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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!

I can seem to stop my belts and straps from winkling after I dye them. I've used different pieces from different retailers and always get the wrinkles. I've used Tandy's Pro dye and both of the Fiebing's dyes (oil & spirit). I use pure neatsfoot / or EVOO to condition. I make tool belts for firefighters and the leather is 12 oz and up. The belts get abused, wet, thrown around etc, but I don't want them to look like crap before they get abused. The leather produces larger wrinkles than normal when bent and then returned to the flat position. Any tricks on how to limit this? Will warming the oil up some before conditioning help? I also used Tandy's Pro conditioning creme and it produced the same results. Should I condition the straps before dying? Or is this just something im gonna have to deal with?

Hello, I am fairly new to leatherworking and have mostly been teaching myself through trial and error. I started by making single piece holsters for some of my revolvers and then moved on to two piece "high-ride" style holsters for automatics. I had been pretty happy with my beginner results and thus, with those few creations as my only experience, decided to move on to a more challenging project, a complete western style holster and belt rig. It wasn't long before I realized I was still lacking in some basic principles. I started making 2 1/4" double layer belt out of two ~7oz strips that I cut with a strap cutter out of a double shoulder. The leather was the Crafstman Oak brand from Tandy. The straps were cut in the "left leg to right leg" direction. The resulting double strap was very thick, but not noticeably more than some of the other professionally made belt rigs that I had on hand. I dyed the strips with Fieblings Oil based dye in saddle tan. My intention was to leave the inside strap natural, but after dripping some dye on both pieces I elected to dye them both, possibly part of my error. I glued the two together using ECO-FLO leathercraft cement and set let it set overnight under a weighted down board. The following day I removed the piece and bent it around my waist. While doing so the inside leather piece instantly formed wrinkles. It was permanently damaged, as if the epidermis pulled away from the rest of the skin. I went on to make some smaller test pieces using some different techniques. Some with both layers dyed, some natural on the inside, some with the leather cement, some with contact cement...In the end they all showed some deforemation of the inside layer. The dyed ones were worse, but even the natural leather showed some wrinkling, certainly more than on any of my purchased double layer belts, which can be bent fairly tight without any effects. As you can see in the photo, I stubornly went ahead and punched holes for stiching, but stopped before completing because it looked too bad and was getting worse the more I moved it. What am I missing? Is it the leather? Is there much difference in the budget stuff that tandy sells vs something more expensive? Did this cow have low collagen? I found a few posts of similiar issues. This one it was led me to this forum: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=51994 which is on a single piece of leather, and didn't seem to have much resolution. Once I made an account here I did some further searching and found this post: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=62389&hl=wrinkles which looks similar, however the consensus here was that it was cut from a belly piece, and mine is from a shoulder. I suppose they could both be cases of bad leather, but before I spend money on something new I want to make sure I am not doing something incorrectly or not doing something at all. Any direction y'all can give would be appreciated. Thanks a lot.

Hi all, i'm starting in leather, i love many works from here and others sites, this is initially just for hobbie, but who knows !! ?? i bought some tools, dyes, edge kotes, etc this is my very first try for a belt (thinking in christmas) I missed some details in the edge near the buckle my problems came with the dyes, when i applied they look good, but is too tight, when i fold for both sides, get some wrinkles and the leather dyed get cracks how can i fix that? maybe with a deeper dying process? but dying i use fiebings products and applied with wool daubers Cheers

Hi, I've got a question here regarding a few hides of natural vegtable tan steer leather I bought for leather handbags. The leather is very stiff, dry, and pale and the way I have the bag stuctured, a very large piece comprises both the front and the back and needs to remain faily stiff for the structure to work. I plan to sell these at a higher price point and I'm worried about wrinkles that developed at the handle and when I inverted the bag after sewing. What is the best way to prevent at least the intitial wrinkles so it displays nicely? My plan was just to apply tan-kote but it will take a lot. Perhaps a thin layer? Any better suggestions? Thanks, Cameron