Belt Finishing?

[Pelallito]

Hello,

I am new to leather work and wondered how the blazes you get a good finish on the belts edge and the belt itself?

I started following Hidepounders tutorial and had a great edge on the belt. I started to dye the edges and had second thoughts about the order of operations. I antiqued the belt since I had basketweave it a few days ago. Then I tried to put brown dye on the edge and I did not get a nice straight edge on the belt. When ever I tried to hold it still, it wiggled away from me as if it had its own free will. I got ticked off and decided to attempt finishing it tomorrow.

When I started putting the dye I used a Q tip, which went pretty slow. Then I tried using a swab and the dye went everywhere. I ended up cleaning it off.

Any and all advice would be happily accepted.

Thanks,

Regards,

Fred

[terrahyd]

click gallery on tool bar; click tutorials and you will find a lot of answers...

[Pelallito]

Terrahyd,

I did do a search for belts before I posted the question and did not find anything that helped. I will try your recommendation and check out the tutorials again.( Thanks again for the help, I did not know about the gallery and what is there!)

Today I made an experimental version of the hidepounder pen for coloring the edge and it worked fairly well, but it could not fix the mistakes I made yesterday.

I took a piece of stainless tubing and cut it off. I put a delrin plug into it to that I drove in a little bit. Then I had a small piece of felt that I put in the tube. I did not want my felt to disappear from sight. I cleared off more of my workbench so that I could over lap the belt over the edge of my workbench the entire length of the belt. That worked out pretty well.

Thanks for the respose and help.

Regards,

Fred

click gallery on tool bar; click tutorials and you will find a lot of answers...

Edited February 19, 2010 by Pelallito

[ABC3]

Terrahyd,

I did do a search for belts before I posted the question and did not find anything that helped. I will try your recommendation and check out the tutorials again.( Thanks again for the help, I did not know about the gallery and what is there!)

Today I made an experimental version of the hidepounder pen for coloring the edge and it worked fairly well, but it could not fix the mistakes I made yesterday.

I took a piece of stainless tubing and cut it off. I put a delrin plug into it to that I drove in a little bit. Then I had a small piece of felt that I put in the tube. I did not want my felt to disappear from sight. I cleared off more of my workbench so that I could over lap the belt over the edge of my workbench the entire length of the belt. That worked out pretty well.

Thanks for the respose and help.

Regards,

Fred

[Leatherimages]

Lots of different ways to do a belt edge.

Lately tho, I prefer to use a dauber with the fuzz burned off. (Yes, it does stink). I use them for dye as well as edge paint.

It works well with "the eye" (when it's on).

Stand the belt on it's edge in a gentle curve. And work with care and balance.

Letting your eye lead the dauber by 1/3" or so, helps to keep your attention where it needs to be so your hand doesn't "spaz" on you (mine does that sometimes).

I whole heartedly recommend training eye/hand coordination.

Patience helps. Working under pressure helps.

Some use painters tape to mask the back. In either case, wring the dye out on a paper towel before you apply.

[Pelallito]

ABC3,

Thanks for the reply.

Leatherimages,

Thanks for the good ideas and help. I had not thought of putting the belt that way. I will also try the singed daubers.

I will try that on my next belt.

Regards,

Fred