What Is The Order Of Steps?

[Chief Filipino]

Please help a newbie out!

What is the order of steps out these: burnish, tooling, oil staining.

I am about to start working on a project and realized I wasn't sure what to do first. Basically the project is a leather "fanny-pack" thingy. It will have two pockets I was thinking of riveting on a backing piece then stitching it closed into a pocket. One of the pockets will have tooling on the cover flap. Should I tool then stain then burnish?

Please help!

Thanks!

[Chief31794]

Normally you tool first, then stain, then burnish, but it's your project, it can be done more than one way, traditionally I think the Tool, Stain, burnish is generally accepted as the "way to go".

Chief

[Dwight]

I always tool first, . . . (almost always anyway), . . . because if I'm gonna mess up anyplace seriously, . . . it'll be there. If I do, . . . I just toss it and start over, don't have a bunch of other labor involved...............yet.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Chief Filipino]

Thanks for the help! Is there anyway i might screw up the tooling (aside from inexperience) when I burnish?

[Dwight]

Yes, . . .you can, . . . if you handle it while it is still in case (damp).

Let it fully, . . . FULLY, . . . dry, . . . my rule is a full 24 hours minimum, . . . before I handle anything serious that I have stamped.

And then even, . . . I might drag my feet a bit.

Like I said upstairs, . . . I'm not a really good leather stamper, . . . tooler, . . . whatever, . . . so I do my best not to mess up something that I've spent some serious time fixing.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Chief Filipino]

Thanks for the advice! This is only the third thing I've stamped/tooled.