Ferg

Very nice and unique. Great design on the vase. Should give you very good "eye candy". ferg

Greetings Kai, There is a lot of information on this site for you to absorb along with some fine folks that like to help. ferg

Welcome Kai, The closest Tandy Leather store to Naples is in Tampa, that is site far north of Naples on the west coast. Someone else may know of another tool outlet closer. ferg

You done a great job on the strap. Definitely good job on the Basket Weave. Nice to see a piece of music history including one of the greatest guitar aficionados mentioned. Great job Jon ferg

Rita Hayworth was over 60 years old when the song “Stayin’ Alive” was released by the Bee Gees in 1977 and used for the movie “Saturday Night Fever”. So the clips in this video were dubbed to the music. Excellent job of editing! ferg

I have never made a holster from any leather. I have made a number of things from horsehide. Personally, I think it is one of the most beautiful leathers available today. Yeah, I love to "feel" it, just caress that fabulous looking product. After all, it comes from one of natures most beautiful animals. ferg So does anyone have any experience with this stuff? Is this what they call "soft-rolled" horsehide? Anyone have experience making holsters from it? tk

Everyone doing a craft or any other work for pleasure or income, has things they don't like to do. I personally am an R&D person. Once I have figured out how to do something it becomes boring to me. Ask my wife. I love Leather Crafting. We also have a full time business that has nothing to do with leather. During the Christmas season we work 14 hour days, seven days a week. I also grow, in my greenhouse, about 2500 to 3000 flowers for our yard plus another 1500 or so perennials. I have a garden over 1/2 an acre and other than mowing our yard I mow five acres of open field. Our home is log, there are things to look after every year. I am supposed to be retired. LOL We have four grown children with seven grandkids and a dog. I do some photography, dabble in computer programming, and repair all of our computers and CNC machinery. I still have time for the leather although admittedly not as much time as I would like. I began leather crafting some 50 plus years ago, I am still learning every day/ That is what keeps me interested and going to the next project. ferg

drtom, I guess you weren't looking for a critique, Sorry, I couldn't resist. ferg

Boy! the things folks find to "Yammer" about. Get a life guys! You don't have to read it! whole site. NOTICE!!!!!! I deleted your, almost entire post. Is that better? LOL ferg

That little arbor press at Harbor Freight was made for this job. It will make a perfect impression every time with little or no effort on your part. ferg

Here is agent in USA: MILFORD ENTERPRISES INC Dix Hills (New York) Tel 1631 3920742 Fax 1631 8249354 email: michellea@milfordenterprises.com The company site has an English translation for at least a portion of the site. Some real nice "stuff". ferg

I don't think the image you selected is bad, it is your rendering of it. With this type of image I think you should ease up on your tooling and modeling, it is distracting from what you are trying to do. If you want to "catch" the image as in the pic, you need to use Neatlac, or similar, as a resist. Apply it with a good quality brush to all the areas you want to stay white. Allow your first coat to dry completely then brush on another coat. Don't apply so it is too heavy. Nice light coats are better. Make sure the resist is very dry. Now, apply your paste dye. Allow it to dry just a tad more than normal before wiping. When you get the desired effect seal with at least two coats of finish of your choice. I believe you will be surprised at how great it looks in comparison to what you done with the first try. ferg

First thing I have done? I have bought two sewing machines. My old hands and fingers just won't take the strain from hand stitching. I still love the look of a great hand stitching job. The time element involved with some stitching will slow your ability to make "time". Make patterns. ferg

I have a video of manufacturing prestigious women's purses. The man cutting the parts is cutting with a knife that is similar but different. I would like to have one. They go around their pattern, which appears to be heavy but flexible by the way, as though they are cutting warm butter. ferg

I have an issue of that book that is probably just about as old. I would have bought about 1956 or so. Mine is in better shape than yours. LOL ferg

You might consider making the cross look like wood. To background those large areas you need the largest tool you can find of a "Subtle" texture. Don't get carried away with the depth of the texture. ferg

Art, Are these machines, like "dirtclod's" , configured so you can use feed dogs with them? ferg

I have a 206RB-5. You aren't going to sew i/2" with these machines. Three eighths is max. ferg

Ray, You might want to check Harbor Freight for their press with the hydraulic jack. It would give you more surface and pressure. May also help with the impairments you have. ferg

Probably could if you only wanted Concho size pieces. There isn't enough surface for a good clicker. Weaver has a hand operated clicker, very expensive I think, may work fine. ferg

You need a drill press and a good material clamp so you can hold onto the Ram. I made the hole just deep enough so the stamps and snap hardware would be about 1/3 the length of the tool handle. Remember, you also need a threaded hole and a thumb screw to hold the tool in place. I used mine for snaps. It is easy to clamp the snap button too tight. Takes a little practice, beats that mallet. ferg

I am going to show my stupidity here but I do not know what you use this blade for. Can I assume that it is used to cut straps more accurately than a draw knife? Fill me in please. LOL ferg

I hope you can get your stamps made but from what I know you aren't going to get them made for a couple dollars per stamp. think about that for a minute, you couldn't even buy the metal for that???? Your best bet would be a Chinese company, there are certainly some around. Good luck ferg

Wait until your leather has dried enough for carving, then apply the tape. If you follow the correct way of casing your leather, sponging a little on top will show you how bad an idea this is. You need to immerse the leather in tepid water until you see no bubbles rising from it. If you place the wetted piece between glass or plexiglass and leave it for more than 24 hours you can expect to see some mildew form. After wetting the leather, I wrap it in an old T-shirt or something of that nature so you don't transfer any texture. Leave it over night, remove from wrap, allow to dry correctly, carve. If you do your carving in the correct steps everything works great. If your piece is too large to finish in one session wrap it in Saran Wrap or place between two layers of glass to retain moisture. When you rewet leather to finish your tooling you will likely lose some of your depth of previously finished work. I may spritz a little water or use the sponge if the leather is getting too dry to work but only after it was initially cased. When using the glass burnisher you are making the fibers of the leather move closer, it stretches very little unless you are pressing too hard. Move the burnisher in one direction if possible. ferg

I cannot stretch the horse hide strip with my hands. If you were tugging on a horse or something of that sort it might be another story. I did not wet the leather, it may stretch some if it got wet. ferg