Top 20 Stamps.

[Ronin101]

I have been interested in leatherworking for many years. bought some tools in 2005 and they have been sitting in storage. I have letter and number sets but what stamps should I be starting with?

So I am asking what are the first 20 stamps you would buy?

Also is there a big dif in swivel knives? I was just going to get a crafttool adj.

Thanks for any input.

[Ronin101]

also, is the ecoflo dye bad? what do you rec.? what about eco sheen?

does dye go bad? i have some that is 7 years old. will that stll work or should I dispose of it?

[electrathon]

Are you planning on doing floral carving or stamping patterns or ?

Fiebings dye is likely what you have. I have some that is over 15 years old and I still use it. Shake it well. There are exceptions, but in general, anything marked eco flo is inferior. The new waterstains are good. Some of the older products have been rebranded too and are OK.

Aaron

[Ronin101]

Are you planning on doing floral carving or stamping patterns or ?

Fiebings dye is likely what you have. I have some that is over 15 years old and I still use it. Shake it well. There are exceptions, but in general, anything marked eco flo is inferior. The new waterstains are good. Some of the older products have been rebranded too and are OK.

Aaron

yes i would like to be able to do floral as my mother likes them and I may try my hand at some saddlebags for my father who still rides! I may also try some duty gear so a basic basket weave would be good.

the dye is in a one liter glass jar that is blue and white. I will have to check the manufacturer when I get home!

ok no eco..so fiebings or angelus? and what finish?

[electrathon]

As to tools, the Tandy ones are low quality. I would buy a few there and then if you decide to learn more but from Barry King. Do not get overexcited and buy tons of Tandy tools, you will not be happy in the long run.

As to finish, if you are tooling than I would still use Neet Laq. Tandy no longer sells it. Try springfield leather or sheridan leather outfitters. It is not called neet laq any more, but they will know what you want.

[Ronin101]

yeah...the BK tools look awesome. A friend gave me a 16 oz BK mallet. I will try to hold off buying to many craftools

[Northmount]

So I am asking what are the first 20 stamps you would buy?

Check this thread tools

[Ronin101]

Check this thread tools

thanks that is a help..i may have to start smaller if I am going to get BK stamps!

[mlapaglia]

Dont just walk away from the Tandy tools. They are not the best. They are on the lower end of quality but if you can go to Tandy and pick your own you can find the good ones in the pile. The other thing is cost.

I have a friend who wants a Corvette. Problem is he can not afford a Corvette so he decides to save his money and not buy any car until he can get his vette. Sometimes its better to purchase a tool you know you may have to replace in order to get the tools you need to get started. As you get better you can upgrade the ones you use the most first. There are a lot of people that only have the Tandy tools and manage to do just fine.

BK is great but Ill buy a $14.99 pear french edger from Tandy because I cant afford a BK version at $65.00. Its not the best but I still have a french edger to use while I save for a better one, if I decide I need one. Sure you might spend a little more in the long run but you get more tools faster and then you decide which ones you want to upgrade.

Just a thought.

Edited June 3, 2012 by mlapaglia

[DoubleC]

I agree with mlapaglia, Tandy gets written off a little quick. I am still using the Tandy 6 I started with except for the beveler. It has everything you need to do floral with a swivel knife. And by 20 tools, I don't think after 6 months I have that many unless you branch out into strap cutters, end cutters, punches, skivers, edge bevelers, etc. and so on. And you really don't need all that to start. Tandy 6 and a swivel knife will start you because there is a little bit of a learning curve involved in leather work :-) Best to do some work and then decide what tools to branch out to. Cheryl

[Ronin101]

thanks for the additional responses. That does make sense. Stamps seem to sell pretty fast around here.

the dye I have is Lincoln quality.

[Chavez]

From my limited experience, the tandy 6 is a good place to start, but the ones I have are of pretty bad quality. Barry King tools cannot even be compared to them, however, if you think about the cost, it becomes easy to make your decision:

Tandy 6 set + basic swivel knife = $50. Add $4 for a 16 oz rubber mallet and that's you for the first 6 months.

