JDFred

Very nice. That probably took a month of Sundays to braid.

I was cruising YouTube last night and found a video with Joe Meling put on by Weaver. It had a free tooling pattern with it, so I printed it off and made one. I added the basket weave to the original pattern. My scrolls need a little work but my antique and finish is the best I’ve done to date. Let me know what’s right and what’s wrong. Thanks

Beautiful, your quilting and letter turned out awesome.

I did follow along when you built that it was a very impressive project, showing off a wide range of skills. It turned out beautifully.

I struggled getting the hang of it my, ruler or my knife would wander, it got a lot better after I got a ceramic blade. I guess it glides in the leather and along the ruler better. I apologize for sounding rude in my original reply to you I meant to say “I learned to use a straight edge…” my thoughts and my typing weren’t working together. Thank you.

Thank you Thank you, learn to use a straight edge with my swivel knife made that quilting a lot easier.

I just finished this purse for my mother in law. It’s hand sewn with a hair on inlay. Thanks to everyone on the critique side of this forum for the help with the acorns and oak leaves, I hope I did it justice. Let me know what you think and where I can do better.

Tandy and George Hurst have a good video on YouTube on how to index and layout that stamp. I’m not tech savvy enough to attach links, sorry. Because of the stamp shape and the impression it makes you can’t use a reference line like you do with a basket stamp. If you look at the impression of the stamp you’ll see dots in the corners, you’ll use those to index your next stamp with the little bumps on the face of the stamp.

Sometimes it takes over night for the dye to finish moving through the leather. Oiling it after you dye it also helps the dye to even out , also let the oil sit over night before you judge it. I use Angelus alcohol based dyes and apply with a wool dauber. Do you apply the dye in lines or in random circles? I’ve had better luck getting down into things and mor even coverage using circles. Leather quality dose make a difference also. I’m not to the point where I think I’m ready to buy good leather yet so I get some of those spot that don’t take dye real well it’s part of it. Just keep after it and it will get better.

I hate it when I cut thread too short. I’ve found measuring about two inches longer than the piece I need to sew then times that by four.

Looks nice, your lines in your diamonds are super straight. The only thing I see is where you finished you stiching try to hide where you burned the thread where it is not so noticeable. I try to put it in the corner on the inside. Keep up the good work.

I have the same question so I asked a friend that builds a lot of leggin’s and she said that one should be enough but for me because I have a 38” inseam it might be close. She buys her leather from Panhandle Leather she said to call them they could help with some bigger sides for longer legs. I have bought some stuff from them before and they are good people to deal with. I still haven’t got around to building mine yet so I can’t speak from experience but I hope this helps.

Very cool nice work

I’m pretty heavy handed when writing so I like a 12b pencil.

The shadow around the snowflakes matches your edge which looks really good. I think your struggling with that problem a lot of us have, looking to close at our work.

Turned out beautifully! Even the shop looks good after you got done with it.

Well done

Looks awesome. I can’t wait to see it with knives in it and the lights on!

Turned out really nice. The diamonds in the middle panel really tied the other two together well. Your letters turned out awesome as did the bass. The splotches in the dye look good, they make it look like shadows on a lake close to the bank. Good work.

I have used a steam iron with success smoothing out chap leather. I didn’t have any shrinkage but I was flattening some hand sized pieces out of the scrap box not larger pieces. I used high steam setting and don’t let the iron sit in any one place. Also check how hot the leather is getting pretty often if it gets too hot that is where the shrinkage will come from.

I meant to post this long ago but forgot… I bought the stylus type hair blade form Tandy and when I got it home and out of the box I noticed there are set screws that hold the blades in the stylus so they can be removed and put into a swivel knife if you want to. It also comes with the allen wrench to loosen the screws. I don’t know if other brands will do that but it might be useful info for someone else who had my original conundrum.

Those are pretty cool I really like that floral corner.

Nicely done.

When you get around to it.

They turned out really nice good job.