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Hi all. Been learning about leather work as a weekend hobby for a couple of years. I've made easy bags, diary covers, dog collars and some simple bits n pieces. Pics later. My question is, what else can I try my hand at. I seem to have no imagination and just see what someone has made and try it myself. As I live in the UK anything to do with guns and even knives is pointless. I'm going to a craft fair in month so keen to make things for that. I make square and heart shaped keyrings for the Airedale Terrier of Scotland Club which are sold via the club. My airedale is called Fudge. https://en-gb.facebook.com/fudgeandme/ there are some pics of the things I've done here. So I'm looking for some inspiration, ideas, suggestions, either for new items or how to improve what I'm doing. I'd really appreciate your views. Thanks from sunny Scotland (insert happy face)

First of all, a great hello to everyone from Slovenia! I'm a very new to the leather, although I had wish to sew it by hand for a long time before. So I came as far as trying to sew the first axe sheath for a start. I've managed to finish it as far as it comes to the edges. Here are 2 pictures, which shows my current state. I'm using 5/6 oz. veg tan leather, which is treated with several coats of Fiebing's Pro Dye (brown) and colorless Fiebing's Resolene. I'm stuck here, because I don't know how to properly finish the edges, neither would know, what the proper edge finish is. As far as I've managed to read about the leather, I came to the fact, that Fiebing's Edge Kote is one of worst possible finishes on leather sheats and looks very amateur. So I've ordered Eco-Flo's Gum Tragacanth for finishing edges, but I'm still not sure about it. Am I supposed to dye the edges before I use Gum Tragacanth? Are the finishes on picture below proper edge finishes or are there any other possibilities to look properly? (the left one) And if so, how am I possible to reach them?

I am inundated with strap scraps that need a new home. Prefer to sell by the giant box full, weighing about 40-60 pounds per box. Come and see it all and make an offer for a truckload! Located in Aurora, CO. Herman Oak golden tan bridle, 8/10 oz veg tan, and 9/11 oz. struck through Black Latigo from Chahin. Most are mixed boxes, with both colors. Most leather is cut and edged, from 3/8" to 1" wide. Also plenty of random bits and trimmings from the edges of the sides. Asking $1.50 per pound, or $40 per big box. A few boxes full of ONLY the bridle leather cut to 9/16" width. This is beautiful stuff, it's just a little too short for the products we make with it. Asking $2.00 per pound, or $60 per box. Perfect for key fobs, bracelets, small projects, 4-H, scouts, crafts, etc. Remnant from dog leash/collar business (IE: nothing long enough or strong enough if this is what you want to make, because we've used what we can for this purpose). I have a continuous supply of this stuff. Feel free to reply here, but for faster reply, just give us a call. Call or text Brian three-o-three 653-184FIVE

So I've been going crazy the last month making garb and other sundries for the SCA event I went to, which means lots of leftover scraps. I hate throwing anything away, so I came up with a little pouch made of a scrap of leather for the base and a band of linen from something or other. The bead is one I made in lampworking, works pretty well as a stop. Thinking on it, I realized that a good way to use up torn up jeans is to cut off the bottoms and use those as the walls of a sack, just turn down the raw edge and make a new hem, sew on a leather bottom and add a cord! Minimal sewing and you used up some stuff that might have gotten thrown out.

I'm completely new to the leather world so excuse my naiveness. I'm thinking I want to use veg tan leather for my first project. I'm a portrait photographer and I would like to create a pouch for photos to gift to my clients. I have marked three shades in the attached photo that I would like to achieve. 1. Is it possible to purchase veg tan leather already dyed? If so where would l find that? 2. If not do you know of a company that makes a grey dye or would I need to use black with a dye reducer? 3. If I wanted the "natural" look what would be best to finish the leather with? Do I need to finish it at all or could I just leave it as is? 4. I'm somewhat worried that the dyes would be toxic to photos. I would like to present the pouches as a long term storage solution for photographs but I'm unsure as to whether or not that would be considered archival. I have spammed my photography groups with the question and no one has any idea. Any insight about this would be appreciated.