Barry King beginner set + a few extras + good swivel knife + BK maul + sharpening equipment = just under $1k. You'll never have to change these tools again and they will always give you great performance.

Good Luck!

[electrathon]

Barry King beginner set + a few extras + good swivel knife + BK maul + sharpening equipment = just under $1k. You'll never have to change these tools again and they will always give you great performance.

Barry King tools go for about $30 each. His knifes are $45 each and $55 for a maul. That comes out to $280 for a direct comparison to the Tandy set. For $1000 you could have a great set of BK tools.

The Tandy set has a wooden hammer that it basically totally worthless, a knife that is usable, but not desirable and a set if tools that are far lower in quality than most realize (they are a big step lower in quality than most realize, not the same as normal Tandy). So yes, the BK tools are more, but they are ones that you can use, the Tandy tools are ones that need to be replaced. Buy the cheap ones only to know if you are serious, then as soon as possible transition to tools that are usable to create quality work.

[Chavez]

Sorry, I meant a whole set of course. Once you try the BKs you won't want to stick to just the very basic ones.

[Sylvia]

Ronin

As you see, you are going to get some conflicting opinions on what you SHOULD buy. I personally like the vintage craftools. I'm talking ones that are marked Craftool with no Letter preceding the number on the tool, ones that are marked Craftool Co. USA and even some Craftool USA ones. The craftool with no letter and craftool co. usa were all hand ground tools... some of the Craftool USA ones were too, before they changed over to a casting method.

If you can... visit your Tandy and look for the best quality of each of the individual tools... as it can vary from stamp to stamp. Compare them to what you already have.

You'll notice quite a bit of difference even from 7 years ago to now.

As far as dyes going bad. Eco flo CAN go bad if it freezes. Spirit dyes can evaporate even when the bottle is closed. I have an ancient bottle of Omega brand that has evaporated to almost nothing.

Anyway the 3 tools that I really wanted when I returned to leather... were.

1. a Decent maul/mallet http://www.wrising.com get at least the 11oz poly mallet (about $10... say Sylvia sent you, check out their 100 pk of daubers for cheap too)

2. A GOOD swivel knife that has ball bearings. I have a Barry King knife and a stainless (discontinued) Al Stohlman (on sale at Tandy until 6/15/12 $14.99 with gold membership)

3. a metal ruler or square.

As for carving floral.

You'll want a good assortment of bevelers, pear shaders, veiners background tools and petal lifters.

In reality you could probably "carve" just about anything with a manicure kit... but it would mean a lot more hand work to get the look you want.

Have fun shopping!!

Syl

[KAYAK45]

Time for my 4cents worth. One great maul from the BEAR GROUP, either one.

Next,

on second thought, nothing else, no second thought

[mlapaglia]

So it boils down to.... You have many good suggestions.

I agree that the Tandy 6 set are really bad tools. So if you decide to go that route order the same tools by piece instead of the kit. They are much better. Tandy even has a different number on the kit set all the tools have a "Z" in front of the normal number, even they admit they are bad.

So buy the tools in the Tandy kit but not as a kit (FYI the Tandy 6 is now called "Basic Stamping Set" and does not include the swivel knife.)

For $24.99 the kit includes

• Beveler Stamping Tool B701
• Camouflage Stamping Tool C431
• Pear Shader Stamping Tool P206
• Veiner Stamping Tool V407
• Seeder Stamping Tool S706
• Backgrounder Stamping Tool A104

You need a swivel knife for $14.99 and a mallet. The wooden mallet is $4.99 and is really bad but you can use it and many do start with it. The Poly medium mallet is $24.99. If you can afford it get it. Total with wooden mallet and knife $45.00

You should buy them separately, they are 7.99 each so its $48.00 plus 14.99 for the swivel knife. The wooden mallet is $4.99 the Poly medium mallet is $24.99.

Total with wooden mallet $ $53.00 With the Poly Mallet $73.00

Barry King tools go for about $30 each. His knifes are $45 each and $55 for a maul. That comes out to $280 for a direct comparison to the Tandy set.

