Leathersmiths.....show us yer stuff, (#1) THIS THREAD IS NOW CLOSED

[Johnny Dingus]

Santee,

The holster looks great but kind of afraid to post to this....not wanting to jinx myself.
But I guess it's kind of like riding motorcycles it's not if your going to it's when your going to crash.

Now for sure I will spill some dye.

Johnny Dingus

PS  Glad it came out alright.

[santee]

Foam holders...wider bottles...I'm getting the idea.

[RollingThunder]

Beer huggies and widemouths, Santee. Still, looks pretty nice, and it'll look even nicer darker.

I've been neglecting posting some stuff here, so I thought I would update all ya'll on some progress.

Rough on the bench.



Turned out alright.




Jill Wilkins, Pony Express rider, needed some luck on her heels. Had custom Dove Wings made with Fraugahyde and a four-leaf clover concho from Buffalo Bros. Saddlery in Arizona. Also had some standard buckle-style straps made.



Then a bunch of humming and hawwing.


Just about got the angles right on these ... alas, no luck.


Tried my best not to screw up David Carrico's really nice dove wing design. Just about got there too.  


More slobber straps. Drooling is quite uncouth, so ya may as well have some of these. LOL


Jessie Colvin's "Original Bling" straps. Big spots on dark boots! Scares the cows while she's cutting.


My Carrico Big Round dove wings.


Can anyone spot what I did wrong on those? Pretty obvious to me, but perhaps not to someone else (and no, it's not the lack of holes punched. They're actually on my boots now).

Hasta la pasta all!

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Wow, very nice work, RT. You have been busy, for sure. They all look really good, particularly this pair, which is my favorite of the lot.

[cowboy316]

wow RT very good lookin straps id love to have a pair wrapped around my boots knowing a friend has made them
great job bud keep up the good work
    Cowboy316

[cowboywc]

Howdy RT
Those are all fine lookin straps.
WC

[Ace Lungger]

Howdy R.T.,
You state there was something wrong I can't see anything but fine works of art, showing a lot of passion!!
I think they are AWESOME !!
Thanks so much for sharing, for every peice of leather work i see, is like a pic. in my mind!!

ACE

[JD Alan]

RT, Outstanding work. Can you tell me about the coloration of the first strap? That look is what I am trying to acheive on a belt.

Thank you sir, they all look great, JD

[cowboy316]

RT
let me guess you ran out of brass spots and had to use a nickel on LOL been there done that
    Cowboy316

[santee]

That's what I thought, too.

[RollingThunder]

Well, it wasn't so much running out, as it was one day I must have been hammering something pretty hard (gotta hit the 3/4" punch hard, maybe that was it), and one of the spots jumped ship into the next bin. Snagged it up without paying a lick of attention.

I decided to leave it though. LOL. They're mine after all, and it's a walking lesson for me to pay closer attention to what I am doing.

Marshall. I was pretty partial to those myself. I almost didn't finish them. I got sidetracked on something one day and they were shuffled into my leather bin and stayed there. I got to wondering where they went, and looked everywhere. I was worried one of my dogs ate them.

Anyway, I found them, and finished them out. I thought instead of a concho to keep the leather from abrading on the stirrup, a nice, big fat spot in the middle would do the trick. And it did. Very low-key, but fun at the same time.

Parson, that's an interesting color discussion. I'm not sure you really want to know what I did to get that color, but here goes. Like anything else, I can never take the short way around the barn when I can take the long way and mid-way through it take a side-trip to the hayloft.

That color is a base of EVOO, set in until it was a golden tone, then Neatsfoot oil liberally to a rich red. Let it sit and tone out. It gets to be about this color here, but a bit darker to the brown side.



