AEBL

Well, she's a first-rate woodworker for sure!

Not sure about the actual post you are looking for - but I found a few with a search: The consensus seems to be "use Angelus paints." Obviously, it is a bit more complicated than that, but Angelus seems to work well for many people. ~ nn

I wish I could claim that work as mine - I grabbed that image off of Google image search ...

KeepassXC is a good, free, password manager. It also has support for TOTP (time-based one-time passwords ... the things that they want you to download Authy for and stuff like that). I believe that it also supports hardware tokens like YubiKey as well. https://keepassxc.org/

Those look nicer than mine Leatherworking is such a varied and interesting art medium. I had picked up some of those in an estate tool, and it took me a while to figure out what they were. The more I learn, the more I realize that I'll never be able to focus enough effort into learning all of the different ways of working leather.

Unrelated ... but .... aaaaaaa! Your phone is almost out of battery!

Previous thread here mentions that brand, some of the regulars have posted on there ... Uwe mentions some documentation at the Smithsonian, in image form, not PDF, but here that is also in this link. Uwe also mentioned a website for Puritan, but it is a dead link now. (http://www.puritanindustries.net <-- dead)

So - in the case of your icon, I'm pretty sure nobody is going to come look for you. Simple search online leads you to this site: https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/swimming?word=swimming&craft=1 There is a selection box in the lower left-hand corner that says "icons licensed for merchandise" which when hovered over says that you can use the icon as the main element of your item. There's one on the page that looks exactly like yours. If you were doing some logo, like IBM's ... they might come looking for you, but stuff that appears on signs, that you are doing artistic renderings of ... probably fine. Especially if you can point to an icon site and say "I copied that one, licensed for merchandise."

What is this style of leatherworking called? Are there many people doing / interested in this sort of work? I believe it is done with shaped leather punches ...

I like cheap as much as the next guy, and to be honest, I have a lot of cheap Chinese tools ... but I'd feel sort of bad buying an *expensive* Chinese tool.

Basket stamping looks great to me. If you would like to feel better about your stamping, I can post some pictures of the basket stamp I did last week. I'm going to blame the stamp, that stamp was no good, couldn't have had anything to do with how I was using it ...

He has some good advice there. This old dog has had to learn some new tricks in the last few years, and one thing that I had learned a while back was that if someone wants to get better at something, they have to be prepared to stink at it first. Part of the reason we all love leather carving is that it is beautiful, and we know that it requires great skill and lots of practice. Keeping a notebook helps as well, because you might not be aware of how you are improving until you can compare your present sketching with sketches you did a month ago.

What comes on you quicker than you'd think? (just kidding)

My desire to carve far exceeds my skill at carving. I've watched a few videos on how to use a beveler (most helpful was Jim Linnell's series on the Colorado State 4H site). He bevels like a sewing machine, precise and fast. Most other videos have people showing how to bevel of a similar skill level. I bevel like one tap every two seconds, and it is *awkward* - I am aiming for even strikes and moving the beveler half a tool width. Jim recommends "hovering" the tool just barely over the leather surface and using a finger to spring the tool back for faster motion ... I realize that is a pro-tip, but I don't want to learn bad habits that are hard to un-learn. Am I doing the skill-level appropriate thing with just "tap ... ... tap ... ... tap" ? I'm not aiming for speed - I'm aiming for correct ...

Perhaps a silly question - but how would you clean a container like that? Just water? Seems like even hot water would be iffy ...

Where are you located at, @ChesterHasAProblem? Someone here might be able to point you to a store for used tools ...

Oh man, I have to get that book too ... I have Bob Park's book.

Just opened it - very well packed, came in great shape. Thanks Ferg!

If you are hand stitching, you can "re use" a hole every so often. For as many stitch holes as you say you have, you can re-use a hole on the side with fewer holes every 20 stitches or so. This is very similar to what you'd do on a "box stitch." Stohlman's How to Sew Leather book talks about it (and is well worth your money if you haven't got a copy). Also, on YouTube, several channels talk about how to do it - I think Corter Leather's is pretty good:

I figured there must be some historian that had cataloged some of the vast and varied work of leather carvers. I think if you live near Sheridan, you are probably surrounded by examples, in stores, on saddles - but if you don't, you have fewer options. Jim Linnell is great, he seems to have a great deal of resources on his site. I think I'm going to be making belts, sheaths and journal/Bible covers ... probably not saddles, but there *is* a saddle shop near me. I know that "Sheridan Leather Carving" by Gardener and Faye (might be) one with more picture examples? There is this one (in Japanese) that comes up from time to time on my searches, not sure if any of you know anything about it: https://leathercrafttools.com/item/11732/

Carving seemed (well, still seems) magic to me. I've seen a lot of really cool work of all sorts of styles, but I'm wondering if there are sources for examples of styles somewhere on the web? Best stuff I seem to be able to find is on image search, but the search engines really don't know the difference between any of the styles.

I got my edgers used, and I figured I had watched enough on how to sharpen them, how to use them ... but I noticed that the tool tended to scalp my leather, especially near turns. I figured I had sharpened it wrong or something ... maybe I was using it wrong ... but then I felt the tip. The tips (the outer two metal prongs that the cutting channel is between) were pointed sharply. It appears that either they came that way, or whoever had them before me sharpened them and didn't worry that they were making two needle points that stuck out in front. Pictured is an edger I haven't rounded off ... but do edgers come with sharp points like that on the end??! (I would have shown the tool next to the scalp job it was responsible for - but I was so upset that I threw that project out the window already)

I tried sharpening my swivel knife by hand ... that took a long time, and I had to use my jewler glasses to make sure the bevel was flat on the stone. It worked well, I decided to buy a jig.

I guess I had always ignored the product photos I saw on other people's sites, but I'm glad to see how other makers take photos of their products. It really does make a difference - they're better than the ones with crummy lighting that I took for sure. I have a couple of those clip-on lights around, and crepe paper is easily found. Thanks for the picture of your setup, LatigoAmigo. I might also experiment with bouncing the flash off of reflectors. Someone had recommended the aluminum-backed styrofoam insulation that you can get at the big box stores (very cheap). Thanks for the ideas on postprocessing software. I'll check out RawTherapee (linked, in case anyone else reading is interested). Photoshop Elements is obviously the professional go-to. I totally agree. I'm a hardcore Linux user, so most Windows things are too much of a pain for me to install (with Wine, for instance). I'm also a bit of a curmudgeon, and I apparently like doing things the hard way. Less stubborn people would follow Pastor Bob's advice and be happy. There was a program I was using a while back that did really great background removal (had something to do with seamless cloning, linked, for the more nerdy of you bunch) - and it was free. I might see if I can find it and post a "how to" on how to do it. I think part of the trick is to get a more predictable background (like a sheet, or something with no wrinkles and only one color, like posterboard).

@bruce johnson, the catalog picture shows a circle with what looks to be an angled (filligree?) blade being sharpened ... seems like you'd have to push it over the stone at a crooked angle to get that to work ... but I could be wrong.