Bob Blea

Nice work Mike! It really is outstanding.

I don't have a good idea on what to charge either, but it looks really good so make sure you charge enough to make it worth your time. That is a really professional looking bag! Bob

Thanks all for the compliments! Papadanny, yes when I lace the corners I pass through the three corners slits twice. Also, I round the corner so it looks smoother and rounded. Bob

Thanks Rosiart! He makes a couple of different fillers now and he's making different kinds of shell tools too, so I've been getting them to make different combinations. I even got one that I think Barry said was a filler but it kind of looks like a border stamp. Looks nice too.

Thanks Tom! The geometrics are two Barry King tools. The outside part that kind of looks like two veiners he calls a seashell tool ( I think it's the larger size he makes) and then there is a inner part called a filler that looks like a dot with little rays coming from it. They've been a fantastic investment because I keep getting custom order requests for that design. Bob

Redochre, it would normally take around 8 hours to make something like this. About half of that is lacing because I'm not very fast at lacing. With this one I probably had a couple of extra hours just making sure I could make it. She had very specific dimensions she wanted, and the height isn't much more than the height of the notebook. I actually mocked up a panel with lacing to make sure it would all fit within the cover before I committed to making it. Thanks Jack for the compliment! I keep trying to get better. Bob

Hi all, Here's something I finished recently. It was for a repeat customer. She wanted a notebook that could hold two 3x5 spiral notebooks but still be small enough to fit into her shirt pocket. And, it needed a floral carved cover. This was the end result. She was thrilled with it. Thanks for looking! Bob

Looks great Mike! I've participated in most of the classes you've had already and they are great. I'm already looking forward to the next Bob Beard class. Bob

I can see doing this with a wash of white acrylic paint, which you then wipe off the raised areas just like when you antique a carving. It probably wouldn't look waxy though.

I wouldn't be concerned with losing customers due to anti-animal product feelings. The real challenge you will face will be establishing yourself in the marketplace. As with any new business, you will struggle at first to achieve recognition in the market and find buyers for your product. As DavidL said, there is a lot of competition out there already, from the craft show level up to the Internet and even major retailers, depending on your product. Your biggest challenge will be getting attention in that crowd.

I'm Bob, and I sneak into my shop at night while the rest of the family is asleep so I can work on leather.

I've got another I can add. I recently was in a class and didn't have a weight to hold my leather down. I found out that the silicon case on my iPod touch did an excellent job holding the small piece of leather I was tooling in place. It wasn't that it was heavy (it isn't) but the silicon did such a good job sticking to both my tooling stone and my leather that it didn't move. It was better than the small shot bag I normally use.

Hi Twisted, The thickness of the leather isn't the only consideration though. The leather will have different stiffness and stretchiness depending on what part of the cow it comes from. Areas like the back are very firm and won't stretch much, so they are typically where you will make belts and straps from. Areas like the neck or the belly are more flexible because that part of the animal flexed more during it's life, so they are more stretchy and wouldn't make good belts, but they would work well for a bag or notebook cover. So you will want to take into account what your item will be used for to determine what part of the hide is appropriate. Hope this helps, Bob

To answer the other part of your question, I have stripped the resist off an antiqued project by using denatured alcohol and lightly scrubbing. My resist was Wyosheen (basically Neat Lac or Clear Lac) but it should work with RTC as well. Hope this helps, Bob

I think the technical term for it's cross section is a rhombus (because I just helped one of my sons with his homework on polygons.) It's a diamond shape where all four sides are the same length but the angles are not right angles, at least in this case. I don't think a diamond awl must have the four equal sides, but looking at mine just eyeballing it, it kind of looks like it does.

Looks like veg tan to me. There are probably a lot of small projects you could make out of all that, or maybe just a lot of practice pieces. Either way it looks like a great deal. Bob

I would recommend againts a design where you have to carve across the fold on the wallet. The grain of the leather is the strongest part and if you cut through it with a swivel knife you are weaking the leather at that point. All the flexing across that fold will open up the cut and probably reduce the lifetime of the leather. At least that is what I was taught. Also, your right that when you fold it you are going to loose a lot of the definition in your carving. Bob

Thanks for sharing Hunio. It's always great to see your work!

That is cool! Glad you were able to find one and thanks for sharing. Bob

Congratulations Steve! That is a great accomplishment for any business! Hope to be a customer of yours someday. Bob

Hello Leatherworshiper, and welcome to the forum. I have a leather hat that was made in Austrialia, though I'm not sure the design would be called an outback hat. I believe it is made from black latigo leather. hope this helps, Bob

I would think smaller items, the sort of thing that can be purchased more as an impulse buy. Key fobs, hair barettes, etc. If you make wallets or small purses, that might do well. At the craft fairs I have been at, the primary customers are women, so often you want items that will appeal to them either for their use or as a gift. Bob

Try going directly to Jeremiah Watts site: http://www.ranch2arena.com/hsbtintro.html. His stamps are sold under the Horseshoe brand. Bruce said this tool doesn't show up there but you might be able to contact him and see if he can make you one.

It depends on how detailed of carvings you are planning on doing, but for regular floral carving that might be a bit too small, just in my opinion. I would want the next size up from that. Bob

I was once given advice to start with the larger blades and become proficient with them, and then work into using the thinner, smaller blades and angled blades. The reasoning was that by learning to use the larger blade well you will develop good techniques. The other blades (I think he was mainly speaking about angled blades) could let you develop poor technique and cover it up because of the design of the blade. I have a BK knife with the 3/8 thick blade and I think it's comparable to the Tandy knife. Bob