JLSleather

Thinner layers bonded together will make for a stronger item (two layers of 5 oz properly joined is stronger than 1 layer of 10 oz). Stitching adds even more strength. Your home is likely the same principle. Stand on the end of a board and it bows or snaps. Same thing with a sheet of plywood. But nail them together, and you can't budge either. The quote is, "a cord of three strands is very strong".

This may help you find something local. http://www.blueguns.com/shopcontent.asp?type=distributors#texas

I think that's what he just said?

I saw your post the day you put it up, but thought someone else might have more valuable information for you than I have. Sometimes, I may give people too much credit! So, here is something that may be of use. Not sure what the 'going rate' is for leather stuff over across the water. I try not to guess what the value of anyone's work is -- I've seen work that I thought couldn't be sold going 'like hotcakes' despite my opinion. One gal sells small wallets for $50 range. Materials would be around $5.00 (U.S.) so not a huge profit , unless you realize that she's selling a dozen a week - every week. Now, I don't make those, and i'm not going to start, but $500 (ish) per week for simple little projects sounds okay to me. Some thought the 'pet rock' was crude and stupid. Maybe it was. Still, guy "invented" it and became a mulit-millionaire. And leather crafters will often pay a pretty good bit of money for travel and accomodations to cross half the country and pay some aging overweight fella to tell them what he could have said in a post on here. Go figure! Point is, while you may not sell much on LW (we are known for making our own), it's important to do what YOU want to do. What the next guy thinks (including me) may have nothing to do with which direction you go.

It IS getting better. Just gotta stay at it. The piece of leather you have there looks a bit rough, which is all the difference. TWO pieces of advice for this 1.) If you want to be good at running 2 miles, you gotta practice running five. 2.) When a guy gets so important (or is it "self-absorbed") that his advice must be purchased, I let him keep it. Oh, actualy THREE ... 3.) If that first one doesn't appear to make sense, don't worry about it

Yikes! Any monkey can learn to tool, but THIS is impressive. Two years ago, twenty years ago, whatever. This is INCREDIBLE.

Yep, I'm with you .. pretty doesn't mean much if it doesn't do the job. My credit is okay I guess, but I stil drive a 1999 vehicle that there is nothing wrong with.

It looks like the area arround the floral and the strap have been dyed, not stained. But this is guesswork - probably best thing to do is ask the person who made it!

I DO hope you're taking the advise of those members who suggested you try this on scrap first. Don't even need to be letters, really, just dye a piece black and then put the red over it. "Wasting" a piece of scrap may well save you some aggravation.

Just like you said Jake. Not sure what that other thing is about. How do you NOT have the buckle length involved here? Trophy buckles gonna throw that WAY off ...

That's what I thought too -- piping

Got a person looking for information on the Consew 110. Contacted Consew, who states they didn't make that machine. From them: It has a roller foot, needle feed and a knife that trims as it sews. I'm sure it took a lot of modification as it has release mechanisms that don't look standard to me. I normally run Brother machines that do not have this knife. The knife comes down with the needle stroke. It will start to cut and then the knife deflects off to the right. it has a metal tag that says Consew 110. I was trying to find a replacement knife for it and sent pictures to Consew and they said they never made it. I thought I had too large a roller foot and the bar that holds the knife blade was deflecting off that. So I replaced the foot back to the original one and the bar doesn't strike it on the down stroke but the blade doesn't cut either. Any help or link appreciated!

This is great, and the stamping compliments the design of the blade and handle (which is also nice looking). Nice looking set regardless of age - tell her to stay at it!

I like the color combination, right down to the bullet loops and cartridges. Will it be used as shown, with the 'left' side holster facing butt forward?

The consew you mentioned , you can get for $1,000 at techew http://shop.raphaelsewing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6&products_id=530 The 16-188 is fast, but not for what you want to do. If i needed one, I MIGHT pay half of that

Usedta call that a 'deerfoot' modeling tool, if that helps.

I don't think you can give a solid anwer to that. If you're cutting belts, you'll want the straightest section you can get. Point is, depending on the shape, and the length of the belt, you can vary that quite a bit. What I can say is: Iif your belts are just one layer, I like 8/9 for most 1 1/4" to 1 3/4" belts. On a strap 1" wide or less, I think that weight detracts from the appearance. 9/10 is fine for wider belts, or belts that carry some weight (holsters/puches/heavy use). If you are stitching two layers, the 7/8 oz with a 2/3 oz liner would put you in the same ball park aestetically (and is stronger than one layer of 9/10). Shoulders are popular because the cutting is economical, but shoulders tend to be a bit spongey on the ends and thus not the best belt leather. With sides, a belt maker might just scrap the belly portion, which is the same as getting a back. Generally, if you're interested in solid quality belts, use the back portion and cut lengthwise. Then it's a simple matter of dividing the width of the hide by the width of the straps you're cutting.

How thick is the goat? Will something like this work?

I've peened 'em in the past, just can't tell from the pic if that's the same material. Ones i had were soft enough, piece of leather on the bench, upside down, tap with rivet setter. The 'extra' you're taliin about spreads, an yer done.

No, I aint 'sure' cuz I'm lookin at a photo. But, I'd smack it.

You should be able to peen the end of the post, don't need anything else

Those are nice - young fella is gonna love it.

I gotta give you some credit -- my first project went in the trash before anyone got to see it (and the second). But, that leather looks pretty rough, and probably accounts for some of the 'drag' with the knife. A good firm piece of cow will likely cure that in a hurry. Ordinarily, I'd say it looks like it was tooled too wet, but with that chunk it's hard to say. That said, here's a couple simple things that will likely git ya runin in a hurry. Red arrows, ya wanna lose the 'ridge'. You can either lean your beveler out a bit, or bevel vertically and then smooth it out. Blue arrows, I think you'll find this design looks more natural if you bevel these the other side of the line. Blue oval ... combination of the two. Once the line is beveled the other way, you'll have that ridge right there. Knockin this ridge down will create a "pocket" on the short stem which wil add considerable depth to your carving with almost no effort, giving the illusin that the pod is "inside" the folds, like this ...

Bridle leather is not veg tanned leather. You should be able to cut, stamp, or crease that leather, but not tool it. As one other member stated, it does look a bit dry. But, bridle leather is more about strength than other issues. On the other hand, most bridle leather is quite nice all by itself, ,just a crease down each side and ya got a nice lookin belt. Add some decorative stitchin', what else... OH, yeah, .157 is roughly 5/32", or likely what we might call 10 ounce leather. Welcome!

Yeah, that's formed. I'd like to know about this too.