troy

Cheers for that link hivemind, I've just emailed roy at tandy in UK to see when they might get them - of course doing a quick count from the article leatherworks gave, I may need about 10 - 15 sets for chest armour but after my experiance with sole leather, it beats cutting it your self.

Got most of it finished today and managed to do a first fit and found a few places where things could be tidied up some but generally it looks similar to what I have imagined.

What grass - all I can see from my luxory cabin is golden sand, blue sea and a clear sky, OOh for rain, some thing I dearly miss!!!!! Plus hate to plug, but I must - the quiver's for sale on ebay here.

Just made another of these quiver, something that was popular a few years back. and heres a link to the tutorial I made for it - 2mb - http://blog.mtn-m.co.uk/__oneclick_uploads...back-quiver.pdf. and while I'm at it, might as well show the last two quivers - might interest the shooters in us!

cheers for your comment ray. Not seen those scale armor bit yet but I made the one's above moulded around old leather dye bottles with pencils stuck in odd places to create their shape - only the high tech stuff for me I'm afraid!!!!! As for finishing the backs - well.......have not really thought that far yet, just keen to get the d**m thing finished before my son has another growing spurt. Boots are next and last and should be the most fun seeing as I have no clue what I'm doing. Paul

Hi King X and again UKray got in there first, but I don't tyhink that the pattern book I have is a doodle book, it is one of the two peter main wrote. Paul

Don't mean to step on the toes of the last dye thread but just thought I'd pass on some info - for some reason tandy have to pay extra to ship/post dyes and glues - any thing I guess that might remotley make you happy upon smelling - Luckily Le prevo in newcastle u tyne do not have this problem as yet, with the extra postage so you can still use them for the proffessional dyes etc. as for glue's I now use evo-stik epoxy and adhesive cleaner to thin it with. As for tandy in general - if it was'nt for them I would of not been able to ruin as much leather as I have and continue to especially now that they have opened a store here in the UK - one day I hope to get to texas and see their main store in fort worth and actually see for real all of al stohlmans great work, plus obviously the stock yards, the 'dallas' ranch and the john wayne museum......but thats another dream and totally off the subject. Paul

Hi Folks Got; the al and ann stohlman pattern portfolio of horses, vest pattern pack - tandy trappers fringed buckskin shirt pattern - missouri river patterns horse tack accessory patterns - tandy show and rodeo chap patterns - tandy buscadero belts and holsters by F.O.Baird - plus there is about 20 leather crafter and saddler magazine pull outs included with it. not including postage, would swop for bruce grants - 'leather braiding book' or (if from the states) 20 bars of Butterfingers or if from mainland europe 10 bottles of warsteiner. got two books including; trail riding from blue creek outfitters packing and training (the guys from BC, canada) saddle tramp in the highlands - bob orrell - this is about a guy who with two trusty highland horses crossed the highlands of scotland in typical scottish weather i.e. the worsed imaginable!!!! similar sort of read like 'log of a cowboy' I would like to swop these two for a similar book like the tramp in the highlands, but about some one's packing/cow trip in the states/canada - I have 'the horses hitches and rocky trails' book and like the humour and art work in that one, so something similar would be great. something like 'Trails Plowed under: Stories of the Old West' by charles russell would be fantastic. Paul

Finished another bit today, could of done alot more but ran out of chicago screws again. These show or I tried to show in them the top half of the arm guards and the rear set up for the quiver and short sword. I should have the horsebow I am using for this armor soon and will be trying to fix up a system along the horn quiver whereby the bow can clip onto and off of it - will see......

