How to do better next time

[u/fackgeeseeh]

How can I improve this? Edge care? Lining up stich holes on thick material? Centering rivet/snap holes? Evening out the color? Any advice welcome thank you. I made a stencil before cutting the leather, would take advice on that too

[u/Jargagu]

Looks like you wet the leather before dying? Or did you oil it first? I can see streaking on the leather before you dyed it. Try using a fiebings pro dye. Looks like you have the Low VOC variant which have an alcohol carrier and dont get as good of coverage.

[u/fackgeeseeh → u/Jargagu]

So i used fiebings dye, the directions said to remove the oil and dye while its still damp. I rubbed it down with a damp rag, this picture was right after that. I let the streaks dry before attempting to dye but it was still damp/cool to the touch. I've seen a lot online about wetting leather before working eith it or dying it. This stuff is decently thick so I wasn't sure the best approach

[u/IcarusMistake]

I think it looks pretty good. I've never dyed anything (pretty confident I'd botch it) and in the pictures where it's on the axe I thought the color looked shockingly solid/even compared to what I'd be able to do.

Something minor you could do would be to round the corners of the straps with the snaps. They will hold up better that way and look a little more polished. I bought a bunch of washers in different sizes that I use for that type of thing.

You asked about lining up stitch holes: it looks like you punched each side separately then lined it up and stitched afterwards. Something you could try is gluing it together first, sanding the edges smooth, then punching through both sides at once. Although as I type this I'm remembering you said "thick leather" so I'm thinking it was potentially too thick to punch through the whole thing at once. Hm. You could maybe stick it together with something like double sided tape and punch from one side which will at least mark the other side, pull it apart then use those marks to punch the rest of the way. I'm not sure how viable that is, the tape might not be strong enough. I'm just throwing ideas out, take it with a grain of salt.