TexasLady

6/17/11 Okay, thanks particle. Hi Jordan and Willbilly. Nice to see you here. - Texas Lady

6/17/11 Thanks so much to both of your for your replies. I'm a bit clumsy at navigating here and only just now saw that you'd written to me. Yes, there's a Tandy near me. Their leather splitter costs about $400, but looks really nice. No, I've never used a bench mounted splitter. I can see how I'd have trouble pulling a 5" wide strip of leather past a blade,... I mean, without clamping down on it with pliers and ruining the leather. And, yes, my scraps are small and irregular. If they could be split, that would make for a nice uniform, albeit small, piece of veg tanned leather to work with, and also I'd be left with some usable 'flesh' leather that, I'm guessing, could still work just fine for 'welts' and such. I appreciate your answers. Maybe my next step will be to try to find a local leather-worker who will let me try out his hand cranked splitter on some of my scraps. - Texas Lady

6/15/11 Thank you for the instructions, particle. I've got some pieces of wood about that size out back of the house. Got the contact cement, too. Would you have any suggestions on what kind of edge beveler to use? - Texas Lady

6/14/11 I have some pieces of scrap leather that look like they will make lovely little strops. And I've got some Tandy white rouge, which (thanks to another Thread here) I've been able to soften with water, olive oil, and heat. When making a new strop (for sharpening knives), should we first oil the piece of leather that we are going to use? And, if so, would it be better to use olive oil or neet oil? Or some other kind of oil? - Texas Lady

6/14/11 Yes, thanks, gringobill, for reminding us of those important points. When I first bought my tools, I had a wonderful teacher at Tandy. But he soon 'moved up' and was called to run a store in another State. I remember much of what he taught, but parts I'd forgotten. What you said was the same as what he'd taught, and it's the only way to do beautiful carving. - Texas Lady

6/14/11 Okay, so this Thread of mine has had 74 'views' and 0 'replies'. I must be doing something wrong. :/ - Texas Lady

6/12/11 It's times like this when our heart moves us to exclaim 'what a wonderful forum this is'! Here we are, over three years after Scouter started this Thread, and I was having the exact same problem. I bought two sticks of Tandy White Rouge. One I kept and one I sent to a friend. Then, I went to make myself a strop, using a lovely strip of vege-tanned leather. I still have fond memories of my teacher at Tandy Leather making me my first miniature strop by rubbing the slightly dry, but creamy, white paste on the leather, and showing me how to get that wonderful, super-sharp edge on my good quality knife. So, my mouth was watering to get to sharpen all my old tools. I took the new stick of white rough out of its package and rubbed it on the piece of leather. Hmmm. All it did was mark it, scratch it, and dig into it. No rouge came off onto the leather. I soaked the stick in a cup of water over night. The next morning, it was still as hard as concrete. The only way that I could 'use it' to sharpen my knife was to drag the knife across the side of it, like a grinding stone! I Googled, and your Thread here came up,... "Why is my Tandy rouge so hard?" After reading this Thread, and all your trials and tribulations, I went to my kitchen and put that stick of Tandy White rouge lying on its side in a small Pyrex bowl. I poured a Tablespoon of olive oil and a Tablespoon of water over the stick of rouge. Then I microwaved it for only 30 seconds. Perfect! Because I'd soaked it over-night in that cup of water, the water expanded and looked like sweat coming out of 'pores' in the stick of rouge. It was only 'very warm', not 'hot', so I was able to immediately pick it up and rub it on the waiting leather strip. It made a baby soft paste where I applied pressure, but the rest of the stick kept it's shape. I observed tiny fissures where the stick had been pressed. As it cooled, it hardened again. I wanted to go ahead and make a second strop. The second time, I only heated the rouge, water, and olive oil for 20 seconds. This wasn't long enough. Plus, there wasn't enough olive oil left in the mixture. Hence, when I applied the rough paste to the leather, it dried too quickly and 'caked' on the leather. I added more olive oil to the combination in the Pyrex bowl, microwaved it for another 20 seconds, and this time, again, it gave me a nice paste to work with. I had to enlist the help of a nearby plastic fork, using its flat edge to work down those dry 'caked' areas on the leather. Thanks to all of you for sharing your advice and stories. - Texas Lady

