Spinner

Nicely done! I love the clasps are they from the original cover?

Here are a couple of pics for you spider lovers of one I found on my front porch about a month ago. Pics showing him after I trapped him and then later relocated him to a new area. I try not to kill spiders if I can help it. This is a California Trapdoor Spider, not poisonous but definitely on the larger side of crawlies I have found in my yard.

Pleasing to the eye for sure! That looks awesome Tom. The two above look cool too. The red is very rich in color, what type of paint is it that you're using?

It's worth it to ask, even if it's just to know. My mom just recently received an order for a sewing item that she sells (wholesale items she sells retail and has a contract to do so) for 100 pieces. The price is very low so it wasn't a big deal, figured it was for a club. So two weeks later (yesterday) she gets an order from the same person for 300. My mom asked and the lady was upfront and said she's reselling them at a small mark-up in her little brick & mortar store. After thinking about it, my mom is comfortable with it because she set a fair price and the lady is in a different country so local sales won't be affected. It's not quite the same as a handmade item but the idea is. Ask him straight out and see what the deal is. If he's reselling them then it could be an issue. On the other hand, are they orders you would have gotten otherwise and are you happy with the price received? Lots of things to consider...good luck with it!

Must be something with my technique then, everytime I use it the leather ends up with a pretty decent shine to it.

Hey Johnny, Something you can do is to buff back the shine you're getting from the sealers with a good conditioner & wax/waterproofer. I'm the same, I don't like the high shine the acrylics (tank-kote, Resolene, etc) leave but they are part of the process. Check out the motorcycle kick from Pecard. it includes a conditioner, weatherproof dressing and a high-shine spray all for $20. Simply dye the piece, apply neatsfoot to restore the natural oils and then seal with an acrylic. Let the sealer dry completely and then give the piece a good rub with the conditioner and a soft cloth (old t-shirts work great). This will buff back the shine and mute it quite a bit. Once that's done, the leather should have a great feel to it. Then apply the weatherproof dressing in thin layers and buff in by hand. The friction from the buffing will work it into the fibers. Let it set for about 15-20 minutes and then buff off any residue with a clean rag. Here's a pic of a tank bib I recently did this way. If you go this route, I suggest also spending the extra $6 and getting the Black dressing. It works great for all black leathers and makes the color just that much deeper. Here are the links: Motorcycle kit: http://www.pecard.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=Pecard&Product_Code=MLK-L&Category_Code=kits-large Black Weatherproof Dressing: http://www.pecard.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=Pecard&Product_Code=PMWD4&Category_Code=mwproof Chris

Good suggestion dirtclod. I need to take better pictures of both actually, the poundo board is a bit distracting on the large burnishers but at least that one can be seen in detail. One thought is to have a mini-gallery at the bottom of each section that opens up to a handful of pictures like each of them in use. I have the ability to add video but haven't explored that just yet.

Hey Folks, I'm working on a new website for myself and was looking to get a little feedback before I start working on the more complex areas like the leather goods and photo gallery. The basics are there, including the burnisher shopping page (accessed through the Products link). I like the header graphics for the home page but I am thinking I need to scale it down for subsequent pages. The navigation bar is a bit wide for my taste as well but I'm having to go through the .css file to find that adjustment. Anyway, thoughts, comments, etc? Thanks in advance, Chris Here is the link: http://www.threemuttscustoms.com

Found another good example done awhile back by Bobocat:

That's an excellent one too Hilly, thanks. I'll check out that Google Tina, thanks for bringing that up.

Learned something new today. I didn't realize routers were that fast on the lowest settings. Color me thankfully corrected!

Should be fine if you use a light touch. Buy a couple of inexpensive sanding drums at Harbor Freight, chuck them up and you should be good to go. Will likely be too fast for a wood burnisher or plastic slicker though.But at least you could round your edges fast & easy and then burnish by hand.

Thanks Rusty, I'll look again. Hey Ed, I had seen Bob's work before but was having trouble finding the examples I was thinking of since it's usually part of a bigger picture. Yours was the most recent picture I saw and stand by my comment of it being a very nice example. Thanks for finding more examples, I appreciate it. My goal is not to copy but to study the style in depth so as to create some of my own to share.

I got my maker's mark from them as well. Good quality and works well. The shipping is a bit of a gouge though since the boxes they use are free from the post office and the actual shipping charge is half of what they charge us. (sorry for the mini-rant but I'm not a fan of inflated shipping charges)

Finger carving is simply creating line drawings on the leather with no tooling, just the cuts. Here is a great, recent example of finger carving that BearMan did on a journal shown in this topic post: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=27297&st=0&p=171948entry171948

Thanks Hilly, I hadn't seen any in the few issues I have so I may have to track down a better collection.

I have seen a couple of times the awesome finger carvings of Bob (hidepounder) and others, specifically of birds and floral designs. In telling a newer leatherworker about them she became intrigued and asked where she could get practice patterns. Unfortunately I haven't had call for them yet so I haven't drawn any up (and quite frankly not sure how good they would be) and so I wonder, does anyone know of a source book for patterns or on designing your own? I'm pretty adept with pen & paper but I didn't know much about the theory behind them to get started. Thanks, Chris

Thanks Panther!

The Tandy one is made specifically for leatherworking (stamping, setting, etc). whereas the other two are made for general purpose anywhere you would need one (automotive, machine shop, leatherworking, etc) so they would need a little more input from the user to position/hold dies, setters, etc than then Tandy one would. For the price difference, I'm ok with holding my setters being a non-production shop. If this was something I did all day long everyday, I'd spend the extra to get the one made to use with leather specific setters.