Bryan

Thanks Bevan. I sure hope to be building again soon & I will definitely let you guys know when I am.

That looks great! I love it.

Thank you guys for the positive feedback. It means a lot. Bryan

WOW! That is awesome!

Well here they are, my first production knives. I want to thank their new owners for sticking with me through this project. It was quite a learning experience. Things didn't quite go the way I planned but I am grateful that a few folks have given me the opportunity to prove myself & I hope they are as excited as I am about their knives. Unfortunately, I can't take any more orders for now. The lathe I am using is not mine & I can't count on being able to use it. I will definitely continue to build knives, but for now I think the custom orders will have to wait. Any one got a lathe they'd like to donate?

Very very cool! Great job! -Bryan

First, thank you all so much for the kind words! I am really excited about this & your comments are encouraging. To answer some questions: mugwump, no plans to clear coat. The copper is sort of an experiment. I'm curious to see how it will look after some use & also wanted to try a knife with some extra weight to it. sheridanman, I purchased the ball bearings from an industrial supply. The nicest knife I own is a Barry King & it has one single ball. Other than that I have absolutely no idea how other knives are built so this is just what I came up with & I think it is a solid design. Simple, clean & functional. I would love to get a few of these out to some of you for testing. Any one interested please send a pm & I'll get a list going. Here are two more knives I finished today. One in brass & one in magnesium. The magnesium barrel is incredibly light weight!

Wow! Super nice work! Very classy.

Well, I've done it. After a few months of trial & error, I've finished my first swivel knife! Here's the skinny: It has a solid copper barrel (blasted finish), double ball bearing action, stainless yoke & stem & press fitted Henley blade. That's right, this knife does not have a set screw. It is nice & clean all the way around. I bought a quality blade so I will not be changing it. This thing is super smooth! I can't wait to use it. Hope you guys like it. -Bryan BW Hand Tooled Leather

Thank you Spider! Just spent some time checking out your site & I must say I love your style & your work. Very cool!

abn, Thank you very much! It seems like I learn something new with each project. I love this stuff!

Thanks Moe & Skippy! I found the font on line, printed it & made a pattern. That's just the best way I know to keep my lettering of uniform size & spacing. The background tool is Craftool's pebble backgrounder. I didn't want deep impressions with it, so I did the backgrounding last with the leather almost completely dry.

Thanks Draxus!

Thanks Daniel! This one was fun to make.

This was a birthday gift for myself & the first blank I've tooled from Springfield Leather. I am super happy with the way the blank tooled. With the better leather, my finished product turned out so much better than belts I've done in the past. I really enjoy experimenting with finishes & colors & this was a fun one. I have been really unhappy with the water based dyes I'm stuck with here in Ca. but I've found that by finishing with traditional conditioners a lot of the dye (the black on my belt) is removed leaving a distressed look. First I colored the lettering with some old spirit dye I had, then did the rest of the belt in water based black. When dry I gave the whole thing a good coat of carnauba cream. That's where a lot of the black came off. Once that was dry I used Sno-Proof for the final finish. That's it. Hope you like it. Critiques welcome & thanks for looking. Bryan

Thanks! I'd love to learn some braiding techniques too. Tedious work.

Thanks Kevin. What will be the difference between cutting from a side or a double butt? Will they stretch differently due to the direction of grain or anything like that?

That looks great! Just out of curiosity, what is the significance of the design in the forehead of the koi? I'm noticing a lot of koi art has this. What ever it is, wonderful job on the seat.

Thanks Mike, I'll check him out.

Forgive the rookie question, but I didn't find what I was looking for in my search. Who offers the best belt blanks? Or do the best belt makers cut their own from top grade hides? I have some blanks from Tandy that are o-k but inconsistent in quality. I just don't want to sell someone a mediocre belt. The best products start with the best materials right? Any help would be appreciated.