I'm making a camera strap for my friend who saw one I made for myself and liked it. She is a minimalist and likes her leather products to abide by the dictum, "let the leather be the leather." She's fairly famous and is sent top-of-the-line products to feature in her editorials, etc., and some of those have been high-end leather bags and such. (I only mention this as context to show she has a well-informed opinion of what she likes, and though I'm not doing this in order to be featured or promoted in her work, I do want to give her the best I can do, since she's an old friend and I know she has high standards.) She prefers the aesthetic and tactility of unfinished veg tan leather, but I've never given someone something without a finish of some sort, and I'm worried that since it's a strap, and she uses a camera constantly for her work as she travels 11 out of 12 months in the year, that heavy use might take its toll more quickly than if her strap did have some sort of treatment applied to it. Maybe it would be a negligible difference. I just don't want to give her something that forsakes utility over aesthetics. So, is leaving it unfinished a terrible idea? And if so, is there some finish that best retains the color and texture of veg tan? She also likes the way it looks and feels to have veg tan take on the patina of use over time, so I don't want to deny her that either. I'm mostly concerned that it might affect the structural integrity of the strap, especially when it has a several-thousand-dollar piece of equipment on the other end, though it's only just under 2.5 lbs.

Zombie holster for 1911 pistol.

My all in one guide to Vinegaroon Hey everyone. I’ve been lurking around these forums for a while now and haven’t posted much, so I thought I’d finally make a contribution. I’m going to University for a Chemistry degree, and surprisingly some of the things I’ve been learning in my labs are actually applicable to my leatherwork! I thought I'd write up some of my observations and experiments with vinegarroon, to try and help shed some light on what is actually going on in the reaction. Please, read through and share any knowledge you have working with this stuff! (I know this is a lot. I was bored just typing it. You can skip to the bottom if you don't have time to read it all) Background Vinegaroon, or ‘roon, is a homemade black ‘dye’ that has been used by leatherworkers for centuries. It is also used by woodworkers to ‘ebonize’ wood, and was used since the 5th century as ink, called ‘iron gall ink’. It is not actually a dye, but a reaction between ferric acetate and the tannins that naturally occur in leather and wood. Tannins content varies between hardwoods and softwoods, and can be boosted by brewing a strong black tea and wiping it on the wood. I assume that this is also true of leathers. I have a few junky tandy's sides that are pale in appearance, and they seem to be low on tannins because roon has less of an effect on them. ‘Roon is used by many leather and wood workers but understood by few. It can be very useful alternative to commercial black dye in areas where dye is unavailable, too costly, or undesired because of environmental reasons. Also, because it is fundamentally different than other dyes, it will not bleed or crock (rub off) onto fabric. Pros: -easy to make with household materials -available in places where dye is not, or shipping is too expensive -nearly free -does not bleed or crock like other black dyes Cons: -often does not make a deep enough black colour without lots of neatsfoot oil added afterwards -can make your product smell like vinegar -acidic nature can cause issues with metal hardware in contact with the leather, might also degrade then leather after long periods of time Typical Recipe: (not recommended by me) Put some old rusty nails into a jar of vinegar and let it sit for a week, or a month. Filter it through cheesecloth and wipe it on your leather. This produces a nasty, smelly mixture of a whole bunch of iron complexes and compounds. The active ingredient, iron acetate, is in there, but along with a whole bunch of other junk you don’t need. It doesn’t have to be this way. With some chemistry and a little bit of research into the mechanism here, I’ve made a crystal clear, mostly odourless solution that only takes half a day to make. How I did it: I bought fine steel wool from the dollar store, which came in small bats. Any steel or iron will do, but fine steel wool has the greatest surface area so it will react the fastest. Metal shavings/powder would also work, but I’d think they would just clump on the bottom of the jar and prevent the vinegar from reaching the bottom layers. I washed one bat in soapy water to remove any oils left over from manufacturing. Some people have used acetone, which would work well, but seems a bit over the top when soap is cheaper. I pulled it apart and placed it in a beaker of regular vinegar, so that all the wool was submerged. You don’t need very much steel wool at all, even a quarter of the amount I used would be enough. The amount of metal actually being dissolved is in the order of milligrams or even micrograms. You probably shouldn’t keep a lid on it, because you are producing gas in the reaction. After a few hours, small bubbles form on the steel wool, causing it to rise to the top of the solution. I would mix it gently to dislodge the bubbles and keep it submerged. Every few hours I would use an eye dropper (so that I didn’t have to pour it out) to take a bit of the solution and test it on some leather. The darkening effect increased slowly over time until full strength was reached after about 12 hours. Still, I left the wool in there for 2 days to see if it got any stronger. Next time I won’t leave it in so long. After 2 days, I removed the wool. Since none of the wool was ever exposed to the air above, there was no rust in the beaker and I was left with a nice clear solution that didn’t smell much worse than straight vinegar. This is my vinegaroon solution. It turns leather black, is fairly stable, and is still acidic. The final product: a clear, nearly odourless solution of vinegaroon. Neutralization (optional): Next, I tried to neutralize the solution with