Capnclive

Cumberland, I found a control cable pully for airplanes at aircraftspruce.com for $8. I appears to be made of some sort of Micarta (fiber impregnated with a resin). It can be used by hand or on a drill. They come in all sorts of diameters and thicknesses. I have tried all sorts of other things, wood, plastic wheel, deer antler, and canvas. I like this best. I use some canvas sometimes afterwards because some leather just doesn't want to get slick.

I found an old jar of antique, (the dangerous kind), and it works so much better than the new. Does anyone know a recipe for the old style antique finish? I promise not to eat it. I'm just not a real risk taker I guess. (or that stupid)

Neat ideas. Thanks. I am going to try to use it as a clicker and see how bad it burns the edges of the leather. I am also going to use it to cut out (in 1/16th inch plastic) a couple of tracing patterns to use for key chain holders and other small items. I have some made with a scroll saw, but they are not very symmetrical due to my drawing skills. I can do better with cad or illustrator and a laser cutter.....

While at my son's industrial modeling shop today, I asked if the laser machine would cut or print on leather. The answer was "let's try it". Naturally I didn't have any leather with me so I took off my old belt that I made 20 plus years ago and stuck it in the machine. We didn't have enough time to look up a cool font, out doors-ey or cowboy-ish, and they were just doing me a favor. So without much planning or thought, we just pushed the green button and away it went. It came out upside down on the belt, (oh well) and it is a little too formal looking for my taste, but I can see some possibilities here. It looks like a tiny random camouflage backgrounder was used - kinda pretty, but the lines are far too perfect. Notice a darker area at the top of the belt, and just above the letters. The laser burns the leather, and the suction fan was pulling the flame up toward the top side of the belt scorching it a little. I was wondering if any of you have used a laser engraving machine to put patterns on the surface of leather or to cut shapes with it?

I have sat here all afternoon reading this thread. Very interesting and very creative thinking. I want to add my 2 cents. I am a mediocre leather guy and a zero metal guy. I have a friend who makes knives and is a ninja with metal. He actually has achieved the highest level of knife making there is in the knife making guild. His name is Ed Halligan. He made a little forge that would do real well for some of this heating and cooling of metal. He called it his Bean-o-matic Propane Forge. It is made from a bean can, and he used it sometimes to heat small amounts of steel to fold for making Damascus blades for his small knives. Here is the web site for making the thing. http://www.anvilfire...ges/Beancan.htm Let us know how it works.