of course test it on some scrap first so you get a feel for how it will look, before you do it on a huge piece like that. As far as your questions about antique, if you're going to do tooling I would definitely antique it so your tooling will stand out. You dye your project first and let that dry. From there the process varies a little. Some people will apply a finish and then antique, then apply a second coat of finish. What I like to do is antique and then once that's dry I add a couple coats of the leather balm. Keep in mind that this will darken your leather quite a bit. Again I recommend you do a sample piece first, before antiquing the whole thing. And yes, it's perfectly alright to just use antique without dyeing first as you mentioned doing on belts before. Just gives you a different look. Hope this helps and please post if you have any more questions! ~Frau~

@Gezzer thanks! I'll have to look for some of those frames ~Frau~

Best of luck to ya! Please post pics when you finish! ~Frau~

Those are awesome! Love that idea! Do you possibly have a link to where you get those frames? Also appreciate seeing someone else making such fantastic use out of those "cheap beginners" stamps as you did on the first one. I know they're not the best stamps out there, but I'm a cheapskate and frankly I think they make some beautiful designs, as you proved on that first frame. ~Frau~

That tooling is way too beautiful to throw away! I would pull off the interior and scrap that and try to redo it with a more traditional pocket design. I've done a wallet with that same shape and also ran into the issue of that stitch line going through where I didn't want it. I ended up lining it and that worked really well. My advice would be to find a really thin lining leather to help with the bulk. I used this pigskin from Springfield Leather Co https://www.springfieldleather.com/Lining-Smoothcell-Brown-SqFt Hope this helps and please don't give up on that design, it's beautiful! ~Frau~

Hi Gosut, Just a thought about the neatsfoot not darkening your project, I think it depends on the type of leather you are using. I always use imported veg tan and never had any success darkening my projects with oil, so I stick with just dyeing. But I've heard that imported veg won't darken with oil and you have to use hermann oak or something similar to get it to darken with just oil. I've always had really good results with the fiebings pro dye, never needed a second coat so I hope it works as well for you Please post pics of your project when it's done! ~Frau~

I dye the whole thing, then paint over that, I like to use several thin coats to get a good color, then seal. ~Frau~

Beautiful work! Wish I could tool like that. Can't wait to see the interior finished ~Frau~

Looks awesome! Good clean work Would love to see more pics of the belt ~Frau~

Fantastic work! Love that stamping pattern! Is that one of those Sergey neskrominy stamps? (Apologies if I misspelled that horribly) ~Frau~

I use fiebings leather balm with atom wax on all my stuff and I really like it. Here's an example of the kind of sheen it gives me. Hope this helps! ~Frau~

Woah that's amazing! Thanks for sharing! ~Frau~

@327fed , @toxo , @JLSleather thank you so much for all the info! Appreciate everybody's help and advice! ~Frau~