baking soda to see if that changed the effectiveness of it at all. I took a small test tube of the ‘roon solution and put a spoon tip of baking soda in it. Obviously this will make it fizz up like your kid’s science fair volcanoe project, so I added it slowly. I didn’t have any pH paper to test the acidity so what I did was add an excess of baking soda (seen on the bottom of the tube), and then re-added the acidic ‘roon solution dropwise until there was no excess left. These images show the neutralization process, if pH paper is unavailable. A base (sodium bicarbonate/baking soda) is added in excess, which is seen in the bottom of the test tube by the red arrow. Then, the acidic vinegaroon solution is re-added slowly until this excess base disappears. The resulting solution is assumed to be neutral. This neutralized roon solution has the exact same reaction with the leather as the acidic solution. However, it was not as stable. After a hours sitting or a few minutes shaking, the solution turned into a cloudy grey-orange sludge. This is because the oxygen in the air oxidized the Fe2+ ions into Fe3+ ions, which are not soluble and have a rusty colour. Neutralized roon is good for immediate use, but turns nasty after a while What is happening? (skip this section if you don’t like chemistry) The iron is dissolved by the acetic acid and becomes a free-floating iron ion, in the +2 oxidation state, called Fe2+ or Iron(II). Hydrogen gas is produced in the dissolution process but in such small amounts that there is nothing to worry about. This ion is colourless and soluble in water, which is what we want. Furthermore, when this ion is in an acidic solution, like vinegar, it is relatively stable. Some of the ions complex with the acetate, which further increases its stability. When this mixture is applied to the leather, the iron ions interact with the tannins to form an iron-tannin complex, which is black. Oxygen messes with this system. Obviously there is oxygen in the atmosphere and dissolved in your solution, and this can oxidize the iron ions – it will take them from the 2+ state to the 3+ state. Fe3+ or iron(III) is NOT what we want, because it is orange and gross and not soluble in water. If this forms, it creates an orange/brown powdery solid that sinks to the bottom of the jar. To prevent the oxidation of the iron in solution, we need to keep the pH LOW and keep the oxygen out of the system as much as possible – by not pouring or shaking the solution. Now, the acidity of the solution is what keeps it stable – I’m assuming that you could store vinegaroon for a few weeks or months if you kept a lid on it. But the acidity is also what makes it dangerous for using with metal hardware. So what I’ve done is neutralized the solution with baking soda, just before applying it to the leather. The neutralized solution is just as effective, but noticeably less stable. The nice clear solution will turn orange overnight if untouched, or in seconds if shaken. So there you have it. Here’s a summary of what you SHOULD do: -keep the oxygen out of the system. Oxygen is your worst enemy, and turns this pure, clear solution of iron acetate into a sludgy, brown, stanky mess. -keep the solution acidic until you need to use it, then neutralize it if you need to before applying -use steel wool, as it has way more surface area than the same mass of solid iron And what you SHOULDN’T do: -don’t use rusty metal. It wouldn’t make a huge difference, it would just be introducing iron(III) into the solution which you don’t want. -don’t stir vigorously or pour the solution if possible -don’t use lots of metal, cause you only needs a little -don’t wait for a week, cause full strength is reached in less than a day -don’t put a lid on it until you’ve removed the iron, cause you’re building up gas in that jar -don’t worry about anything exploding either, there’s not that much gas -don’t filter it! Pouring it would introduce too much oxygen into the system. If you have stuff that you need to remove, it would be better to suck the ‘roon out with a turkey baster or something. What you could do differently than me: -using stronger vinegar, ie pickling vinegar, would speed up the reaction slightly and probably produce better results, since the pH would stay lower. Normal vinegar, however, is fine for most uses. -If you want to ensure that you have neutralized the solution, or gain a greater insight into the reaction process, pH paper would be very useful. -The solution could be neutralized with other bases, I only used baking soda because it was within an arms reach of the vinegar. Using sodium hydroxide, for example, wouldn’t cause it to bubble so much. -The solution can also be heated to speed the reaction, although I personally wouldn’t bother -Perhaps the best thing you could do is to calculate just how much iron will react with the vinegar and use slightly less than that amount of steel, to ensure that you have vinegar in excess. This will keep the pH from rising as vinegar is consumed by the reaction. This could be calculated stoichiometrically, or possibly by weighing accurately the mass of steel wool before and after to find out how much was consumed. I would assume that it wouldn’t be very much at all. Resources: The main reason why I found it so hard to find information on this reaction is because I initially had no idea what to search for. “vinegaroon” only can up with a few result, and most of them were not scientific explanations. I soon found out that it is more commonly used for “ebonizing wood” and that yielded a few more results. Finally I came across some scientific papers for Iron-acetate and iron-tannin complexes. Here are links to most of the pages I found helpful in my search: http://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/35351/iron-chemistry-acetates-for-ebonizing-wood http://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/5027/how-does-the-mordant-ferric-acetate-interact-with-tannins-when-ebonizing-wood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_gall_ink https://pubs.usgs.gov/wsp/1459d/report.pdf Thanks a lot for reading that, if you made it all the way through! Ask me any questions or share your experiences with roon below!