6/5/11 Hi impulse! I looked at your profile to see if you've been around here 'in recent history' and was happy to see that you were here only 'yesterday. I did a word search using 'palm pusher' and got 'nothing'. So, then I tried just 'palm' and found your 'sewing palm'. I love what you made. I've made two of my own, and you would laugh to see how similar our stitching looks. Your model is different from mine. Mine was modeled after the Tandy Leather version that I'd purchased, but without a buckle in the back. I really like the 'overlap' that you put in the back, and the two holes that hold a leather 'tie'. That's a nice cheap alternative to a buckle, yet it holds out the possibility of being adjustable in the future, if need be. You might wonder why, since I'd already purchased the Tandy Leather version that I would make my own, too. I did this toward the end of 2009, when I was working a customer service job, and sewing a pair of moccassins during the 'slow times'. I hated to bring to work my expensive tools. They seemed too much of an investment to being leaving unattended at my desk when I would go on 'break'. Three hundred people worked at that call center. It's not like I'd know where to look if anything 'walked off'. So, I made my own palm pusher. I used my tin snips to cut out a round of textured heavy aluminum (angle iron type from Home Depot) and positioned this round of metal in the hole I cut. Behind that I glued small scraps of leather. Both palm pushers work great, though like yourself, I marvel at the coarseness of my stitching on both. I'm in college classes and haven't been here or doing any leatherwork this past year. But lately, I got the idea of making some things out of all that leather that's waiting for me in the living room. Also, I have a friend, an ex-classmate, whose husband and son are out of work. I've offered to teach them some leatherwork, and I thought that having them make their own palm pusher [sewing palm?] would be more advantageous than teaching them to make a 'leather coaster', 'key fob', or 'business card holder'. I'm making a third palm pusher today. I've experimented with making the metal part like this: I cased the small piece of leather which I'll later trim to a round shape. I centered it over a plastic (screw on) bottle cap. And then I used a C-clamp, screwing it down onto the leather, until the round 'foot' of the C-clamp had pushed the leather down against the inside of the bottle cap. It dried and looked really good. Like you, I used a large punch to punch out the hole, but I went ahead and punched it all the way through. It looked great, but the Tandy Leather version had its hole over toward one side, at an angle. I probably should have left well enough alone, but I didn't. Right now, I've re-cased it and inserted a little piece of plastic off of a spray can, and screwed it down with the C-clamp, in order to make it have that 'angle' like the Tandy version. I hunted for a small metal washer, but I didn't have one that was small enough. Seeing that yours doesn't have an angle to it, I may just go back to the flat configuration that I'd made originally. That was so much fun, wasn't it? I'm surprised that this site isn't filled with these. Oh, and my last exploit was to use some Sculpey to make a mold of the round thimble part of my Tandy version. I'll dry it and bake it. Then, maybe I'll push more soft Sculpey into the mold, remove it, dry it, bake it, and use it to wet mold the leather over. This is a great project for using up small, stringy scraps. And, I've got a lot of those. I'm so glad that I found your sewing palm this evening. Bye. - Texas Lady

6/1/11 I'm afraid that I already know the answer, but I'll ask anyway. Here's my question. I have a large supply of small, very irregularly shaped leather scraps. They are thick, like shoe soles. Would a 'splitter' work on these small pieces of of leather? Or, is a splitter best used only on a smooth, flat, belt-like, likewise thick, piece of leather? I've taken one of my leather scraps and 'split' it, using a sharp knife. But, I didn't separate the two pieces from each other. Instead, I left them attached to each other at the mid-line. Opening the piece of split leather, it now looks something like a a bird with outstretched wings, having a suede texture. I plan to decorate it (probably with beads) and make a necklace out ot it. I cased it before cutting it. But, I nicked it a few times. I don't know if I just need to practice more, or if there is some better, more legitimate way, that I should be splitting the leather. Thanks. - Texas Lady

