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Great idea bladegrinder. Thanks for sharing. A question. What diameter and length of pvc pipe did you use for the leg extensions? I have the same issues and this may solve it for me. Thanks.

Awesome. Thanks sparctek.

Hi. Is there a formula to adjusting a swivel knife for proper fit? I never know if my knife from blade to yokei s adjusted right. Thanks.

Great. Thank you for your help. Book has been ordered. Have a great day and God Bless.

Hello. I have been asked to do a bible cover for a LARGE bible. I have never built a bible cover. They want a zippered cover so that will be new too. Any advice on making one of these? How much extra do you allow when you rough out the leather and what is ideal for a finished cover? How much extra do I need to allow for adding a zipper? How do you figure out the size of the rough out for the bible? I realize these are a bunch of questions. Any help would be appreciated. If there is a good instruction book to do this, please let me know. Thanks. Jon

Thanks for the responses. I appreciate them. Akube, beautiful work!! I'm getting back into fly fishing and thought this type of leather gear would be fun. I plan to attend the Denver Fly Show this Friday, the 11th. I'd love to stop by, say hello and take a look at your excellent work. If you let me know your booth number, I'll look you up. If you wish, you can pm me if that works better. Thank you again for your responses and sharing your work.

Good evening folks. I am wanting to do leather fly rod tube covers. I would be using a pvc tube. The cover and ends would be leather. I'm trying to figure out a few things and thought I would post here for help. For my questions, I was thinking of using 4-5 oz leather as I want to carve and tool the leather. Is this too heavy? Another question is how to do the seam where the cover material meets on the tube. Does the leather need to be cut very precise for a clean joint or is there another way to do this? Sewing this joint would be great but I have no idea how to do something like that. I've looked for info through Google and youtube but there's not much out there. Any help or advise you could provide would be much appreciate. Thank you all in advance.

Just to add my 0.02 here but I tried tooling after wet molding a large cellphone case. Total disaster but that may be because my carving skills are not great. When I carved and tooled another piece before I wet moulded it, it turned out much better. I only had slight stretch to the pattern. You may have to try each way to see which works better for your projects.

Hi. I was just thinking lately about how interests can change with time and, as a empty nester, how has that changed my interests in life. I'm 62 and wanting to devote much more time now to my leather work. Am I getting into this wonderful craft too late? No interest in a brick and mortar shop but, if all goes well, etsy? leather work is an amazing craft. Anyone out there getting started later in life? Thanks all. Any responses appreciated. Best to you and be safe.

Good Morning. My hardwood contact cement is about out. I will need to purchase more and have considered the water based types of glues. What experience have you had with them and how well do they work. Thank you for any responses.

Thanks for your responses. I think that info answers what I needed. Have a nice Christmas holiday.

Good Morning folks. I am contemplating adding conchos on a belt I am going to make but I need some advise to be sure I do this right. My questions are these. First, how do you locate that first concho and space the rest and Second, do you tool the belt first and place the conchos, or add the conchos first and tool up to and/or around them? Thanks very much in advance for any responses.

I sent you a pm as well. Thanks.

Please add me as well. Thanks you.

Oops - I meant woodworkers! All thumbs.

Hi. Just curious how many leathercrafters are also woodpeckers?

Thanks very much to all who offered comments. All good advise and thoughts for sure. This is why this is such an awesome forum. I will take the motivation received from the insight here and march ahead. Thanks again.

I was reading a post not too far back under the Marketing and Advertising thread about starting your business. One of the comments made was "Talent and what you do with what you have is where it's at" caused me to ponder this statement a bit and the reason for this post. I have often wondered if "talent" is a case where either you have it or you don't at least in the world of leather crafting. Is a drive and passion to learn the craft enough to make up for any lack of talent is or talent something that is fine tuned as you use any skills you may have? It seems some folks have a natural ability to do certain things but can talent be a learned attribute or is it just merely developing your skills without a "natural talent"? Is talent something that comes from developing your skills? I have always felt that if you want to learn something and have drive to do it, you can make up for any lack of talent this way. Am I wrong? Thanks.

I recently did a belt. I used antique as the dye and treated and edge coated the finished belt. I am being told at my local tandy shop to apply a top finish on both sides of the belt to get oils back into the belt and help protect it. Of course they recommend tandy products. So,my questions are: do I need to do this and if so, what other products could someone recommend besides tandy products. I have seen some talk about rtc but what others can be used? Thanks

What other products will work as a top finish other that this cream?

Thanks Joe. Do you treat both sides of the leather of just the flesh side? How many coats do you apply? Thanks for responding to my questions. I ma farily new to this and want to do it right the first ime if I can.

Good Morning All, I recently finished tooling and finishing a belt. It has an antique finish. I buffed the daylights out of it and there is no residual finish coming off now. My question: Do I need to apply neatfoot oil or similar to help restoe the belts flexibility and softness. Its a 1 1/2 inch blank that I used. The edges are finished with water and then canvas to finish off the edges. What products would you recommend to finish off hte belt? Thanks very much for your help.

Just to add an idea, I have found that a trip around the bevel with a modeling spoon smooth's it out very nicely. Just a thought.

Thanks twinoaks. Good advise. I'll give that a try.

hey folks. Trying to get some ideas of what kinds of designs are out there for makers stamps. Is there a website that has samples pictures? Any ideas would be very helpful. thanks folks in advance. Jon