Hi, I've been learning to work with leather for about 6 weeks, so I'm pretty inexperienced when selecting leather. I get my practice veg tan scraps from a dusty, old box at the local Army Surplus Store. Most of the time I have no trouble telling veg tan apart from other types of leather. But there is this one piece of leather at the surplus store that has me really scratching my head. It looks like it may be a piece of belly, looks to be between 7-9oz, kind of grey in color instead of a tan to salmon color like what I'm used to seeing, slightly shiney like veg tan, a little less firm than most veg tan I've felt (I've never felt good veg tan, so not much to go by). The piece is $8. I know that doesn't sound like much to spend on an experiment,. But I'm on such a tight budget that $8 feeds me and my sweetheart for a whole day, so for $8 I have to be pretty sure it's the right thing. Even though it looks and feels a lot like veg tan, somithing in my gut says it ain't right. Is it possible for veg tan to come the way I described?

Hello everyone, I was thinking of making a custom tooled horse halter, and I'm unsure what oz leather to use. I figured the thicker the better cause horse are obviously really strong animals. however I dont want the turned ends to crack when fold them over. Has anyone had success making some? Also my apologizes for the three threads under this title, I have no idea why it did that, I clicked submit once, it said error wait 7 seconds , so i did and clicked again. I'm not trying to spam

Hello everyone, I was thinking of making a custom tooled horse halter, and I'm unsure what oz leather to use. I figured the thicker the better cause horse are obviously really strong animals. however I dont want the turned ends to crack when fold them over. Has anyone had success making some?

Hello everyone, I was thinking of making a custom tooled horse halter, and I'm unsure what oz leather to use. I figured the thicker the better cause horse are obviously really strong animals. however I dont want the turned ends to crack when fold them over. Has anyone had success making some?

Hey guys, Recently I've had a request from a friend to make him a dog collar and a leash for his wedding,for his dog to bring them the wedding rings :D I couldn't find white leather yet, and I was wondering if anyone had any tips to paint natural veg tanned leather white, whith like an acrylic paint, a spray, and then apply some lacker to avoid smudging and cracking. I'd aprreciate any tips!! Thank you, Lourenço

I have received a lot of leather, a few pieces of which I need to let go to someone else that is willing to put it to good use so it isn't sitting around my shop waiting for me to figure out how to use it. This particular piece is some really heavy sole bend leather, with the edge trimmed straight. It appears to be 15 to 16 oz veg tan (roughly 1/4"), likely from Tandy, they seem to sell it for $125-$159 each side. It measures about 56"x33", judge for yourself by the rulers in the photo. I have included one photo of the back, and one of the front. Tried to do an edge image, but limited to size of posting. Perhaps it'll let me put one in later. If I did tooling, I'd probably keep this one, but I don't know how yet.. so ... Selling it for $75 + shipping.

