Romey

My mind i guess. just my mind,hehe

Here is part one of the tutorial. My first post didn't take,Maybe can get a moderator to delete the first one. Anyway if anyone has comments or questions, fire away. Updated: Go to post 16 for local links

I make my own as well, I thought Id toss in a tip > bust a eraser from a pencil to use as a guard on the tip of the awl, helps keep it sharp when being bounced around in a drawer or work bench.

I would say any polishing compound would work on anytype of blades, its not so much the type of compound but the grit of it. Its the grit thats doing the work, the paste is just a way of providing a carrier. I have used and still use everything from harley davidson chrome polish, wich works VERY well i might add as a exstremely high grit abrasive polish( it would be like 10,000grit area) to ground pumice in a oil or water paste which I use for certain japanese bladesmith techniques. The advantage of grinding your own pumice compound is you can take it to varying degrees of grittyness. I often use buffing compound as they come in color for each grit starting with black, brown ,green white and pink-no-scratch for a mirror polish.I come off the belt grinder with a edge at 6 or 800 grit so i dont use the black ,about 220 grit, the brown,about 400, or the green with is roughly 600 grit. Ill talk more about it in the article wich i have found time to write part one of and am ready to post.

Funny you mention it, for somthing i use ALOT i have to keep several tubes around the place cause flitz tubes i am always misplacing! Frustrating when one is a hour from town and a person needs it NOW,lol

Heavier the guit the wider one wants the strap, if your lookin at a accoustic then its all preferance. Typically from 1.5 to 3 inches wide. Most bass Straps , Les Paul and Telecsters tend to be heavier so youll gig players often have wider straps or atleast a wide shoulder area. I have seen accoustics with baling twine as a strap what im saying is take your pick and have away at it

I thought i would add a couple tips here as i am a custom knife maker and cutting competition winner . All the advise here is correct more or less so ill add a couple tips some of you may want to try . With your stropping you may want to try using flitz or simicrome as quick compound. Flitz being courser then simichrome. So one could use both one then the other , as said sharpening is nothing more then polishing, 36grit to polishing compands , its all polishing. Johanna asked me to do a article on blades and sharpeing perhaps ill include from start to finish on a cutting competition knife. A indicator that im getting close to where i want my blade to be is cutting the lettering off a buisness card without cutting into the paper..

I use Barbour's Red Hand Unwaxed Linen 5 cord for most everything I do as for it lasting, i havent had a sheath come back and my stuff is hardused. I think if hole, welt and bedding is all done properly, linen will last as long as needed, I have sheaths from 60`s that are linen and still together and tight where the leather around is is cracked and crumbly. I have a saddle made in 1911 that linen thread is still holding well after the leather rotted. Oh BTW I use handstich so if it does come apart the welt and rest of the stitching wont allow for blade to cut through very easily

Regis, what you use and how you used it is never wrong, you have a project that you made with your own hands and your daughter likely loves so it is not wrong and dont let it all get to you. There is no wrong, just better wich will come with time, skill and knowledge. As for your tamping, odd as it might seem I have seen worse. Get some vegtan, and have another go, each one will get better no doubt. Good on you for your first finished project. You may want to look into handstitching techniques and a stitch pony if your physically capable of hand stitching

I have always skinned it and tossed it in a jar of salt/lexol, left it for a couple weeks, stretched it, once dry more rub lexol to soften it back up and done deal. I have a belt made years ago like when i was 16 that still has the first skin done this way on it, no rot, no smell just a belt with rattler on it. Old cowhand taught me that, right wrong or otherwise.

Hide is 2/3 of the cattle industry? Obviously this is the byproduct of when hippies do drugs, thier kids just aint right in the head. Yes i often go out of my way to ride a broncy horse in a blizzard to save a $100 calf from freezing , fight its momma, convince my ride that a wet bawlin calf SHOULD be in the saddle with me only so i can get it home, skin it alive only to toss the carcass so i can sell its hide. All this time i had it all wrong.. Scary part is, these people vote.

Johanna, I will start workin on a article about blade edges, sharpening, edge retention ect as it may take awhile as calving season is upon me.

I knew of all but 2, interesting article find Johanna, your always on the ball

Your new to leather work, yikes, thats a stunning item you got there

Amazing work Clay

Basket weaves are one of those things that are simple to do, difficult to do well. Being good at any repetitive pattern I found are easy to be out of practice for if not done often. First time I did a basket stamp it was very well done, second time, not so much, third time worse, very frustrating what I found was that rather then small errors blending into a large stamp pattern they stood out like a sore thumb often not caught till it was to late to fix, I see a few other mistakes on the belt but hey if second one came out better, chalk it up for experience. I can’t imagine that any worker of any skill or craft doesn’t have a bucket full of “Ah Sh*t†projects laying around. I do a similar lay out when basket stamping in that I lay out lines and such, even then especially with a smaller stamp its tough to keep it all straight and takes a careful hand to not over stamp at the edge, thank god for border stamps

Actually wrong pic, its not quite finished there but oh well, ill get one later of it with the knife

Through this one together, simple with perfect fit

Not mine, a friend and mentor of mine, i only posted it to get some activity going , ill be posting some sheaths of mine soon

Yea i got Sandy hooked up here awhile back, he has a new gal he is sporting on his arm so i dunno how much internet time he does. Hell of alot of knowledge on leather, women and brew and im really fortunite he calls me a friend

Sandy is a close friend of mind, infact i just posted a sheath of his in the sheath section if anyone is of interest

This is a sheath a very good friend of mine made, he is 82 years young, a full time sheath maker was a navy WW2 fighter pitol and later a test pilot. Another peice of history is it was he who got saddle making on the GI bill way back when, his GI bill student number for saddle making is No.1. He has done leather since i believe 1946. At any rate he is one of my leather working mentors and i thought you all might like a gander at his work.

Johanna, That is one of those famous things , see them all over does poeple using them doing all that. Use it for this and that, works like a champ!