The Process: First Holster

[santee]

Okay. Thanks to you artists on this board, Al Stohlman's book, Will's patterns and the nice gent who runs the leather shop in midtown, I am in the dyeing stage. So far, only mild frustration at my stitch grooving skills which I know will get better with time and practice.

APPARENTLY, some gum tragacanth transfered from the edges (whilst burnishing) to other parts of the leather, causing unattractive splotchy areas that seem to reject the dye (Fieblings Med. Brown).
An isopropyl alcohol pre-treatment didn't remove it. Should I be using a deglazer at this stage?

[Slowhand Bob]

Santee, I do use alcohol as a general deglaser but it is not as effective, or harsh in my opinion, as the commercial deglasers, and yes they should work better for this application.  Where I would attack this problem, from now on, is in the order of the steps performed.  It is not always possible to dye first but I do find that it works best for most of my work.  Whenever possible, again most of the time, I use total submersion to dye most of my leather.  Many true custom jobs will not always work with this method but look at the steps ahead of time to decide if coloring the leather before any edge finishing is practical for your project.  Antiqueing, edge sealers, top coats, etc should be applied as late in the process as will work for your particular project. 

[santee]

Antiqueing, edge sealers, top coats, etc should be applied as late in the process as will work for your particular project. 

Thanks, for the help. Next time I will dye first before edge burnishing.
I just deglazed and it fixed the problem. Phew!