Then, I stained it with Timber brown on one coat, let it sit and soak in, and then took my oil rag and rubbed it on the high spots. Some leather you can rub vigorously, and some you can't. The idea is that the oil rag will pull up the high spots, just like you would with an antique stain, but with much subtler effects. Next, because I liked the darker tint that the timber brown gave to it, I applied another coat. And another. Still wasn't getting brown enough (had to match the boots, but have highlights that stood out a bit). So I put on a coat of Dark Cocoa brown, and that REALLY sunk into the low spots and stayed in at the edges where you see it scalloped, in the X's on the billets and the Fraugahyde.



That WIP has a little better overall idea. Don't go hog wild with it though, because you only want a slight, very slight tonal variation, because if you seal the leather with something like saddle-lac or Super Shene, or something shiny, it has a tendency to really pull the brighter tones out of the leather, sort of amplifying the color. And of course, any bends in the leather could also lighten the tone as well. So plan strategically, parson.

It took me about 3 hours of staining and drying and rubbing to blunder my way through to that at the end. But to wrap it all up, you have a base coat of coloring from the oil (which will change with age), toning of the highlights and midtones with Timber brown, and then deepening of the dark tones in crevices with Dark Cocoa.

Hope that helped.

[JD Alan]

Thanks RT, I appreciate the explaination, which I do understand. That alone is amazing

I remember you mentioning Timber Brown before, and I don't recall seeing that anywhere. I will do a Google search for it and see what comes up. I know I haven't seen it at Oregon Leather, which has a real good selection of dyes and stains.

You do mighty fine work, no doubt about it. Thanks for sharing, it's a great inspiration, JD

[RollingThunder]

Both are EcoFlo ... I started using their stuff when I did the straps for Jessie Colvin, because Jessie is an environmentally conscious person, as well as being a heckuva good cutting horse rider. I liked their stuff, you can pick it up at Tandy.

Probably not the most amazing dye in the world, but it works pretty well, in my limited experience.

[Johnny McCrae]

Howdy Rt,

Beautiful work!

You are an artist in leather! Don't remember if I mentioned it before but I sure like your logo.

Many thanks for sharing this with us.

[santee]

WOW!

[JD Alan]

Thanks RT, I looked it up last night. With so many people recommending Fiebings, I've not examined much of the Tandy products. Obviously they work well for you, so I will check them out. Thanks, JD

[Irish Dave]

Good lookin' work all around, RT. Good job & Well done.

[Johnny Dingus]

RT

Love the spur straps.

One of the pards around here makes spur straps,  but they don't compare to yours.

I really like the way your straps buckle on the outside.  So many of the custom straps I've seen buckle on the inside so you can have more leather on the outside to show off your work.  But yours show off the work and are correctly buckled on the outside also.

Great work.


Johnny Dingus

[RollingThunder]

WOW!

I told you it was the long way around the barn! 

Thanks RT, I looked it up last night. With so many people recommending Fiebings, I've not examined much of the Tandy products. Obviously they work well for you, so I will check them out. Thanks, JD

Hope they help, JD. I'm sure there's some amazing stuff by lots of folks out there. EcoFlo just happens to be what I use. Good luck in finding what works for you, parson!

Good lookin' work all around, RT. Good job & Well done.

Thanks, Irish Dave! Now if I could just shoot as well as I work leather. But then again, if I could shoot as well as I work leather, I'd likely have blown a hole in my own foot by now. Best I just stick to the leather.

RT

Love the spur straps.

One of the pards around here makes spur straps,  but they don't compare to yours.

I really like the way your straps buckle on the outside.  So many of the custom straps I've seen buckle on the inside so you can have more leather on the outside to show off your work.  But yours show off the work and are correctly buckled on the outside also.

Great work.


Johnny Dingus

Some folks buckle them out, some buckle them in. I'm not sure there's a right way or a wrong way. I just try to design mine so that when someone gets them, they're functional. Like with the conchos. They're there where they are for a reason. I figure pretty is nice, but functional is much better. But the best is pretty and functional all together.

Just like a good woman. LOL.

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

          Nice work RT

                 TW