6/1/11 What a wonderful tutorial. I loved your bag. It was beautiful and so well made. Thanks for showing us how to do that. - Texas Lady

1/3/11 I thought of something that might 'sell'. I want to send a friend a Piggy Bank,.. sort of as a joke. And, I want the Piggy Bank to fit inside a Small Flat Rate Box. (Yes, it will be mailed to a foreign country.) So, the vision came to me of making a collapsable Piggy Bank, with two flat sides, short (mostly decorative) legs, and lacing all around the piggy shape. It would have about a two inch, collapsable band running all around, to make it 3D when it's full of coins. It will take me a long time to make one, and I know that there are others here who could probably do this in a day. But since it seemed like a good idea to me, I just wanted to share it with this nice community. - TexasLady

12/13/10 I've recently become interested in publishing a Children's Book that I've written. No, I'm not able to purchase a pretty leather binding for my books, but I just wanted to let you talented people know about a spot out there where you might want to offer your goods. I've found a site called www.CreateSpace.com. This site has a forum where folks ask questions about formating the books that they have written and that they will be self-publishing through CreateSpace.com. Most of them are just like us,... trying to make a few dollars doing something that they are good at and really enjoy. But, I believe that you might find an occassional customer who would like to have a beautiful, hand-tooled, bookcover, for example, in which to encase the book that they've written. Or a spouse might want to have 'one book' that their mate wrote 'done up all fancy' to give to the author as a gift. Another possibility would be to offer to do that 'photography on leather' that I've just now seen being talked about on this forum. Or, people might want a 'leather case' to contain a few volumes of the books that they've authored, especially if those books were of a uniform size. And, if they aren't of a uniform size, I'm sure that you'll figure out a way to make something attractive to hold different sizes of books together as a set. I haven't heard a single soul there asking for this, but I just wanted to come here and tell you about it, as a possibility, so that you can go register for that site and post your offer, appropriately done. You might start by asking the QUESTION if anyone knows of someone who custom makes leather book bindings. Please don't 'spam' them. They are very nice, tolerant, people. Be gentle. You'll be able to do a 'word search' on this site, so that, you can find out if there have been other visitors talking about leatherwork. And, of course, you'll be finding out how to publish your own book. Registering on the site is free. Also, you don't need to have written a book yet to register. If you have any problems, or if anyone complains, please come back here and tell us about it. - TexasLady

12/13/10 No, I can't. But I'm fascinated by your question. I lived many years in South America. None of their ready-made shoes would fit me, as I have a long, thin foot, with a high arch, and long-ish toes. (It looks good. I'm not complaining.) I ordered a last, custom made for my feet, but couldn't get back to pay for it and pick it up for a long time. When I finally got there, the maker had been forced to cut it down to a smaller size and sell it. I paid him for making it anyway, as I'd known when I ordered it that it might 'be a while' before I could get back. I should have just bought a larger last and 'carved it down' myself. I'm an artist, and I've done clay scupture and also I've carved linoleum block for block printing. Next on my agenda should be learning to carve lasts. But that's for a future project. I hope that you find some ready made lasts. Please let us know where we can get them too? - TexasLady

9/2/09 Dear zanspistol391, I'm so glad that you've brought this up. I thought that it was 'just me'. I've got some good books on whipmaking. Great books. Ron Edwards How to Make Whips, among others. And, just like yourself, I'd read about beveling (skiving) the edges of the leather strands. There are even drawings of the different ways to shape the strands. And there are admonitions that, if you don't do this, your work will not look as good as the enviously good workmanship of the 'masters'. But since there are so many 'different' ways to do the skiving, and presumably it can also be done 'wrong', it almost seems like my first whip will just be a 'stab in the dark'. (Yes, that was a 'pun') And 'thank you' to everyone who is sending us your wisdom in answer to zanspistol391's question. -TexasLady

