Gawdzilla

Tandy sells cowhide rugs. I found one that was completely red and made a top hat, vest and plainsman's boots out of it with plenty left over for a shoulder bag for She Who Must Not Be Ignored.

I have more than one, they're very useful. I have found that bar stock can be very good for make imperishable patterns. If you have welding and grinding experience you can make a pattern out of bar stock that simply will not "fold, spindle or mutilate" (how long since you say that phrase?) under any reasonable condition. You can cut your own stock and have a local welder stick it together for a few bucks. (I have a friend who does it at home in his spare time to pick up a few extra bucks.) On patterns I know I'll be using many, many times it's the logical long-term solution. I drill the holes in the stock as well, and have been known to drill the leather as well, something you have to experiment with before getting it right. (A very sharp bit is required I find.) I use 1/8th bar stock for those. Maybe overkill for most people, but it works for me, so I'm happy with it. Your mileage may vary.

Lowes. Home Depot, places like that. It's best to test the straight edge before buying it, btw. I find a 36" level and check for light gaps when they're butted together. Aluminum stock usually has a cleaner edge, but the weight of the steel stock helps keep the leather in place. A couple of quick grip clamps and it's not going anywhere anyway, however.

Will cowhide do? Tandy is selling cowhide rugs. I got this entire outfit from one of them. Posting link because it's a big pix. http://s691.photobuc...nt=DSCN0754.jpg

Bingo! I always use a roller blade for true vertical cut. If you get some 1/4" bar stock (~$6.00 for three feet) you can run the blade down that to guarantee it stays true.

$10.00 on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/Stitching-Horse-Leatherworking-Craft-Clamp-Pattern-/110640904135?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c2b637c7

Have you considered taking the Small Sissy Bar Bag pattern and altering it to make it a box?

Amazon has it from $15.37.

Frisket Film for transferring. Any experience, praise, warnings? (I am not connected with this company in any fashion. (Well, we're both on the tectonic plate, but otherwise...))

Depending on your budget you might consider buying a Workmate and making your own jaws to go into it. The Workmate would be available for other jobs as well. (I"m not connected to Black & Decker in any fashion.)

Thanks for the tips. I have a sheet of concentric circles in 1/2" increments, out to one foot in diameter. The maker's name got rubbed off years ago, before I inherited it.

Thanks! Amazon has a nice set for $33.63 US. I'll have to check out the surplus tool stores in this area for those.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. Have you experimented with using a lighter dye first, and then hitting it with random patches of a slightly darker dye?

Sometimes I get frustrated cutting that perfect circle. I know, I know, "practice makes perfect". I also know exactly how patient I can be. This is forced me to make some cheaters. First, drawing circles to make sure I'm starting with a circle. When a compass is impractical I use, for the smaller circles, washers. You get two circles with each washer, outside and inside, and they're cheap so you can buy a whole range of them. I keep them on a dowel rod I set in a piece of scrap plywood. It's easy to arrange them by size that way. I scanned the whole collection at once and made notes on inside and outside diameters, then numbered them. One look at my sheet and I know which washer I need, and IF I keep them in order I can get to the right one quickly. Bigger circles needed more work. I have scrap pieces of PVC piping that I've filed down to a sharp edge while watching TV. Two inches works for me. I put a PVC plug in the end and glued it in place. I can rap this on a piece of wet leather for a nicely marked circle. I've also used the metal from hose clamps to make odd sized circles. Cut off the screw mechanism and use a wire tie or two to keep it in place. If the circle is going to be used regularly I fashion a wooden insert to keep it round. Any other cheats out there?

Further thought on the CAD thing. Someone should develop a program that takes a picture of a hide and pictures of the items to be cut from that hide, and finds the best layout for cutting. Oh, and send me a copy free, please. I'm a pensioner so I would never be able to afford it.

One mod to the test patch thing. I've put up to five pieces of leather on a lid, each with an additional coat of dye. This allows me to see what the piece will look like with extra coats of color. And I'm using bouillon cube jars for the mixtures, I have a lot of them stashed just for this purpose. (And I love me some "bullshots", so I'll have to bravely gird my loins to get some more empties.)

Free stuff rocks! I just got a box of scrap from the St. Louis Tandy and I found enough material to make a thousand dollars worth of trinkets.

I want to make my own tool holder out of a piece of lumber from an old barn. It's a beautiful piece of wood, seasoned to a song and has interesting grain. So you can understand that I won't be hitting it with a drill lightly. Any experiences you'd care to share about this kind of thing?

I hit them regularly. I get poster board when it's on sale even if I don't need it right now. I found that I can glue a layer of paper to a pattern with spray glue and then cover that with scotch tape to save instructions and the name of the piece. It may get ratty after a while, but not so quickly that I can't replace it.

(Sorry if we've already got one of these, I'm fine with folding this into the existing one if it's there.) When I want to make sure a pattern is going to last a long time (not a "one off" for a special purpose) I used semi-transparent plastic (like "Plaid" from Simply Stencils). You can see through it to position the stencil on existing work and avoid bad spots very precisely. (I tend to color in bad spots with a black sharpie to make them more obvious.) For a semi-permanent pattern I use stiff paper and then layer it with transparent tape, the wide package tape is good for that. Any other suggestions?

Sorry folks, but the bust best suggestion so far has come back channel, to reduce a bikini top cup to the size I want. I replied asking why I had to reduce the currently popular ones at all?

I use a C-clamp all the time. I have yet to penetrate all the way through leather. The raised part of the stamp isn't as thick as the leather unless its really thin, so the base of the stamp hits the leather and stops it. I put a bit of paper under the leather before I clamp it so it doesn't stick to the table. That's usually not an issue if I wet the leather just before I clamp. If you get "chatter" when you stamp a C-clamp is a sure cure for that. And it's quiet, no hammering to be done.

I had to do the test patches as I'm not sure the batches will come out the same way twice. And anyway, I've come up with a couple of colors previously seen only in a H. P. Lovecraft story and naming them would be "challenging". BTW, my wife teaches corn squeezin'.

Allen, thanks! Some good ideas there!

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking three because I want to keep the center available for some kind of wolf-related image. (Spoils the effect for adults, enhances it kids.) The cuts would be on the ends of a "Y", with the strings coming off the arms of the Y, perhaps continuing around to be tied in back.