Tiffers Tips!

[Flex]

Use ground coffe though, not instant

Tiffers

Instant coffee

Thomas I'll have a go with some acetone, will it damage the leather though? Its nasty stuff.

Alex

[thomas]

Instant coffee

Thomas I'll have a go with some acetone, will it damage the leather though? Its nasty stuff.

Alex

Al Stholman recommends to use alcohol like meths or similar thinners. I cant remember if white spirits works.
But as i said, it wont be a great coating. This is used mainly for carvings and other smaller parts for lighter shading.
I recommend to use the dye as it is, or buy a lighter shade.
Or wood stain. You can get that cheap enough from BnQ.

[thomas]

I've had great results with it 'proper wet' i.e. soak 'till bubbles stop rising (I think from a MikeT post can't remember).

I remember being worried about it pre-shrinking or warping, but it doesn't seem to have much affect on later wet-forming. Don't know why.

I've had it give good results when the leather is well soaked. Its harder to get even dye coverage when its drier but with care it can be done.

Tiffers

Excellent!
I have had trouble before with the dyeing proccess. I will give that a go

[Flex]

Heres the results of the coffee/tea dyeing session


Top bit of scrap is coffee
Bottom one is tea
Right is my undyed, freshly stitched sheath

I quite like the colour of the coffee

Alex

[thomas]

The coffee one looks good

[Flex]

That is the colour I was after originally as well, I think I will give it a go

The trouble is I need to think of a way to apply it, The piece of scrap was immersed in a concentrated coffee solution for about 30 mins, but I will have to use a LOT of coffee to immerse the whole sheath, it will take an age if I just paint it on due to the number of layers needed....hmmm...

[Tiffers]

You know, sometimes its easier to bite the bullet and just order a pot of dye in the correct colour

Tiffers

[rapidboy]

Fiebings do a "Reducer" for thinning their oil based dyes available from LePrevo but it probably costs as much as a bottle of light brown so ......


Dark brown


Light brown

[Flex]

You know, sometimes its easier to bite the bullet and just order a pot of dye in the correct colour

Tiffers

Probably more sensible... I need to get an edge beveller anyway.

[Tazz]

This way of describing thread as 18/3 or 18/5 etc. looks like being 18 gauge made up of three or of five strands.

The gauge sizes, like wire gauge sizes, probably refer to some way of describing how many threads of a certain length make up a certain weight; so thicker thread needs fewer lengths to make up the weight: lower gauge number == thicker thread.
Keith.

Keith
Sorry if this seems to be stating the obvious (from a non-technical newbie) but if, as you said in an earlier posting that "16 gauge is 0.0625" (IIRC)" is it more than a coincidence that 0.0625" = 1/16th of an inch. Applying that logic, then 8 gauge would be twice as thick as 16 gauge etc. This would mean therefore, whether it be wire or thread, that the first numeral represents a fraction of 1 inch?

Tazz

[DCL]

Thanks a lot this have given me a lot of good info

thanks to all of you and special thanks to Tiffers

DCL

[bebhionn]

hello Tiffers, I was just wondering:

you prefer a pricking iron above a 'stitchmarkerwheelie-thingy', but how do you make/mark holes in a light curve? the first part is stitched in a straight line but after that you bend the stitch line to follow the belly of the blade?! How would you make/mark those holes with something that's straight? what to buy when I only want to make sheaths then? or I'm I missing something.

good info by the way!

[I D Howe]

Sorry but i don't think Tiffers comes here anymore! I think you use a pricking iron with less teeth for the corners but not 100% sure. It's probably in 1 of the other posts somewhere.

[singteck]

You can tilt the pricking iron and use 2 teeth at a time.

singteck

[Bikething]

You can tilt the pricking iron and use 2 teeth at a time.

singteck

Am I right in thinking that the purpose of the pricking iron is to MARK where the stitches go, not to pierce through the leather ?