Yeah, it's vegetable tanned leather hide, which is used specifically for tooling.
The patterns are are hand stamped using Tandy tools. I'm pretty sure the original is pressed, which is the route Risu is taking, but I've no clue how to do that :lol
I need to get a narrower bevelling tool for the panels, as the outer square indentations are currently too wide.
The colouring process is a pain, too. All of the dyes I've tried have been too dark. In order to get the colour above, I had to paint the covers with white acrylic first, then apply Tandy arylic Ecoflow dye. What is really tricky, is that all the indented parts need to be left unpainted, or you lose the natural darkening of all the embossed parts, that results when the dye hits the leather (if that makes sense?)
Next time, I'm gonna try hitting it with Tandy Sky Blue Hi-Lite, rather than dye, as Risu thinks that's probably the way to go.
The final stage is applying Fiebing wax finish, which seals it all and gives it a subtle but nice sheen.
Glad you like it
The patterns are are hand stamped using Tandy tools. I'm pretty sure the original is pressed, which is the route Risu is taking, but I've no clue how to do that :lol
I need to get a narrower bevelling tool for the panels, as the outer square indentations are currently too wide.
The colouring process is a pain, too. All of the dyes I've tried have been too dark. In order to get the colour above, I had to paint the covers with white acrylic first, then apply Tandy arylic Ecoflow dye. What is really tricky, is that all the indented parts need to be left unpainted, or you lose the natural darkening of all the embossed parts, that results when the dye hits the leather (if that makes sense?)
Next time, I'm gonna try hitting it with Tandy Sky Blue Hi-Lite, rather than dye, as Risu thinks that's probably the way to go.
The final stage is applying Fiebing wax finish, which seals it all and gives it a subtle but nice sheen.
Glad you like it