Thread: Few New Goodies

You can control shrinkage, by stretching and blocking. My bride does it all the time with sweaters.

Stretch when damp and after rolling to length needed. As its dry’s stretch some more, I put one end in a wooden woodworking vice. Keep rolling and stretching periodically as it dry, like once ever hour of so. Stake it to a board with attached clamps. But as said it is not a big deal, most shrink about a ½ to an inch in length.

Keep soaking in dollar store, “Woolite” scrub with a stiff nylon brush and rinse in vinegar. If you don’t rinse in vinegar you will not remove all the soap and dirt. Keep at it until the rinse water is crystal clear. Bleach in the sun staked to a board.

Here is a post on redoing Gold Stamping. I have purchased Gold Foil and the “Glue” embossing powder from Hobby Lobby for abut $15, just have not gotten around to trying it, but plan to use the technique in third video. BTW got enough material to do a bunch of strops, 20-30. (Restoring Gold Lettering on Leather Strops).

Sorry, linked the wrong video, here it the link to the embossing Gold Foil.

Notice how much embossing powder (Glue) is used, the stamp ink is only used to hold the powder in place until you heat the powder to turn into glue.

I did not buy the sheets he is demonstrating, they did not have the color I wanted, a bright gold. I bought a roll 12 X18, I think for about $6.

Here is the right Video,

Tim Holtz Embossing Gold Foil

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My dudes, thank you so much for responding, I was checking back everyday seeing if bigspendur responded. I have been using Arm&Hammer w/ oxi clean, with lots of soaking, and enough scrubbing to make my arm feel weird in the elbow area. I'm using a stiff cleaning nylon type brush thing, with a good handle to get leverage. I also have been very gently massaging the fabric in between my fingers, then dipping in the water. This seems to help as I see the release of dark whitish rubbish. I will need to grab some vinegar at some point, but I do not believe I can see the finish line yet. I will say that after probably the 6th soaking/scrubbing/massaging/scrubbing/ dipping/ rinsing (about 24hrs between sessions), the fabric is really starting to come around. Like when I first got it, it was super stiff, and I most likely could have sanded the paint off my walls with it. Now it's really starting to show it's colors a little, getting soft and flexible. It's still relatively yellow, so was wondering if I would be able to soak it in a bath of bleach to bring it back to a true white like I want it to be.

As far as the gold lettering goes, I'm still "young, dumb, and full of ___", As my old boss used to say, lol. So I'm gonna do it. I spoke with a gentlemen named Loren who was experienced in Gilding and he advised me on the proper size to use for leather. I understand that the gold leaf would have been stamped in with a heated stamp. Imprinting the leather and leaving the gold behind. So I am going to use like maybe 4/0 or finer detail brush to paint in the size. Loren also recommended that I get double leaf or triple leaf as it would be more forgiving. I explained how I was going to wet sand over the top to remove any spots were I got sloppy. He said as long as the stamp was deep enough, and I used a flat surface under the paper it should work. Though not a common gilding practice, as I could likely sand off parts where the stamp is not very deep. I am also going to practice on my phone case that is leather and has been stamped with lettering and a makers mark, so it will give me good practice. I clearly haven't cleaned it yet lol.

Oh almost forgot to mention the best part, after talking with this amazing dude for like an hour and a half. We talked about the SR hobby and he asked me how I got into it and the usual questions. Well he got to telling me he's been shaving with a DE, using a brush and soaps, and I was like bro that's how I started into this hobby! Turns out he has two beautiful razors that were his grandfathers.

I did what any good loyal SRP subordinate would do and quickly told him to come check this site out, and also gave him contact information for Glenn to get those beauts shaving again. I don't believe he has contacted Glenn or even visited the site. However he seemed like the owner of the company, or at least upper management so I'm sure he's busy as hell. Sorry to be so detailed but felt this was all good info for the search pile lol.

-Laramie-

Be careful with bleach, bleach can be destructive to some fibers, try sun first. Bleach can actually yellow flax linen.

Sun is what most Linen care sites recommend. They also recommend through rinsing to remove all the soap. You can buy Vinegar cheap in one- and 2-gallon jugs, buy the off brand, not name brand for less, it’s the same stuff. I buy 2-gallon jugs for removing rust from steel from Smart and Final for a buck a gallon.

If your rinse water is not crystal clean, it is still holding dirt.

My wife is from New Mexico, and has family there, so we are big Chile fans. Nothing stains like New Mexico Red Chile. She washes linen then bleaches it white in the sun. It even works for plastic storage containers that will stain with red Chile.

For those of you that have never had New Mexico Chile, Red and Green, you don’t know what you are missing. There is a difference it’s not just hot it has a rich flavor and is addictive.

I'll stay away from the bleach then, I did get some fabric softner to see if that will help make it nice and soft. Being the fact that its winter I'm going to settle with setting it on the window sill with the blinds open so it gets some light. I have read others not using it in fear of the chemical, nothing about it damaging linen. Good info to keep in mind, again thanks for the replies. Ya'll are the real MVP's!!

I wanted to start a new thread as this one is getting stale, but figured I should ignore the likes and just keep this whole process in one thread. I practiced on some lettering on a cell phone case I have, and I would say it was a major success. For my first time ever touching gold leaf, and size and this whole deal I did a killer job. I'm not trying to be arrogant just really proud of myself right now. I need to get a few more detail brushes of a higher quality before I touch the strop though.

Here's the case before I did anything.




Here's after I totally jammed up the size by wiping my finger over the top while it was still wet, don't do this lol.



And here's the finished leafing, sanded and ready to put my phone back in once it dries.(wet sanded it 2500 grit)




And these are the products I used.

Looks good! Definitely try some beats foot or whatever your planning on dressing your strop with to make sure there aren’t any adverse effects. I love the looks of the Certifyd strops.

That real gold leaf looks good! Way to go! Good job! May I ask where did you purchase the gold leaf and the Kolner product? Thank's

I got the leaf from https://www.goldenleafproducts.com/o...xoCN2IQAvD_BwE. I would give them a call them and tell them what you plan on doing. As different application require different size. It's way more in depth than I realized. He also sells varrying karat value for the gold, and silver, copper, paladium, and also imitation stuff. Good luck on your project my dude.

Thank's for the link! Thank you for sharing your project.