8/20/09 Thanks Marlon (Rawhide), I've written those last 'ingredients' down on a piece of paper so that I can carry the list to Tandy with me when I go there to get my supplies. I wish I had a 'doctor friend' who throws away worn out tools (like one of the other forum members has). I do have an automechanic friend who may get rid of broken, worn out, or otherwise mangled tools from time to time, and maybe I can get him to save them for me. Actually, he probably wore them out while fixing my car, so in a sense, I've already 'paid' for them! Thanks again. -TexasLady

8/18/09 Thanks, KingsX, When I read that post of yours, talking about the leather that dried out too fast, I knew exactly what you were talking about. On one of my 'buying sprees' at Tandy, I'd grabbed some 'practice scraps' out of a bin, and greedily took them home, thinking of all the 'silk purses' I could make out of those 'sows ears'. Well, I did actually make one quite nice 'holster' for my high-quality leather-cutting scissors from a couple of those scraps. However, when I started making another 'scissor holster' for a friend (using, actually, a scrap that had the scarred 'brand' on it), the stuff was so hard that it broke my little 'awl' that I stab the holes with for my 'saddle-stitching'. I had to use the 'hole punch' to be able to sew the two pieces of leather together. And yes, the little awl was sharp and stropped. It just couldn't cut cement. - TexasLady

8/18/09 Thanks for the links on tempering metal that I needed, TTcustom. I'll have a look at them in a minute. And thanks for encouraging me in my 'cheap rawhide hammer' quest. Although, I'm suspicious that you "look forward to pics" of it just because you know it will give you a good laugh! I'm considering 'sewing' the rawhide strip 'spiral' (while soft) to another piece of flat rawhide (while soft), then stretching that flat piece over the $1 hammer. And I'll tie it on to dry with either twine or leather lace. I don't want to use glue, as I doubt that that would hold up at all. Also, I've already spray painted the hammer head with enamel paint, in hopes of slowing down corrosion. -TexasLady

8/18/09 Thanks for answering, Marlon. I've done a lot of artwork and some 'decoupage', so when I saw how conveniently 'random' the leather pieces were on the surface of your handle, I knew that there was a 'intelligent designer' behind it. And that you had skivered the pieces, too, wow, I'm just so proud of myself for figuring it out that I'll probably be smiling all day. I hadn't thought of how using different leathers would give slightly different colors when dyed. I'll go get some 'Leather cement' at Tandy when I get my next paycheck. Can't wait to get started. What color of dye did you use? I hope you don't mind that I'm trying to 'pick your brain'. - TexasLady

8/17/09 Thanks for starting this Thread and for teaching us all that, Tomcat. I'll save the link to this Thread. And, thank you all you 'other people' who each know about different specialties. TexasLady

8/18/09 Rawhide, The leather pieces on your handle look slightly larger than the pieces on Panther's. I'm guessing that you didn't use a blender. Did you skiver down the ones that you wanted to cover the outer area? How did you cut your small leather pieces? TexasLady

8/18/09 That, and probably having an over-abundance of creativity. Good job! Thanks for posting. I'd been reading somewhere on this forum about how to heat up metal (as for a knife blade, I believe) and when it gets to a certain color (red? blue?) thrusting it into cold water. I didn't 'save' the link to that posting, and now, I can't find it anywhere. If anyone knows where that is, please get back to me. Before I'd found this forum, I'd already bought a rawhide 'dog bone' toy at a Dollar Store, soaked it, separated the pieces, and experimented with cutting it and drying it. Although I own a great rawhide hammer, I don't want to take that one with me when I go places where I might loose it or forget it. So, my intention is to make a 'knock-off' cheapie using the rawhide from the dollar chew-toy and maybe attaching it to a dollar store hammer,... somehow. TexasLady

8/18/09 I wasn't able to find her tutorial, but I did find a picture of a leather slicker under Tools and Jigs, and then click on Homemade tools. She was a very generous person to provide all these nice pictures of all kinds of tools that we can make ourselves. http://classicbells.com/verlane/verlane.html TexasLady

8/15/09 Correction: The author's name is David Morgan, not Dan Morgan. TexasLady

8/15/09 ROFL TexasLady