was reminded of a REALLY inportant safety tip yesterday.

I have been doing snaps with a hammer and the setting tool. Seems like I waste more than I should that dont set right.

if spirit dye has not dried completely, when dipped in wax, leather shrinks, curls, and does some seriously funky stuff -- none of it pretty.

Were you able to salvage it?

I was testing just the wax and a couple of different dyes -- when the one piece turned into a pretzel, I decided "just wax, no dye" would look fabulous.

Good call

I've had somehting similar happen before when making a sheath out of belly leather - when I used my heat gun to melt the sno-seal, the sheath shriveled up.
that one I semi-saved by heating it up and inserting a piece of 1/4" plywood cut to the same profile as the blade.

plywood mockups are a great way to work up a new pattern, too.

I was having the same problem with my snaps yesterday.
2 out of 3 the shaft would "turtle" instead of mushroom.

Dont tell my wife that

time for a beer run.

The plywood part not the turtle mushroom part <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />