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Those were one of the biggest sellers for the inmates in the state prison here back in the day. Folks would stop in to buy them as they traveled through town. Later on, a building was made available outside the prison for hobby work sales. In the late 80s and early 90's I used to see the vendors from Jackson Hole come down and buy literally every piece of leather, horse hair, buckles, jewelry, artwork, and many other items as well, for resale to the tourists. As the hobby room space was limited, only a few guys could get really big and would employ other inmates. One fellow made over 50k a year with his leather hobby business and sent it all to his wife and kids while he was in the joint. They did away with all of that after an officer was murdered, a new prison was built, and now there is no hobby work anymore.

Cardboard is awesome. Here are some more exercises. Have fun! Draw an arbitrary shape on the cardboard and pretend it's your lawn. Drive within it in a "lawnmower" pattern, keeping your spacing even from the previous layer. Cut two rectangles of cardboard, and stitch them together about 1/2 inch from the edge Cut two rectangles of cardboard. Then change the edge on one piece so it's gently convex. Stitch the straight piece and the convex piece together about 1/2 inch from the edge. (This will make a 3-D shape) Same as #3 but with two convex pieces Same as #3 but with one convex, one concave Make a simple knife sheath from a single folded piece of cardboard. Make the curves as tidy as you can Do a straight run of stitches. Then go in reverse following the same line.

The old time template trick... Take a strip of leather same width as the strap. Nip off the end to line up with the ends of your strap blank. For the billet template punch #3 holes in your desired hole spacing and centered on the template. Put in copper rivets, set the bur, nip the point in two directions to leave a "pyramid shape", and peen the excess shank lightly - leave the point a little higher and "pointier" than you normally would. To use just line it up on the strap with the rivet points down and tap the rivet heads with a small hammer. The dents are your punch marks and it doesn't matter what size punch you use after that. For the buckle end template you can space the rivets for the four snap or Chicago screw holes and rivet points at the ends of the slot to align the slot punch. I made these templates for belts, headstalls, stirrup leathers, and pretty much anything else that needed repeatability. It takes about 5 minutes to make them and a lifetime won't wear them out.

Thanks for posting the video. A great presentation and a great show. Its nice that one company felt confident in the honesty of folk to leave all that brass (?) work unattended on one of the busiest days of the show. I wish I could attend one of these shows as we don't have anything like them here. But my credit card is happy I wasn't there - I would have maxed it out, and the max is very high number!

You did some very nice work, great forming job, especially.

Thanks

Do you still have the HDD?? I've got a buddy that is fantastic at fixing computer stuff. If you have it . . . I could ask him to take a shot at maybe retrieving the stuff . . . he's usually up for a challenge of most any sort . . . and that would be one. Lemme know. May God bless, Dwight

I've heard that stamp called "Crazy Legs". They do make a really cool looking pattern. - Bill

Thanks for the offer Dwight! Sadly, I don't have the plastic and the drawings were lost when my laptop HDD crashed. Lost a lot of good stuff with that crash including some leather designs that I was working on. - Bill

Well there's a something we don't have, leather trade shows, at least in my state. HS

My sander has both belt and round sanders. I use the round sander mostly. Also does your sander have an attachment for a dust extractor? I just use an old vacuum cleaner, with a few mods to make the pipe fit, but it doesnt draw all that well but it does the job. I also wear a dust mask 😷 HS

I have the idea that the upper part with the teeth down should be locked in the lower part with the teeth up when the wheel is down on the table. Now it is not driven i guess.

i think most news is used as a deflection. It's what they choose not to report on that worriysome as they have no accountability then.

yup great tools help, practice helps too lol.. I chose books because the op is an intermediate, so he should have at least a basic tool set and the knowledge to pick and choose quality tools. and have proficiency in the basic leather working techniques, sewing, gluing, finishing, etc. He probably already has a head knife, for example, or one that he likes and should know how to use it and care for it, and if it's good quality or not. Having said that, upping his game should then be expanding his knowledge base by trying new and diferent techniques or genres of leather crafting. Each of those requires specific new tools that you can't get without knowing what you need. For example, the Sheridan style tooling, the style is very unique and requires specific tools and techniques to be proficient. You can either get that info from the book or classes or blindly buy some great tools that may not be right and make crappy work until you do buy the book, then re-buy the correct tools. That is a hard lesson a guy who is an intermediate should have already learned lol. . So it goes to reason that in order to get the correct tools, you need the knowledge to do so first. The question is kinda vague, so I can't tell him what tools to buy if I don't know what he wants to do with leather past the intermediate level. If he were a beginner, I would have a different opinion of what he should do. lol. Just my opinion for what its worth..

Thanks for the tip. I never thought to use cardboard and to take the thread out. I was just basically paying for my education. thanks tj

YW Your friend Aaron did an excellent job filming imo, and getting the contact info is priceless to those of us who can't make those trips for whatever reason. I can't believe the amount of product you folks tote to those shows. I don't know if my bank account could handle a day there lol. You have a great tribe!!!!

You're doing one of the exact things recommended for new sewists. People starting out with domestics are recommended to sew on paper until they get the hang of it. I would switch to cardboard instead of using up your leather and just keep sewing patterns without thread. Build muscle memory.

So I got a sewing machine a few weeks ago and have been messing around with just learning the basics of my machine and in that time, Ive realized that i suck a sewing around corners. So I’ve been coming up with practice exercises. Basically following the lines with my machine. I traced some quarters to practice circles. Obviously I’m terrible at sewing and have a ton of practice ahead of me but does anyone have any tricks or exercises that they use to practice sewing?

Thanks Chuck! These leather shows are a lot of work but a real blast. Aaron does the walk-around video tours at each trade show and he's done a real service to people that wonder what a trade show vender area is all about. That is just a portion of these shows, the classes are outstanding and top notch instructors. Socializing with other leather workers, meeting the superstars and worker bees, these people are my tribe.

So this is what I was able to do with 60 grit belt. I sanded the top and flesh side slowly flat on the table. The I sanded the flesh side against the belt and finished up by sanding the edge. I’m gonna grab lower grit belts tomorrow.

Its about 9mm square... Roger

CLEAN !!!!!! What stamp is that if you don't mind me asking ?

Thanks for sharing Chuck! Good stuff!

A finer grit and go slow, not too much pressure as it's easy to burn the leather. I think chrometan is going to be problematic as it's generally a softer leather. And yeah, it can make a lot of dust!