Hi all! Here is a prototype case I completed this weekend. Still various improvements to be made before I feel comfortable buying nice leather and selling these, but I think things are coming along quite nicely . Materials Blemished vegetable-tanned leather from Tandy (4-5 oz) Ritza 25 0.8mm waxed thread (hand-stitched) Solid brass hardware from Buckleguy

Today I was making a laptop case from 6/7 ounce veg tan herman oak. I used masters contact cement to glue the fold over body of the case. After marking my lines where I want my stitch, I punched my holes as usual. The side where I made my holes with a 5 prong punch tool, (sharpened with jewelers rouge) before hand, so my tool was sharp. After stitching up one side of the case, I noticed that the thread was going underneath the stitch line on the opposite end, like the punch on the opposite end blew out. Does anyone know why this might have happened? Right now Im using a polyurethane cutting board. Im wandering if the density of the cutting board doesn't allow for the tool to penetrate the leather fluidly through both sides of the 6/7 ounce veg tan. Anyone have any ideas or advice? Thanks attached is a photo

So I kept hearing about the book Purses In Pieces, and I angsted over it enough that my guy bought it for me. While flipping through it I found something called a "rolled wallet" that had three pockets in it, and it looked fairly simple. At first I was worried about it being too fat with having veg tanned leather on the outside and for the pockets, but then I remembered I have some pig suede, perfect! This being my first rolled wallet, I pretty much made up all the proportions. In retrospect, I should have made it 1/4" wider so the middle pocket would fit business cards. The bottom most pocket is pretty much perfect for change, not too deep and not too shallow, and the topmost pocket (that needs the most flex since it bends around into a U shape) fits paper money folded in half just nicely. I dyed the veg tan with walnut hull dye I made from green hulls, it's a nice soft brown.

I'm new to leather crafting and using a blog. If this should be posted elsewhere please advise. I tried running a search with no luck. I'm making leather greaves of veg tan cow hide. Stencils and cuts are done, tooling to be done soon. As it is relatively flat I will be wet forming it to fit around my leg so I wondered if I should: dye it first, then wet form? wet form, then dye? (I think this might be the way to go) or other suggestions? I'm using kelly green fiebings for the majority of it but I have a stag in the middle I would like to keep a lighter color maybe use the color block stuff and some hi light for the tooling recesses? Attached is the greave to be worked on and bracers I did that it will be matching. Thanks for any input!

Hey folks, I'm making a journal cover with full stamping on the front-- about 5x7 and the leather is about 8/9 oz veg tan. With the stamping complete, the leather is quit a bit more stiff than when I began, given the compression from the stamping. I haven't dyed yet, just gave thorough single coat of neatsfoot. It's only been a few hours since I applied the neatsfoot, and still very stiff. Should I work more oil into it? Gently flex/bend the leather to make it more supple? Something else?

Hey guys, I'm looking to pick up some tips on making rolled handles. I've just watched an awesome video on how to hand sew them, but I'm hoping to do it on my machine since my hand stitching skills aren't very good and I don't have a clamp yet. The major issue I'm having is that my leather is wrinkling quite a lot when I bend it. I've been using 4oz veg tan with a vinyl tubing core. I'm using a zipper foot so I can get my stitching as close to the tubing as possible, but it still seems to be a bit loose and I think that may be contributing to the wrinkles. I have tried conditioning it, which helps a little, but I'm still not 100% happy. I was wondering if a welting/cording foot would deal with that by allowing me to sew even closer to the tubing. Has anyone tried a welting foot, and if so, could you get the stitches really close to the cording? Does it seem like that would help me? Or am I better off just biting the bullet and hand stitching? Also- I've been glueing the leather together, but then when I go to burnish the cut edge I seem to get a lot of glue coming onto my edge, making it sticky and hard to slick down. Is there any way to prevent this? I'm using an eco-friendly water-based glue.. Any tips are appreciated! Thanks!

