ClayB

That is a really interesting start. Wings and things instead of leaves and scrolls? I think it would even look pretty neat just incorporated into a floral design. I'll be watching to see where you go with it.

Welcome to the forum. I checked out your pictures and it's no wonder you got a great response to your first works. That wolf mask is pretty amazing!!! I'll be looking forward to seeing a lot more of your work.

You can make a simple version of a hairing knife. Take a piece of 1/2 inch diameter wooden dowel and cut it about 3 inches long. Then drill a 1/4 inch hole in one end about 1/2 inch deep. Fill that hole with 2 part epoxy. Before the epoxy has a chance to set up, insert 5 exacto knife blades into the hole. Be careful inserting the blades. You want all 5 blades to be even in the hole. I've found that you can push them against the edge of your tooling slab to line them up. Once you have them in place, wait for the epoxy to set up. Doesn't cost much (money or time) to make one of these and they work pretty well. Jan Schoonover sells a hairing knife that he has made out of a modified Craftool swivel knife if you don't want to make your own. I think they sell for around $65.

I read in another place that Tandy has opened a store in Capetown. Not sure if it's a regular Tandy store or just a dealer. You might try sending a PM to Anet du Toit here on the forum. She's from South Africa and would be able to tell you where she gets her leather from.

There are a lot of different ways to create hair texture. One that I think gives the most realistic texture uses a hairing knife that holds several X-acto knife blades. That combined with a scalpel allows you to create individual hairs that actually stand up off the background. Hereis a tutorial I did a couple years ago here on the forum that will give you an idea how it can be done.

That looks great Tina!!! I wonder if my horses would like something like that?

If you are going to use a veiner like you did, I'd space the veiner impressions a lot closer together to create texture without the spaces in between. Another way to create scales on (larger) fish is to use a seeder, tilting it to one side so it only makes about half an impression. To make that easier to do, you can file about 1/3 of the seeder away.

Your son is right. The belt looks great!

There is a leather show coming up near you sponsored by the Leather Crafters and Saddlers Journal. You can find more information on it by going to their website. The show will be held in Wickenburg from February 17 to the 19 with a few of the classes beginning as early as the 14th. There will be classes on many different types of leather work and quite a few vendors.

Those turned out really nice Tina!! I like the way the tooling goes with the hair on hide. The straps without hardware look neat too. You always come up with the neatest ideas. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Tandy sells "tracing film". It's a plastic of some sort that you trace your pattern onto, then transfer it to leather. It doesn't absorb any water and distort. If you are careful, you can use it over several times if you want to transfer the same pattern. Some people use clear contact paper or plastic page protectors to cover paper patterns to keep them from being affected by the moisture in the leather. The problem with covering paper with some sort of plastic is that sometimes when tracing over the multiple layers, you can get a fairly thick line from your tracing stylus and loose some fine detail. Kate Dubiel here on the forum has a way of printing a pattern and then transferring it to her leather that works very well for her.