Jaymack

Thanks rdb. I appreciate you help and quick response.

I'm almost finished with my 1st guitar strap, but need some help. What size holes do you punch, and what is the length of the cut between the holes in the strap where it connects to the guitar? Thanks, John

After I read the description of the knife, I never thought anyone could make a sheath that would be even close. Knife and sheath compliment each other! I particularly like the use of the elongated scales of the snakes belly in conjuction with the normal scales. Great sheath!

I'm new to leather and won't consider that stamping pattern because it looks too difficult. You must have been pretty good 30 years ago!

Some very nice heavy duty hand stitching! Very Nice!

Wow!

I don't have a lot of experience except that I've made plenty of mistakes while learning about leather. Leather is a skin and reacts accordingly. Put some neatsfoot oil on it and place it in the sun and it tans and changes color. heat it too much and it burns. I struggle with the time it takes to case it properly while waiting to carve and stamp it, but every time I try to rush the process, I damage the leather. Just my 2 cents. Thank goodness for black dye! John

I consider your pieces as art, not just a craft. Have you ever considered putting together a tutorial on dyeing one of your pieces?

I'm going to make a pocket holster for a .32 that I have. Do you really need or want alot of retention in a pocket holster?

I have used eco-flo briar brown highlight stain and always liked the color. I liked it so much that I bought a quart of it. On one project, it had a red /pink hue that I really didn't like. I thought it was the same problem as you said you had, so I shook the bottle more and tried again on a couple scrap pieces of veg tanned leather. On some leather, it was perfect, and on one scrap piece from a side that was tanned in Mexico or Brazil, it had the same red effect that I didn't like. I've read in this forum that each tannery can use differnt chemical to treat their leather. I assume that this can effect every stain that you can use whether it's Fiebings or Eco-Flo.

Looks great! I'm also interested in woodandsteel's questions. I also realy like the stain/antique you used. what color and dye manufacturer did you use?

Outstanding! I never thought of creating more than one position for a holster.

Nice work! Good looking kids!

Nice! The knife and sheath compliment each other.

I'm talking about out of the bottle wine corks. They are not rubber or plastic, but cork. See the photo I posted. John

Wow, that's not a sheath, it's a piece of art! I also like the coffin style handle on the bowie knife you made. Can I get on your Christmas list?! John

SimonJester, I just held the leather in my left hand and the dremel in my right!

Here's the example of the edges I did with the cork burnisher. This is the best picture I could generate with the cheap camera I have. John

I know that nobody drinks alcohol in this forum, but I made a bunishing tool using the cork from a bottle of wine. I had to upgrade from the twist-off caps from my normal bottle of Ripple that I drink to a fance bottle of wine to get a cork! The cork worked a lot better than I expected. I inserted a screw, with some glue on it, into the center of the cork. The screw was the diameter needed to fit my dremel Cut the head off the screw and sanded the metal to eliminate any sharp edges. Put the screw and cork in my dremel and ran it through some sandpaper to help center it. used a round file to create a slot in the cork. sanded the slot with some 400 grit sandpaper Used Bob Parks instructional on finishing edges. I expect that the cork has a limited life span, but I'm sure I can force myself to drink another bottle of wine! I will post a picture of the edges of the guitar strap I am working on once the dye is dry and I complete the project. John

I am working on ideas for a guitar carving pattern and came across this web site. Lots of good ideas and you can buy the images. Just thought I'd share http://vector-images.com/ John

Thanks for the quick response Rob. I also enjoyed going through your website. You make some great looking stuff! I don't play guitar, and this may be a stupid question, but how do you attach the strap to the neck of the guitar? I'm assuming that the adjustable end of the strap attaches to the knob at the base of the guitar, but I'm not sure about the other end. Thanks, John

Hi, I'm looking for a acoustic guitar strap patterns for . I'm looking to make it 2 1/2" to 3" wide so I have some room to tool a design. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, John

I've only been working with leather for only 6 months, but I'll share a similar story. Being the patient person that I am, I set a piece of leather on a metal framing square above my woodburning fireplace to speed up the drying process when I was casing the leather for carving. A couple of minutes later, I picked up the leather and discovered that I had permanently burned the leather with the inches scale from the framing square. This is when I realized that as tough as leather is, it's still just cow skin and reacts accordingly. John

This would be very visible, but you could form, glue and stitch a collar the width of the tear across the top of the sheath. Dye it the best as you can to blend in with the old leather. John

Lead dust scares the heck out of me. Tungsten is a safer alternative and is 1.7 times more dense than lead. You can buy tungston at any hobby shop that sells pinewood derby supplies. Here is one supplier: http://www.pinewoodp...weight-sets.htm This site also has a tungsten putty which I thought was pretty cool. John