Beaverslayer

Nice work. I too would leave it the way it is, it looks very good and the gold numbers and hands will stand out nicely. I know a man that makes clocks like that. What he does is takes a "Dream Catcher" ring, and does real fancy bead work around the ring, and turns the clock into a dreamcatcher as well. I wish I had taken pictures of his work, but I never thought of it at the time. There are some real pretty beads that you can buy to make the outer ring look wonderful...and GREEN. Again, very nice work. Ken

Welcome Kathy, Great to have you here. You do some awesome work by the way. Just for curiosities sake, what's a Yak Hitman cost these days? Ken

Those look real good. One day I'm going to have to dive in and make a set of those. Keep up the good work Ken

hey Freak, Thanks for the compliment. As to the cowboy hat, I only make the Australian style, and they don't really appeal to me that much. So far I have'nt gotten any requests or inquiries about any other type of cowboy hat.

Have a Happy, Healthy, and wondeful Birthday Major....all the best

Thanks Candyleather, If you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask, I will be more than happy to help. If we can't share our experience, talent, and knowledge...whats the use of having it in the first place. I am not the only one here on this forum that will give of there time and knowledge...I have read so many threads that are so informative. Some of them must have taken hours to type. Again, any questions...just ask. I'm here to help if you need it. Ken

Beeza, No I don't use a book. I have in the past read a few just to get the general idea and the way to start a pattern (such as double cordovan) but I will usually just get an idea and try it on a piece of poster board that I punch holes into. This way I can see what needs to be changed or added to make it look like what I want. On some of the vests I have gone all the way to using 11 thongs to make a weave pattern that covers the shoulders, I have also done this on a few hats, but it makes the hat a bit heavy on the head. If you want, and you have an idea of what you are looking for, let me know and I'll do my best to make you a pattern and some instructions as to how to lace it.

Candyleather, Here's a few pics showing the underside, and the pieces required to make the hat. The lining is made from nylon mesh, and it is glued to each piece (just along the edges) before construction begins. Again even the lining is from scraps of the lining I use in my vests. You can see the Python skin that will be added as an accent to this hat. Using your imagination you can add so many different things to make the hat extremely original. In these two pics, you see the underside and the way the lining and lacing look. The strips that are used on the lace seams is a pigskin suede, and are cut into strips 1/2" wide. This is then glued to the seam, and combined with the lacing, makes a very strong seam. The brim is attached by glueing the edge of the brim to the edge of the hat, then I glue a strip of pigskin on the underside to add strength. The piece of pigskin that covers the underside of the brim is cut big enough to carry over into the sweatband area of the hat, and is only glued to the sweatband area, until later. This enables me to hide one row of the backside of the lace, to keep it from being visible on the underside of the brim. I then lace the brim to the hat. Once this is done, the pigskin brim liner is glued down to the underside of the brim. At this point I stretch the pigskin as I glue it creating a spring like tension to it. this keeps the brim in a curled state. Then it's onto all the other seam lacing and edge lacing, and before you know it....you have a leather hat from scraps.

Candyleather, Thanks for the compliment on the hats. The brims are made from 5oz veg tan or oak leaf leather (depending on what scaps are laying around that day). I cut out the shape I need, then soak the piece in hot water for a few minutes. Then I will roll it into a curl, and tie it up with a soft piece of pigskin (this leaves no marks or dents in the edges). Then once it has dried, I untie it and it will fold out to almost the exact shape I want. If it needs adjusting It's just like a normal ballcap, you just roll and curl it, and it keeps it's shape. When it's time to assemble the hat, depending on the style and type, I will cover the topside with whatever leather the main hat is made from. I will lightly sand (with emory paper) the finished side of the leather brim, and then glue the cove and brim leather together. I use a contact cement that is used to make aborite counter tops. It works exceptionally well, and is also water proof. The underside of the brim is covered in a pigskin suede, and again it is glued to the brim, as well as the inside of the hat. The lacing holds it all together. The real nice thing about the hats is that, after making a vest, I always had all this scrap left over. Well as we all know scraps are not really scrap, so I took an old hat apart, made a pattern of the pieces, and now I make about 200 hats a year from scraps. The only thing that is a real cost is tha lace. But as I cut my own, it's much cheaper. I will post a few picks of the inside, and you can see to some degree how they are constructed. If anyone is interested I can try to do an instructional thread on how to make hats with scraps. Ken

Beeza, The lacing on the black brim is done with 5 thongs. It is just a basic weave pattern (over-under-over-under) then through the hole. The laceing on the seams is again just a basic 1 thong weave. I have done some hats that have had extensive lacing on them. One that I'm sorry I never took pics of, had suede flames laced into it, and had close to 150 feet of 1/16" lace on itIt took forever to just to punch all the holes required to lace it. Thanks for the compliments. Ken

Welcome there busted, Thats some nice work there.