Thanks to Nstarleather, I got my hands one some luscious Horween leather. Because I'm a newbie, I'm petrified of screwing up the nice big slabs I have and figured I'd start with something nice and small that would trim up the edges which would be waste material anyway. My guy has been making noise about a bracelet he can wear to work and I had been looking at mystery braids, so off I went. I think I'm on my fifth bracelet now, I might have a problem. First pic is of the latest one I made, nicely snug without cutting off circulation. I decided to play with punches a bit, I think I need to sharpen them because the edges are a bit fuzzy. This wasn't an ideal scrap so it looks a bit rough, but I like the idea of a pattern like that. I was on such a roll with mystery braiding that I decided to use up a scrap of thin veg tanned leather I had laying around and then spray it with two new colors of eco flow dye I had recently gotten. My guy is now clamoring for me to make a version of this for him. -_- I call it the joker bracelet for the colors used. My biggest annoyance is the snaps, I have some line 24 snaps in different colors but the shafts on them are so long that I had to take a jewelry saw to them to shorten them up and it still ended up deforming the cap a bit (just enough so I noticed). The other snaps I'm using are from Joann fabrics and while they're just the right length, the hardware that is used for the top/bottom bits come in this weird plastic clamshell thing that you hit with a mallet, and of course being plastic it snapped at the hinge so now I have to wince while having my fingers way too close to the mallet to hold everything together.

Hello, hope everyone is well... Need a little help on trying to source this type of leather or at least get a name for it. I don't know much about leather at all but I've done my best to describe and send pictures to suppliers without any success. Please see the attached images. - The leather is 2mm thick and is very soft and flexible. - It can be stretched a little which is a must. - The leather can be scrunched up in the hand. - The back of the leather has a suede finish. - The leather goes lighter in colour when bent etc. (i believe this is like 'pull-up' leather?) The only thing I can find which comes close is nappa but i can only find this in around 1mm, this leather is 2mm thick. Any help on what leather this is or UK suppliers would be amazing! Thanks in advance, Tom

Hello! A few months ago my local leather supplier switched over to buying from a new tannery. I have noticed that the new leather does not patina, it just ends up looking kind of dirty after a few months of use. I have been working with 8/9 oz Veg Tan leather for about 4 years now and I have never encountered pieces like these. This isn't a problem for products that I dye but it is for products that I leave natural. I love watching the natural leather age and darken but this new leather just doesnt seem to do that. I also put it to the test with a few products that I use to see how it would react. I tested some Skidmores leather cream and some saddle oil on a few natural pieces. My local supplier was out of the 8/9 oz for a few weeks so I had to go out to buy a Hermann Oak piece from another supplier as that is all that they carried, of course Hermann Oak leather tanned and reacted nicely. I am wondering if anyone has ever experienced this? Is there something that leather could have been coated with? I spoke to my supplier about it and they said it isnt coated with anything and are surprised that it is not getting its natural patina. You can see that the new leather had some spotting once I put the saddle oil on it. Any information would help!

Hi all, recently cranked out my first bifold and some long wallets in Burgundy CXL and Hermann Oak Veg tan, let me know what you think! Thanks for looking, Kevin

I have searched through the forum to find the answer to this so apologies if it is somewhere and I have not been able to find the answer! Does anyone have suggestions on the best finish to use to maintain the natural, light look of veg tan leather and that won't darken it at all/much? I know the veg tan will darken as it is used but I would like it to happen as naturally as possible. Is it even necessary to use a finish if I am not dying or tooling the leather? I make wallets/cases/bags and am also wondering how necessary it is to use any conditioner. Is a persons natural oils enough to keep the leather from drying? I have tried a few different products such as neatsfoot oil, a nf/beeswax blend, and resolene, but it seems that most darken the leather or leave it with a very unnatural, shiny look. If anyone has suggestions I would appreciate it! Otherwise I'll just keep searching for other products and keep testing and testing. Thank you.