If you are sure you will continue to do this and can afford it buy the Barry King tools.

To be honest as much as we all knock the basic 6 set Many of us started with the basic 6 from a larger kit. It came with the 6 tools knife, wooden mallet, and some leather projects. We all survived and moved on to better tools. You will not be hurting yourself to start with the basic Tandy tools no matter how bad we say they are. Then if you decide to stay with the craft buy better and more when you can.

This is my opinion. $73.00 or $45.00 is a good way to see if you like the craft even IF you can afford the $280 BK tools.

[Ronin101]

Ronin

As you see, you are going to get some conflicting opinions on what you SHOULD buy. I personally like the vintage craftools. I'm talking ones that are marked Craftool with no Letter preceding the number on the tool, ones that are marked Craftool Co. USA and even some Craftool USA ones. The craftool with no letter and craftool co. usa were all hand ground tools... some of the Craftool USA ones were too, before they changed over to a casting method.

If you can... visit your Tandy and look for the best quality of each of the individual tools... as it can vary from stamp to stamp. Compare them to what you already have.

You'll notice quite a bit of difference even from 7 years ago to now.

As far as dyes going bad. Eco flo CAN go bad if it freezes. Spirit dyes can evaporate even when the bottle is closed. I have an ancient bottle of Omega brand that has evaporated to almost nothing.

Anyway the 3 tools that I really wanted when I returned to leather... were.

1. a Decent maul/mallet http://www.wrising.com get at least the 11oz poly mallet (about $10... say Sylvia sent you, check out their 100 pk of daubers for cheap too)

2. A GOOD swivel knife that has ball bearings. I have a Barry King knife and a stainless (discontinued) Al Stohlman (on sale at Tandy until 6/15/12 $14.99 with gold membership)

3. a metal ruler or square.

As for carving floral.

You'll want a good assortment of bevelers, pear shaders, veiners background tools and petal lifters.

In reality you could probably "carve" just about anything with a manicure kit... but it would mean a lot more hand work to get the look you want.

Have fun shopping!!

Syl

yes, fun shopping indeed. I have a BK mallet so that is covered. Just have to decide on the swivel knife and stamping tools. one of the lincoln bottles evaporated as well!

So it boils down to.... You have many good suggestions.

I agree that the Tandy 6 set are really bad tools. So if you decide to go that route order the same tools by piece instead of the kit. They are much better. Tandy even has a different number on the kit set all the tools have a "Z" in front of the normal number, even they admit they are bad.

So buy the tools in the Tandy kit but not as a kit (FYI the Tandy 6 is now called "Basic Stamping Set" and does not include the swivel knife.)

For $24.99 the kit includes

• Beveler Stamping Tool B701
• Camouflage Stamping Tool C431
• Pear Shader Stamping Tool P206
• Veiner Stamping Tool V407
• Seeder Stamping Tool S706
• Backgrounder Stamping Tool A104

You need a swivel knife for $14.99 and a mallet. The wooden mallet is $4.99 and is really bad but you can use it and many do start with it. The Poly medium mallet is $24.99. If you can afford it get it. Total with wooden mallet and knife $45.00

You should buy them separately, they are 7.99 each so its $48.00 plus 14.99 for the swivel knife. The wooden mallet is $4.99 the Poly medium mallet is $24.99.

Total with wooden mallet $ $53.00 With the Poly Mallet $73.00

Barry King tools go for about $30 each. His knifes are $45 each and $55 for a maul. That comes out to $280 for a direct comparison to the Tandy set.

If you are sure you will continue to do this and can afford it buy the Barry King tools.

To be honest as much as we all knock the basic 6 set Many of us started with the basic 6 from a larger kit. It came with the 6 tools knife, wooden mallet, and some leather projects. We all survived and moved on to better tools. You will not be hurting yourself to start with the basic Tandy tools no matter how bad we say they are. Then if you decide to stay with the craft buy better and more when you can.

This is my opinion. $73.00 or $45.00 is a good way to see if you like the craft even IF you can afford the $280 BK tools.

good advice wich I will be sure to heed! thanks R~