ClayB

Hi Sandy, The picture came through and the door knob hanger looks really nice. What a great gesture from you in this season! It's nice to have you here as a part of our group.

Hey Harvey, Have you ever seen the bumper sticker that says "The worst day at the leather bench is better than the best day at work" ? Ok, it actually said "The worst day fishing....... but I dont fish. I've ruined a lot of leather in the past 30 years. I actually get more excited when something turns out as I imagined it in my head than when I mess a project up. Carving leather is what I do when I want a break from the frustration of work, kids, life in general. Yesterday at work, it was snowing, blowing, visibility was close to zero a couple times, windchill was below zero. You can dress for cold, but it's still not fun climbing around on a roof setting rafters or dragging sheets of plywood around in conditions like that. So it's gonna take a lot to make me cuss when I'm on the ground, in a nice warm room, pounding on a piece of leather, no matter how many mistakes I might make. When you mess up, just go buy another piece of leather. Call it your civic duty, doing your part to help improve the economy. I hope things go better for you today!

Happy Birthday Bobocat!! I hope you have a really great day. Thanks for being a part of our forum and for sharing pictures of your work. You have an amazing talent for carving leather and your work inspires a lot of us that get to see it.

Ruby blades haven't been available for many years. They have been replaced by ceramic or different alloy blades. Some people still prefer to use the ruby blades if they can find them.Once in a while they are available on Ebay and places like that. If ruby blades got nicked or scratched, they were difficult to sharpen without special equipment, and if dropped, sometimes the ruby tip would come off. There is nothing wrong with using them if you have them, saving them as a collectable item, or offering them for sale as there is market for them.

Either way will work, just depends on the look you want. I usually cut the outlines with a knife, but do most of the actual wood grain with a modeling spoon.

Happy Birthday Jim! Hope you have a really great day!!!

Whatever anyone wants to label this carving, it's great carving as all of Bobocat's work is. I agree it's not really Sheridan, but I wouldn't consider it Stohlman either. I wonder if it wouldn't be like some of Don's earlier work when he was starting to develop his own style, before his tooling got smaller and tighter?

The mask is nice, Caroline. I like the color and the eybrows too. But what I think I like most is your priorities. Clay (who's priorities must be messed up because I have to clean house!)

Walnut Hollow has woodburning tools and a set of alphabet tips. You can get some of their stuff at places like Walmart or Hobby Lobby.

Tandy doesn't sell a Pro Petal anymore. I have several different kinds, but the ones I like the best and use the most are from Jeff Mosby Jeff makes 4 different sizes and they come VERY sharp.

I'm really glad to hear that I am not the only one that likes Neat Lac. The 2 saddle makers that helped me make my first few saddles both told me that's what they use on tooled saddles, neatsfoot oil followed by Neat Lac rubbed in well with a piece of sheepskin as Keith said. Almost everyone else I have talked to says dont use it, oil wont penetrate it. I have found it will take oil, it just takes a little longer for it to soak in.

Hi Freak, Hope you have a really FREAKY birthday!!!!!

Thanks for the great pattern Tina. I still haven't figured out how you and Bobocat make your carved roses look so real, but when I get more practice on it, I'm definately going to use this pattern on something.

That's some pretty amazing stuff! I really like the green man corset. I can only imagine how much time you put into all those details. Can't wait to see your remake of it. It's really nice to have you here.

It's always fun to see new ideas used on leather. Your first try looks good. I hope you do some more work like this and let us see what you come up with.

The 40% off early bird special says "from 7 AM to 9AM". The other sale says "after 9AM".

For those of you that are wondering, all my deer hunters got their deer. I wasn't really looking for one myself, I mainly just guide. Everyone except my daughter just had doe tags, so nothing really exciting for them. My daughter got a nice muley buck. She's begining to think there isn't so much to this deer hunting thing, her second nice buck, and this was only her second year actually hunting. All my kids started hiking with our group of hunters when they were 3-4 years old, so they have had some experience even before they were old enough to hunt. Here a couple pictures of Jessi's deer, one with dad, the other with her fan club. Don't worry L'bum, if I need a body guard, I'll hire my little girl. She's a pretty good shot.

Thanks Kathy, I knew I could count on you for moral support!!! Maybe it was spelled wrong on the link too??? I'd look this morning but I cant see things that small without my glasses. It would probably look like it was written in Scottish! At least keep the ambulance on stand by. I'm gonna be guiding a bunch of deer hunters through the badlands today. We got a couple inches of new snow on top of the mud from the old snow, walking is gonna be tough, but on the up side, the 50 mph winds are supposed to go down towards evening! Sure does seem like it would make more sense to spend the day in my shop.

Thanks William for trying make this not look so bad for me. Sad thing is I HAVE my glasses on, and I still didn't see it! At least as far as embarrassing moments go, this is nowhere near the top of the list. I think the button should flash in different colors, maybe that would help.

Ok, it has been pointed out to me that there is a link. What the heck! Right there under the banner. Now I have to think up an excuse for not knowing it was there. Um.......

I just noticed some changes have been made to the home page and it's kinda neat like that. When I log onto Leatherworker, I usually come straight to the forum and I think a lot of people do. I think there are probably even quite a few people that don't know about the main page. I was wondering if there is a way to put a button on the forum someplace that would take you to the home page??? There's lots of good information there that people can use and it might be nice to have an easy way to send them there.

Hi Tom, Your first feather turned out really nice! As for the powder Jim mentioned, if there are stores that cater to scrap bookers over there, you might want to try them. My wife has some powders called Pearl Ex that work well mixed into paint, or into super sheen. They give a cool "shimery" look when trying to paint phesant (or buffalo) feathers. I think you might really like some of the metalic powders for some of the coloring you do on your bracers too. Here's a link just to show you what is available and a little of what you can use them on.

That's some really pretty carving!!!

Ain't she something special!! Back when we had a local leather store, I liked to hang out there sometimes. There was a lady filling in that didn't know a lot about leather stuff. One day a guy comes in and wants to make a shoulder holster. He didn't know anything about it so I went over and got the Stohlman book on holsters and found the page on shoulder holsters. He said "that's just what I need, do you have a copy machine?" The lady behind the counter said "no, why?" He said "well I dont want to buy the book, I just need that one page". He then found a piece of paper, traced the pattern, and started to write down the notes. I had to leave....... Drawing patterns takes a different talent and can take a lot of time. I really appreciate those that do it well, whether they share for free, sell them, or keep them for thier own use.