Ferg

Welcome Kayla, I grew up on a farm with most of the family staying with it. I had to laugh about the milking. My dad taught me to milk at the age of five years. He was milking 45 Guernsey's at the time, he cheated though, he used milkers I had to do it by hand. It is like riding a bike, you never forget how. As others have said, "Show us some of your work". BTW: I would also be glad to test some of your cookin- ferg

Boy! I like simplicity more all the time. Beautiful job. Great color and just the right choice on tooling. ferg

Excellent job all around. Did you use solvent based dye? Your brother will be proud to carry the knife and sheath. ferg

Tandy has one with an aluminum handle catalog number 3084-00 $39.99 if you are simply a walk-in. ferg

My wife would say I am not the one to give anyone else advice on this subject but here goes anyway. I have high blood pressure (corrected with cheap medication), over weight (I try to make sure I get all my veggies every week, french fries has to be one of them), Sugar corrected with cheap medication, and I have no cholesterol problems. I will soon be 77 years young. I love sweets, my wife is a fantastic baker and cook. BACON !!!!! never give it up. I have never smoked so that is a "non-consideration for me and I am a Tea-Totaller, don't drink and never have. I watch my salt intake, no problem, I seldom add salt to food after it is prepared, love black pepper, drink more than my share of Pepsi and orange juice. I have never drank caffeine free soda pop, I always thought you were supposed to use it for charging wet cell batteries. I can still outwork most people I know that are less than half my age, I love my life and my family and am looking forward to living to be 100 years old. Especially since my wife is twenty years younger than I. LOL LIVE IT UP BOYS and GIRLS!!! The politicians are tryin- to get it all and I won't let 'em. Have a great Weekend folks. ferg

Eric, There are many free tutorials noted on this forum and at Tandy's Web Site. I suggest you should look at those and download as many as you like, they are mostly PDF format. Great information and How To's and it is free. You can look at some of the "Pay" tutorials also of course. My .02 worth ferg PS: You have a good start on your Leather Worker Library, I have a bunch of them.

I guess strictly speaking it would be but in the case of the AWL, that is not true. Suppose you could call it a flat diamond ferg

Greg, Always keep this in your mind and heart. Never give up. Remember it is all "Pay Ahead". Good luck and have FUN! with your new toys ferg

My .02: You certainly do not need a laser to make holes, hand punches are relatively cheap. 5-7 oz. Leather for wallets and small items. 6-7 oz. for purses and notebook covers and items of that type. The heavier weight leathers are for holsters, saddles, tack, etc. 2-3 oz. Lining leathers. Vegetable tanned cowhide if you are going to do any tooling. Best all around part of the hide is the shoulders. You can buy Single (about 8 square feet) or Double Shoulders, (13 to 17 square feet) Tandy carries most anything you need for starters. One beginner kit is normally $200 on sale for $60. The very basic kit is normally $90 on sale for $30. Take your pick. ferg

Bobby, If you write a book I will be first in line to buy one so get over the "Writer's Block". LOL ferg

You are designing and making the art of leather for tomorrow. Thank you for sharing your talent, let us see many more. ferg

Hi Johanna, I had some leather sent to Greg Ditton from Tandy. I sent him an e-mail telling him he would be getting a package from them, not to refuse it. Obviously, he didn't read the mail. I think he returned it to Tandy. I cannot get in touch with him. Telephone is disconnected, it was a Land Line so maybe he is using a cell. If you have any way of contacting him and in all your spare time, LOL can you "push" a message to him that it was from me? Thanks a million ferg Marion Ferguson Name: Marion Ferguson UserName: 50 years leather IP Address: 64.56.112.27 Email Address: marion@donet.com

Greg, I forgot to tell you there are a lot of Tutorials on this forum for beginners and everything else. Good place to start. Your Goody box should get to you Monday or Tuesday. ferg

You are a true artist in every adjective I can think of. Your family must be very proud of you. Viewing what you do with art and leather is breathtaking. Some of us have a God given talent that flourishes with age, I hope I live long enough to see many more of your productions. ferg

I love it!!!!!!! ferg

As long as the item is not too big to fit into your mailbox at home or where ever, you can ship PriOrity. We haul shipments every day from September through January to the Post Office. We have an account with Endicia Buy postage electronically which is posted to our designated Credit Card account. I wrote a program for Any and all Mail over 13 oz. The Endicia software takes care of all first class plus International, we ship lots to Canada. We printout the labels for UPS and International. Our clients send us the mailing labels attached to each order, BUT !!! We do all the printing since we receive all orders via computer. I wrote a program to transfer most all orders we receive into Excel then into our Data base that I wrote also. Piece of cake We don't even bother with insurance or tracking with the Post Office, too much hassle. Yes, we ship larger packages via UPS. Our customers routinely receive their merchandise from Ohio to the West Coast in no more than 5 days via PriOrity Mail. ferg

Nice job. Might make the water a little more pastel. ferg

This forum and the other aspects of it stay real nice, friendly, and homey just as I suspect Johanna and Kate fit that description. PLEASE!!! Remove the "Human Leather" postings from the forum. That actually makes me very ill as I am sure others feel the same way. Name: Marion Ferguson UserName: 50 years leather IP Address: 64.56.112.27 Email Address: marion@donet.com

The UPS stores are traditionally higher than if you have an account with them. We used to ship thousands of items with them but they have gotten so high priced, we send 90% via the post office. They do not lose more than 4 or 5 a year out of 20,000, we just cover that. Still cheaper than UPS. ferg

A little too shiny for my taste. Is it your photo or is the lace loose in some spots? Cute design. ferg

I don't. ferg

IMHO Natural defects, as long as they aren't garish, tend to add charm and reality to a piece. I can get "0" defects with a piece of plastic. A bright light shown across the leather is most likely to show the imperfections when the leather is dry. ferg

I have a few duplicates I will share with you, if you do not already have them. PM me and I will let you know what I have. ferg

Well, I am considered a bad ---- by a few on the forum but I see what I see and I still think constructive criticism is one of the best teachers so here goes. You may have intentionally made the stitching holes large, I believe they should be smaller so the eye catches the stitch and not the "hole". On the inside shot of your wallet, right side top, is it your photo or are the lacing holes "whopper jawed" ? That description is compliments of my mom. Next time you photograph your projects, either lay them flat on a table or the floor so you can adjust your view to make the item appear "what it is" Just minor adjustments that I see. Practice, practice, practice, and keep hammering away. ferg

Only answer I can give for this... You need the cut done by the swivel knife to determine the depth of a nice clean bevel. Some instances will call for beveling without cutting, I don't think around letters is one of them in my book ferg