Well ye, your right but the coool factor alone would make any opponent freese in awe of it giving one time to thrust away!! Actually the original plan was to put them on the middle two pieces on the front of the armor with the handles bending around the body, hence their curve shape also creating a sort of 4 moulded four pack thing - this would probably work on an adult version where the handles would of also been moulded slightly into the leather and not leave them sticking out. below is the plan I'm trying to stick to;

max - ye got some out but in the back of my mind I always thought I'd have problems with that by using a flat pattern i.e. and not adjusting lengths to compensate for leather thickness. But will know next time to adjust the lower pieces by about and inch each and to leave out making the hole which the concho is covering on the back, plus............ yan - I used the tandy lightweight saddle skirting and cut the pieces as saddle pieces are cut to take advantage of the firm/thick to loose/thin parts of the hide i.e. the top strips are from along the back and the lower strips cut from further down the hide towards the legs - so the top is quite thick and firm, the second is firmish and thick, the last and lower pieces are thin and very flexible which also helped hide the kinks slightly! The only piece I moulded was the helmet - the shiny horn bits are knife handles which slide into sheaths I fixed onto the skirting leather just under where they cross over one another - more an experiment for me and to show what could be done on an adult version then an item my kid will be using, incase any body worried about that.

Making this set of armour for my kid - probably have seen me post a few help posts in other threads as some of the construction is new to me - only way to learn I guess!!!! Below is the helmet and body piece - managed to make the body piece so that it can just slide on. helmet went from the pla facial plan to a 300 look to what actually happened as seen - sort of a box thing!!!! Will try and do a sort of tutorial when finished - or going by the odd mistakes 'ways not to do it' tutorial.

Thanks daggrim - I ended up fitting in some more chicago screw to keep the strips in place. Below is the patterns I am going to carve into the front and back plus the matching hemet - will post again once they are dyed etc; the carving turned out fairly evenly spaced and each plate matched up amazingly enough - I first wanted the helmet to match a persons face outline but the thickness of leather prevented this, then thought I'd follow a pattern from the film 300. In the end I seemed to have ended up with something resembling a helmet fro the 'prince of caspia' - atleast thats what my son thinks!!!

I guess I allowed this to go on long enough. Actually windy with the king of persia idea was the closest to the answer. According to my extensive research in the finest libraries the item in question is called a Eunuchiecame or falsehood for short. Apparently the king had a few eunuch's knocking around the place but once in awhile he threw outragious parties for the 'anti eunuch society'. Obiously he did not want it known that he collected these gents to shower his concubines with there every need, hence the Falsehood was invented which they just attached to their belt buckles. The size and shape was develop to ensure that the king was never shown up.

I like the wire wool idea Daggrim, I probably try that seeing as I'm notoriously useless with paint/dyes. cheers every one.

am working on some chest/back armour for my son and took the pattern from some one slightly bigger then him. Every thing has gone OK so far except that as shown below the back pieces are not lining up as they should - I was thinking of just shortening the back pieces where they are braided to the front but wonder first if any one would know if this would solve the problem or make it worse? The photo above shows the basic construction of six pieces of leather joined together by chicargo screws. Above is shown the armour loosly braided together - as can be seen the front is OK in alinement but the back is out where the lower strips of leather are slightly longer and bulge out - looks OK when my son has it on but that was after some tidying it up but become misalined again after he moved about. So again, if I shorten the strips of leather that bulge will it sove the problem or make it worse. Any help or advice will be great plus questions if how I have explained it is not clear enough. Paul

Just an odd question really, me thinking out loud - but I'm doing some black dyed armour and wondered if their is a way to make the color look slightly metallic. I'll probably coat it with aussie conditioner which will give it a slight sheen but I'm wondering if any of the other leather type coatings avaliable may give me better results. cheers for any help Paul

I know this is not strictly leather work but came across this site after buying a mannaquin head from them and thought that the tutorials may be of some use in making moulds for armour or such like. mould making tutorials Paul

I'm not an expert at this but I generally use/make my own stag rawhide which usually comes out at under.7mm thick, sometimes less. In some cases after I have sanded it, I am able to cut it as it is because its so thin, if not I coat it in aussie conditioner to soften it up abit. I used to soak the hide after de-hairing in a mixture of olive oil and egg white, like you do as a substitute for brains when making buckskin - then pulled the hide for awhile and then put in a frame to dry. It would come up rigid but with a softer texture/feel. Another pre-cut method I used was to soak the rawhide in a dye mixture from bark or grass - the tannens in these mixtures not only slightly colored the hide but made it slightly softer - not any where near as supple as real leather but just not as rigid as it usually is. I have far less experiance with cow rawhide and the times I have played around with it were not great results so probably best not to put any imput into that - best advice I'd say is take the plung and get some experiance - after soaking the cow hide, it is an art to be able to tell when its dried enough to cut - an art I have not got, I use more of guess-o-meter at the moment.

