Tophee

It originally didnt let me add more pictures... but now it let me add one more to this but not the third picture. Lol

First bigger project compared to the key fobs I started making, been a bit since I made something else. Was waiting to get some leather in. Very plain, but I wanted to make something for the coming hunting season.

I see, thank you all for your inputs. Ill give that search method a try next time I wanna check something.

I was looking at some videos on patterns I am planning on trying to make. I noticed that some cut the pattern out of their leather while wet and some did not is there any benefit to cutting wet? I am not talking tooling or stamping or anything, just cutting the shapes you need out of your piece of peather for a pattern. I have been cutting my beginner projects out from dry leather but was curious on if I should be wetting the leather for an easier or cleaner cut? Also sorry if this was already a thread, I either am blind or not searching it correctly if it is.

Thank you for the suggestion. I am short on space though, so like the presses suggested by others I wont be able to go for this. But it is something I will keep in mind for the future. Looks good, I have a couple die's saved in a list for when I get some funds to spare. I have this exact die saved in a list on amazon at the moment. I tried making a book marker out of leather, did not think of a magnetic one though.

I appreciate all the advice. Alot of things for me to try out in future projects. Im focusing on smaller things at the moment but will work my way up to bigger projects as I get better.

I do intend on picking up some other punches ill have to give it a look. I dont have a place to put a press atm even a small one so any die I get will be mallet use. I did try to sand another piece I made that I did not post here. But all it did was fray the leather and burnishing didnt help fix it. Maybe I was using too coarse a paper. I do intend to pick up a dremel, they seem to come in handy for all kinds of crafts and things.

Im looking at a couple of those, but most are for presses I dont have a press I would need one I can use with a hammer. Yea I use a utility knife atm or a rocksheet knife as I tend to call em. Was looking at a knife off of Tandy thats on sale if I cannot find a a die I can use with a hammer since I dont havea press.

Still new, but these are my latest creations. Still cannot get the cuts all even.

Yeah i just ordered the rawhide mallet. It will most likely serve me better

Was not a wooden mallet, I dont know the name but it was a nylon straight head mallet. Very cheap one but I did not expect this much of a catestrophic failure during use. Many of the youtubers I watch, specifically DG Saddlery uses those sheepskin ones with the wool on it still. I may pick up a small pack, or there is actually a sheepfarm down the road from me that has a craft shop I may stop in and ask if thye have some.

I took these 2 leftover cuts of leather and did what you 2 suggested. Also I went and changed the surface I used to stamp on. Impression was MUCH better looking before dyeing and antiqueing. I did kinda rush the antiqueing so it isnt the best it can be. But I think this looks better than the others. I do need a new mallet now though, one Ive been using is one that came with the cheap set I bought and the handle cracked when I gave it a harder whack and the whole thing came apart. I do think I could of let the leather dry some more but overall I think I made some progress with it. What does everyone typically use to apply and buff off the excess antique? What I have been using is cut up rags and seems to not buff very well and it removes too much antique I think.

Shoulder cut, I got it on sale online from Tandy. Maybe not the best quality but to practice on I try to get on sale leather so mistakes like these dont bother me. Im gonna try something in the next coming days, gonna change the surface I am putting the leather on before I stamp it. Maybe the table I am using has too much give underneath the slab I have and its not pushing back enough to get a good impression. So im gonna give soakin it like you described a try and a better surface and I will see what happens.

Im using a 7oz leather. From a post or 2 ive found on this forum, minimal for stamping and tooling according to some would be 4-5oz I believe what was said. So I should be good with that at least. Gonna have to play around with casing the leather with these scraps I got. Appreciate the help from everyone by the way.

I do have a little spray bottle that was originally for a hand sanitizer I cleaned and filled with water. But figured it was wetting the leather too much so for these i just made sure the surface was moist. Even with a bad stamp tho I would think an antique paste would make its way into any of the impressions well enough to not come out when wiping off the excess. Again maybe im just not doing the whole process incorrectly.

Possible, there are good impressions left. But maybe the stamps just arent made with deep enough grooves for antiqueing. Or I am just not doing the whole process right.

I dampend the leather with just water on my fingers. Was not even wet really. I did not stamp the flesh side, I did use a texture punch also so it may be the reason it looks that way. I let the resolene dry completely for about an hour. Applied with a wool dauber and wiped off any excess.

This is my first attempt at antiqueing anything. New to leather work in general, did not contrast as much as I wanted and it stained the leather even after I applied resolene as my resist. The antique kept coming out when I went to wipe off the excess shortly after applying. The long piece was an attempt at making a book mark. It was by far the worst one affected. Im using fiebings antique paste Mahogany. I am also just using stamps at the moment since I feel they would be easier to start with than carving in the leather for now. I have few stamps so that is the reason for the similarities. Maybe the stamps just arent deep enough to antique, I am not sure. Process I did for these was dye, let dry, apply resolene and let that dry. Apllied antique, wiped off excess, let dry than add final coat of resolene.

Thank you all for your advise. Atm I only have resolene, I am unsure if that can be used as a resist for any antiqueing paste I would get. So I would have to get either tan kote or pro resist as I see alot of people use from the posts I have seen which at this moment I do not wanna get too much stuff. I cannot dip unfortuantely, limited space, not buying dye in large amounts yet. But I have seen more than a few people mention dipping their leather pieces, at least for pro dyes from fiebings. I did attempt to buff the finish with a micro cloth. It didn't really seem like it did much to the piece I posted a picture of. But I have other little pieces I will be making once I get a lighter color dye so I will do it on those as well and see. The other night I tried diluting this Mocassin Brown dye and using a scrap piece to see a color change, it didnt change the color still was very dark. So at least with the dye I have, diluting seems to just stretch it out not change the color. I diluted the dye 50/50 with alcohol. Ill be picking up a lighter dye and antique paste, still debating on getting pro resist or tan kote, unless I can use resolene as a resist than I will use that for now.

Thank you, makes sense that if the leather is too wet it wont stamp right. I applied my dye using an applicator that I would ring out a little bit so it doesnt just puddle everywhere. I wet the leather using an empty hand sanitizer bottle I filled with water and sprayed it on there.

That looks really good. Ill have to try thinning this dye out and seeing what I can get from it. Gonna be alot of little key fobs for me till I can get to where I wanna be. I shall try to post more of my projects as I go through them. Ill certainly give that method a try as well.

Doesn't scare me lol I welcome the learning. I just gotta find a purpose for my darker dye now, or learn the applications for it in any small projects I do in the future. Thank you all for your help!

Yeah, when choosing the first dye I was gonna buy I liked how this looked. But after getting the stamps and trying it, it didnt look as well. As suggested by Mablung and Sup I will look into antiqueing and also probably get a lighter dye. I am assuming this kind of dark dye I got would not be suited for what I am currently going for.

Maybe a picture will better describe what I am referring too since I am bad with words. The dye is dark so it pretty much blends everything in together, the stamp and all. I did try to not dye the stamp and paint brush around it. But did not look so good.

Ill give it a search. Dyeing the leather atm just blends the stamp in with the rest so you cannot really see the stamped part unless you look at it from an angle. Wouldn't antiquing it just make it all blend to gether even more after dyeing the whole piece of leather?