Hi All, Here's pics of a couple of hats I just finished up. The white one is made from Bridal Gown Deerskin, and the black one is cowhide.

Hi Bill, You should not have any problems with a wide screen. Personally I wouldn't go bigger than a 19" as the 21 and 23 inch ones are very big and kinda hard on the eyes. I had a 23" and had to sell it to my friend and go to the 19" as it was to big and to close to my eyes for such large images...it looked real nice but to big. But as to working on your computer, I see no problems with what you have, the monitor should come with a disk that has all the proper drivers for it to run on XP. Ken

No Johanna I don't kill beavers. It's just a catchy name that came up in a conversation one day, and I thought it would work for the business name. So far I've had a lot of comments on the name...mostly good ones. And that would be great if you got me into your links page...I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks Ken

Well that's about one of the coolest things I've seen made from leather. Very nice....

Yes Dave, that's my biggest problem as well. My fingers are old and maybe a bit arthritic, so stretching the leather is VERY hard to do. I really like the way your seat looks on the underside, a VERY proffessional look to them. As for the lacing time, I lace a basket weave at about 28 inches an hour, and the double cordovan at about 19 inches an hour. I always time myself so as when I have to quote the cost to a customer, I am able to figure the time it will take faily accurately. And again...BEAUTIFUL work. Ken

Works great in IE and looks real good as well.

Dave, Thanks...I am very impressed, that is beautiful work, and iy seems like it would be so much easier to do than stretching the leather over the pan. I've done a few seats, but in NO WAY are they anywhere to what you do. Ken

Hi Dave, That is one BEAUTIFUL seat. I'm impressed beyond words.The laceing is extremely neat as well, and I love the way you finnish the underside with that extra touch of lace. Can you let me know your secret for lacing the edge aroud the seat, I'm pretty sure you don't stretch the leather over the pan but lace the edge as a complete ubit so to speak. How hard is it to line up your holes, and do you have to make your top piece a bit smaller to get the leather to stretch? Inquiring minds you know. Ken

Hello Decker, Welcome...funny how two Albertans could find this place a day apart. As myself I know you will enjoy the people here. Ken

Hello, This company is from Calgary where i live and work, they have some leathers made from fish of all kinds. They also make golf gloves from it. http://www.sealeatherwear.com/?azx=1016

Hi wolvenstien, I'm new here but I do know a bit about making hats out of leather. Being Canadian I'm not sure what a Kepi is but I believe it to be like a civil war rebel hat. Anyways, here's a few pics of a rebel style biker hat that I make. If you need a pattern for this or any other of my hats....check out www.beaverslayer.com I'd be more than happy to e-mail you them. Also with easy to follow instructions. Best Regards Ken

Hey Gremlin, How have you been? I just found this place myself and it's a great place. Welcome P.S. Thanks for the Link again, I get quite a few hits from your website.

Hello all and Thanks for all the warm welcomes. Heres some more pics, as you have all siad you like pics. Let me know what you think, and as I siad before, I can take critisisum...I just can't spell it. The flames on the one black vest are Python skin, and are all laced into the vest. As with all my work I don't use a sewing machine at all, even the linings are hand laced into each vest or hat. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Hi Kate, Thanks for the warm welcome. The hat is from my head, I took a normal baseball cap and cut it all up into pieces, then took each piece and made them into a little different shape. Once it was all laced together, thats what came out. Thanks Alex, I know what you mean about sore hands. Some of my vests take 50 to 60 hours just to lace, but it is so relaxing to just sit and lace. I'll post some more pics of my more elaborate ones and you can see what really makes a hand sore. Thanks again for the warm welcome Thanks for the warm welcome "Major" ....I stood and saluted as I typed that..... I'm glad to see that you all like my work, and am even more glad that after so many years on the net I.ve found this place...glad to be here. Thanks for the warm welcome Don, I'm really glad to be here. And thanks for the compliment on the vest.