tboyce

Not yet, I'm in the process of updating my shop which means that I've got the kids out of the house and my garage is finally clear of enough junk that I can get into some really serious leather work without having to make my wife angry by using our dining room table, I should be up and running in a couple of weeks and this is one of the first things I intend to make

Hello All, I've designed a medium messenger bag for a member of my family and thought I would upload the template. It is in PDF format and can be printed out at any Kinkos or Office supply store that has large format printers. The print size is 36"X24". The final Bag will measure (inside) 12" x 9" x 3"Medium Messenger Bag.pdf All of the hardware, (buckles and Dees) need to be 1" I tried to label every part that needed to be lebeled to make it as easy as possible to put together but if anyone has a question, shoot me a message and I'll try to answer it I hope someone can use it. This forum has given me a lot of useful information and I wanted to pay back where I could Regards, Tom Boyce

This is exactly what I've been looking for lately. Your ability to communicate your process in easily understood steps is a gift to you and to those of us who learn from you. Thank you so much

Greetings all, Are there any members in the Salt Lake City/Provo area of Utah interested in getting together and forming a guild or club or a society or...hell, I just want to get together with like-minded people once a month or so and talk leather working Tom

I bought the Chinese irons a while back. No complaints. I don't know if they will last as long as Vergez or Dixon but at they price they want, I can replace these several times over. If I were making my living at this rather than just having it be a hobby, I might shell out for the more expensive irons. Right now though, it is doubtful that my skill is sufficient to show any difference if there were any to begin with

Thanks guys!

I have a couple of friends who have asked me to make tack for their ponies. Their kids ride them in western shows them so they want to make headstalls and breast pieces like horses and I've purchased and downloaded Tandy's patterns. I have the capability of scaling these patterns and printing them out, the question is, how much should I scale them? Has anyone else had experience in taking patterns that were meant for horses and scaling them to ponies? Thanks in advance

Keep your tools sharp

I have an elk skin I'd like to make a bag out of. It seems as if the stitches will tear with any real wear to the bag though...any suggestions?

you spend a few hundred bucks on a tool and you don't expect to have to strip it down and spend an hour honing the blade

I bought the delux leather splitter from Tandy the other day. Has anyone else purchased this? It seems unusually difficult to skive a piece of leather using this, not at all as easy as it appears on the video. Has anyone purchased one only to discover that the blade needed to be sharpened? http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/department/tools/knives-cutters-splitters/3795-00.aspx

Thanks guys!

My problem is that my workshop is in my unheated garage and my very expensive Barge cement turns into a giant booger at some point during the winter. Does thinner help reclaim this or is it lost?

Up to now, I've only used solvent based adhesives when gluing leather pieces together but I was thinking of giving water based a try simply because they seem less messy to use and are cheaper. Is there anyone who has made the switch and likes it better? Thanks in advance

I've been wanting to make some portfolios out of veg tan with a pigskin lining but what's been holding me back is how the lining is going to look against a slicked edge. I'm concerned that, over a period of time, the part of the lining between the stitch line and the edge will separate and look frayed. Is there a technique to prevent this? Does a well done instance of this result in the two leathers sort of melding together at the slicked edge? If so, can someone point me to a tutorial on how this is done? Thanks in Advance

Can I get in on the fun?

My buckles and rivets came but it took them a lot longer to get to me than I imagined. 6 weeks

I've never done wet molding before. Is there any reason why you can't wet mold AFTER you dye the leather?