Leather Finish - Need Advice

[Kryy Jacobi]

I wouldn't on the belt -- even with a top coat, there is danger of the finish coming off on your obi when your waist perspires. (And it WILL perspire! )

My Tandy guy said to put a layer of the clear plastic parcel wrapping tape on the flesh side (back) of the belt before staining. Burnish the tape with a sthingy or something so the seal is really tight at the edges and will keep out the dye. Then after the dye and finish (or the all-in-one) are applied and are really really dry, you can pull up the tape. The back of the belt will be nice and "clean" (although I did have a tiny bit of seepage in a couple of places).

I then put a light coating of the clear finish on the belt back to keep out moisture. It works great!

Others may have suggestions too... :-)

BTW, I DO finish the inside of the pouches as per Den's instructions. (Thanks, Den! :-))

[Kryy Jacobi]

Hendel, very nice belt and pouches!

[Hendel D'bu]

Thanks for all the nice comments on my belt & pouches. I'm sorry I haven't been checking on the Jedi boards as much as I should - really bad!

Anyway, we did not dye the insides of any of the pouches; as they were the oiled leather, and just the color I wanted, we didn't need to. (Pretty funny: when we went to the Tandy store here in Seattle, I was wandering around and saw the piece I wanted, but it was half a cow! I didn't need that much, for sure! When the salesguy saw that I wasn't finding anything else that I wanted, he caved and gave us a really good deal on the hide I had been coveting! Even got the 'homeschoolers' discount - score!)

For the belts, we had help from a cobbler, who walked us through the leather-working process. He also order the studs and other accessories for the belt that he could get for us. The buckles we scrounged from thrift store belts... we scoured every thrift store from Seattle to Olympia! About the dye though, Rocky (our cobbler friend) did the dying of the leather for us, as he said it is a sloppy, messy project and he could do it easily in his shop and leave it to sit overnight. They turned out great!

Now, if I could be as happy with the rest of my costume... ::sigh::

~hendel

[Granny-Wan]

kryyjacobi said:

Yes it does! And then you'll decide that maybe you'd like to try to make something....

and then you'll pick up a few tools....

and a pouch kit....

you know how this goes...

_{once you start down the dark costuming lightsaber Tandy path, forever will it dominate your destiny.....}

Yeah.... another $45 yesterday.... LOL

Then there's the dreams of getting the whole hide and and making up my own patterns.... or using those rattlesnake skins for tabards....but that's getting ahead of myself....