Jump to content

Bob Blea

Contributing Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,771

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Bob Blea

  1. Bob Blea
    Hello Eberk, I don't think you could go wrong starting with Barry King tools. Whether you are looking for bevellers for floral work or basketweaves and geometrics he has much higher quality than what you currently have (in my opinion anyway) and the prices aren't that much more than the Tandy Pro-series prices. Bob
  2. Bob Blea
    I think it looks pretty good. It looks like you've got the moisture content of your leather right because you are getting good burnishing. I agree with corkscrew about sharpening your knife and practicing making smooth cuts. That will help you. Also, learning to walk a beveller takes time and gluing the project down will help hold it still, but even on larger projects it will still take practice to get a smooth bevel. Great effort for a first project though! Welcome to the forum. Bob
  3. Bob Blea
    Fantastic work!
  4. Bob Blea
    Here's my opinion from an artistic standpoint: I think it depends on the look you are trying to achieve with your work. How do you intend to finish this piece? Will you be dying the flowers and vines? If there is some color or dye that will help to make the vinework and flowers stand out from the background of the piece, you would probably be OK leaving the background areas alone. The background tool is usually used to help offset the floral carving from the rest of the leather especially when using antiques. There are techniques like inverted carving when you leave the 'background' areas natural or un-tooled. However, usually people dye the tooled areas to make them stand out. We're it me I would matte those areas down with something to get contrast between my floral carving and the rest of the piece. It would give more dimension and depth to your piece and for most potential customers that would translate to more eye appeal. However, if you are going for something more historically accurate (and that is your target market) then a non-backgrounded piece might make more sense. Just my two cents, Bob
  5. Bob Blea
    Thank you gentlemen. I'm looking forward to making another one with conchos.
  6. Bob Blea
    This was a Christmas present ordered by the head instructor at my Karate school, so I did have some pressure to get this one right😀 It is a clutch wallet and he wanted a dark color with bright conchos. We came up with using the conchos for flower centers. He was thrilled with how it turned out.
  7. Bob Blea
    It's not uncommon to make a belt out of only a single layer of leather with no lining. That kind of belt effectively has a suede back because the flesh side is toward the body. The belt I'm currently wearing has been my daily wear belt for over a decade and it's burnished the flesh side a bit but it still holds in place very well. Never felt the need to roughen up the flesh side either, it holds by friction just fine.
  8. Bob Blea
    Dougster, as someone who has been working directly with customer's in various roles over the past 25 years, I will emphatically state that the way the manager handled this was TERRIBLE! I've found most people would be just like you and are happy to work things out so that things are fair to all parties. To even things out behind your back (which is kind of what they did) is just wrong.
  9. Bob Blea
    Nice work Chief! That is a lot to get finished. Congratulations on having your Christmas orders out the door. I still have a purse and a clutch wallet that will probably take me all the way up until Christmas to finish.
  10. Bob Blea
    Moisture content is a tough thing to learn without being able to see and feel a properly cased piece of leather that someone else has done. You're kind of left to trial and error to find out what works right for you and the environment you tool in. It will take a lot longer for the leather to reach the right moisture if you live in a humid place versus a very dry place like where I live. Your best bet is to try some scrap pieces, moisten them and then let them dry until the color has almost returned to what it was before you got the leather wet. They try using that basket stamp on it. If it's right you should see burnishing, or a significant darkening of the leather, when you stamp it. If you don't and the leather is very pliable or mushy, it's still too wet. If the leather doesn't take the impression, seems hard to move or doesn't burnish it's probably too dry. I find I'm still tooling me leather when it's too wet because I get impatient, and I think that is the most common problem. Try with the scraps and stamp it when you think it's right, see what results you get, then wait another 20-30 minutes and try again. You might be surprised at the results you get waiting a little longer.
  11. Bob Blea
    Thanks Monica. It's a Wayne Jueschke stamp.
  12. Bob Blea

    Brolly Strap

    Bob Blea replied to Django57's topic in Art

    :spoton:Thanks Django, that's what I was assuming but I wasn't sure!
  13. Bob Blea
    First off welcome to the forum! You are off to a nice start! Your basket stamping looks very even and straight, you're doing a good job there. You don't seem to be getting a lot of depth though in either the basket stamp or the floral carving. I'm not sure why, though it may be that your leather was too dry or it may be that you aren't striking with enough force. How firm and steady is the table or surface that you are stamping on? A strong table or workbench might help cut down on the noise too... Hope this helps, Bob
  14. Bob Blea
    Very nice job on the lettering, and I like the fabric interior too.
  15. Bob Blea
    They do look nice. Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum! I'd like to see the interior too. Bob
  16. Bob Blea
    Sorry it took a while to get back to you. Been away from my computer. Try this thread: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=60483 It covers a lot of information about this type of pocket. Bob
  17. Bob Blea
    You've got the right idea. I cut the line for the ferns stem with a swivel knife, then bevel the inside of curve of the knife cuts. I then go around the edge with a crowner, which is like a checkered camouflage tool (and I cam will work for this too). That's what makes the tips of each leaf. Then I go along the cut line with the cam to create the other side of the fern's stem. Next, I use a thumprint or shader (just depends on what you have or call them, either will work) in each scallop created by the crowner, and I finish it up by using the veiner along the beveled areas. Does that make sense? Bob
  18. Bob Blea

    Brolly Strap

    Bob Blea replied to Django57's topic in Art

    OK I'll ask: what exactly is a brolly strap? Does it just keep the umbrella closed or can you hook it to something, as in a belt clip?
  19. Bob Blea
    Thanks all for the kind comments! Hi Capsetdog, I apologize for taking so long to get back to you. This fern design originally came from saddle makers back in the late 1800's. Apparently some saddle shops in the Texas area started doing it as a quick way to decorate saddles. I originally learned it from saddle maker Dusty Johnson, who told me he found an old saddle with the design in a museum and worked out how they did it. Dusty wrote an article for the Leather Crafters and Saddlemakers Journal sometime in the 1990's that described how to make the design, but it's pretty straight forward, I'm just not sure I can describe it without lots of pictures! All I did was learn to make the design with smaller tools so it would fit on small items like a wallet. Bob
  20. Bob Blea
    Here's something else I just finished recently. It's a clutch wallet with a stamped fern design on the front and a geometric design on the back. The edges are triple loop dark brown calf lace and the interior is a thin glazed goat skin. There are five credit card pockets on each side, each pocket can easily hold three cards, and under the card pockets there are pockets to hold bills, notes, etc. The lining behind the card pockets is black pigskin. Any comments or critique are welcome! Bob
  21. Bob Blea
    I use Wyosheen and have never had a reason to thin it. But I'm applying it by rubbing it on with a piece of wool. If you are trying to airbrush it on that might be a different story.
  22. Bob Blea
    I've got a question: Would the belly leather make a good lining for a holster? If it was glued to a firm outer layer with the grain side towards the firearm, seems like it would make a good lining and stretch wouldn't be a problem.
  23. Bob Blea
    Hi LederRudi, I know what you mean. I've had problems like that on occasion though in my case it's usually my resist not 'resisting' enough and I end up with streaks. I've had to remake things a few times too, though I may finally be getting my technique down to where that doesn't happen (I HOPE!). But I guess I'm still impenitent. Your case looked really nice, to bad you had to remake it! Bob
  24. Bob Blea
    Very nice work indeed! Welcome to the forum and keep posting!
  25. Bob Blea
    Really like these too!
×
×
  • Create New...