Hi Skip if you look on page 7 of the whip tutorial it shows the set up I use for dyeing - I just used tandy professional dyes or codes 2110-whatever color you want. Plus for the different colors like the green etc I use the plain fiebings leather dye - or codes 2100-whatever color you want. I can imagine the act you have to perform when using the little dauber that comes with these dyes - I use bits of shearling (used for saddles) you can buy remnants of it from tandy in 1/2lb bags - code 4717-00. Just cut to a suitable size i.e. 4 x 4 inches, pull or cut off all loose bits of the fleece then apply the dye by up ending the dye bottle onto the middle of the shearling - fold in half and run the lace through it. remember to have plastic on the table and on the floor when doing this (I just use large dustbin bags cut open) saves messing up the place. After appllying dyes, run aussie over them to seal the dye, stops them running. Hope that helps mate. Paul

Don't know if this is too late, but I have one of those mini tree's with stirrups - was another of those plans I had years ago that I just did'nt get round to but given the postage these days, it is probably cheaper to get them from ralide unless someone in the UK or europe wants it. Paul

Hi tony Its probably just me being thicky today but your grafhic have thrown me off - do you mean the 8 strand button end knot used to start or end a length of 8 strand round braid. if so its in ron's advanced leatherwork vol 1. if not thyen I definetly need a holiday -somewhere dry atleast!!!! Paul

Got a few examples below of where I have used different materials to achieve a variety of textured and asfectic looks. First I will discuss the differeance I found between buffalo and the long cow horn - The cow was alot softer and lighter in weight, plus like the long buffalo horn they are hollow until about 10 inches from the ends. Unlike the buffalo which has no distinct differing layers, the cow has a white outer which is easily scraped away with a knife and then finially with 120 - 300 grit sandpaper (useing high grade paper is best because of the softness of the horns material) under this layer is a much thinner translucent layer which comes up to a very nice sheen once polished - the buffalo being of much harder material should be sanded with 80 grit upwards to first get rid of the grooves. The methods I use to carve or smooth these materials is discussed in the http://blog.mtn-m.co.uk/__oneclick_uploads...horn-handle.pdf tutorial. The only differance with these horns was that I used an electric plain sander fixed into my vice using like a belt or disc sander - saved alot of time and in some cases produced a better finish. The sambar stag horn is much denser then deer stag antler and has a much smaller amount of soft interior - all I did with this was clear out debris from within its folds and polish, then drilled ahole to take the knife tang. The buffalo sheath was cut to shape then sanded with 60 - 120 - 320 grit paper followed by the polishing materials - lastly it was drilled with a long wood bit (8mm) to take the knife - you may notice the hole created at the bottom of it where I misjudged the depth the bit had gone in, it was a mistake but later thought that it was proabaly a good idea to allow any water to escape instead of rust the blade. The cow horn as discussed eariler was scraped then sanded and polished - these are quite inexpensive horns to buy but for a job like this you really need to be able to pick them yourself as I was able to from http://www.highlandhorn.com/shop.asp. The hole part way up it was put in using a dremel grinding bit then smoothed with the sand paper. Both of these items are going to have leather straps sewn on around their circumferance to act as belt holders (for the knife) and two loops placed top and bottom of the cow horn quiver to take the straps needed to go over the shoulder. I will probably post these once finished but thought that others may be interested in these initial and uncommon uses for horn. Paul

Have managed to find a rawhide supplier in scotland - still got to test a sample but they make them for drums so sounds what I'm asking for - plus don't charge a fortune for them. Cardisdale skins

Ye, I'm OK with that Johanna. Cheers Paul