whinewine

Not really, Shorts. The line 24s are a real bear. They're either too long or not long enough (I especially have problems with the cap parts, not the bottom parts- I suspect your problems were with the bottom parts, NOT with the caps, though). The cap posts tend to roll off to the side for me if I use a hand setter, but I generally don't have a problem with the bottoms (if the leather is not too thick). If some manufacturer would make line 24s with posts that are in proportion to each other (in other words, the cap section posts would be shorter & the bottom section posts would be just a tad longer), & also in different sizes, that would solve the problems from the getgo. For some reason, I have absolutely no problems with the line 20s (& there are also short & standard posts out there for the line 20s, too).

Murse: The top is 6-7 oz, the gusset is 3-4 oz (a heck of a lot easier to wetform 3-4 than 6-7= this is why the lighter weight is used). The top is slightly larger than the gusset (by about 3/8") & the gusset is slightly smaller (by about 3/8") than the top. In effect, they overlap, for strength. I ended up gluing on the overlap. First set of holes are punched into the overlap (2 thicknesses, 6/7 + 3/4); second set of holes are only into the 3-4... & yes, the rivets are done while still wet (I stapled just for a temporary hold, then drilled & riveted, then removed the staples after the seat dried. I hope this helps. russ rdb: thank you. It was a tough effort till I finally decided that it was down to the wire & I needed to get it done & I didn't want to buy him another seat after I ripped off the old plastic... The man for whom I made this promised to take pics of it on his bike for me, but so far I haven't seen any (hey, he owns a camera store!!!).

Holly: contact the Sheetz Corporate Office, 5700 6th Avenue, Altoona, PA 1-800-487-5444, or email sheetz.com. Address your concerns c/o Steve Sheetz. They are a local company, trying to do right & make a good name for themselves. They don't need assholes ruining their image & I'm sure you will be treated right by them,ifyou express your extreme displeasure at how you were treated by this 'maroon' (in the words of the immortal bugs bunny) in virginia & give specifics. Trust me, they DON'T need this kind of negative publicity & will take all steps to rectify any future problems with this kind of behavior. Problem is: dicks in small towns tend to get hungry with power & can bamboozle the ones who don't stand up for themselves... Answer is: if Corporate doesn't know what sort of assholes they've hired, & what these idiots are doing to their image, THEY CANNOT CORRECT WHAT THEY ARE NOT AWARE OF!!!. Holly, let them know. I've let them know about problems on a local level & they've made it right (& hell, they didn't need to care since I'm a local & who cares what I think...)

Spider- those are the standard screw conchos adapted to fit line 24 snap caps. Tandy sells an adapter kit to adapt the screw post conchos into snaps. Advice: add loctite to keep the screw threads from unwinding from the concho part. russ

Tandy has a highlighter called 'gold frost', also another one called 'silver frost'. They can accentuate carving a bit. I've used both, with varying results. The silver I don't care for, but the gold can help- sometimes... They're worth playing with. I've not used any of the other colors over dark bases, so I can't speak about them.

For a project I'm making, I need a minimum of 25, but no more than 50 long post eyelets in 7/32" inside diameter with an outside diameter no greater than 3/8" & a flange length greater than 7/32" in either nickel or gunmetal or black color (No brass color). These will be going through a combined thickness of 12oz of leather. Tandy no longer carries this size, Springfield only has 3/16" inside diameter listed (too small) for long post eyelets & Ohio Travel bag's long post 7/32" eyelets have too great an outside diameter (15/32")... Is there a source for what I need? Or does anyone have some that they would spare? Thank you in advance. russ

While the instructions may or may not state it, the wallets are made that way. The insides are one hole shorter than the wallet back, so that when closed, everything doesn't bunch up on the fold line. (This is also why there is a cutout at the bottom of the insides- to allow for this.) So this is why they don't open perfectly flat. As far as lace, it's just better to buy a spool of lace- that way you'll have enough to replace the plastic or replace the crappy leather lace that sometimes ends up in the projects. You'll have to remember, the starter kits included in a beginner's set is meant for just that- beginners- so you're going to have some 'cutting of corners' in the materials provided. With a spool of your own lace, you can complete the kits to your satisfaction, & actually use the kit parts to make patterns & cut your own so you can continue to practice & improve tooling & lacing. I hope this helps a little.

Kate, you're absolutely right. But the preval is great for certain things. I've sprayed neatlac (just make sure it is absolutely cleaned after spraying, otherwise it'll clog the power unit & render it useless) in addition to dyes. I have an airbrush, too, but I also use the prevals. It's very easy to keep the dyes I use most in the glass jars with a power unit attached; then, I can grab whichever one I need & do a quick spray. At some point, I plan on getting an airgun, but for now, I use the prevals. Btw, Harbor Freight has a self-contained spray unit that you fill with the preferred liquid & you pressurize it from your compressor. I have one, but just haven't used it yet.

Actually, Dale, there is no diffuser. The bulb itself provides the soft, diffused light.

Just a question: has anyone ever used one of the Ott Lights (full color spectrum lamps) for their leather working, and how do you like it? I just picked up a $179 desktop Ott Light for $25 at Michaels- it was a display sample that they were getting rid of. It seems to eliminate the glare & harsh shadows that prevented me from doing fine carving work at night. I'm just curious as to what others think of them. I know they're used heavily by those who do a lot of needlework, sewing & jewelry making, but I don't know any leatherworkers who've used them & I'd just like some opinions. Thank you. russ

While the post connecting the bottom 2 parts seems to be the 'right' length, it seems that the top cap post is always too long for its component part and tends to roll over to one side when being set, thus off-setting the snapping part from the cap part. The most expeditious thing is to trim the top cap post with a dremel cutoff wheel [the most logical thing would be for the manufacturers to make the lengths of the posts for the top cap proportional (therefore shorter in length) to the lengths of the bottom part posts- but, guess what: they've never done it & never will]

Henley knives. I'm waiting for mine to come- supposedly top of the line- puts stohlman to shame. I'm NOT impressed with the stolhman barrels sold by tandy, at this point- i have one of their barrels- (a narrow barrel-) it's 'ok', but not spectacular. I also have regular tandy barrels & I put them in pretty much the same category: 'ok'. When I get my Henley, I'll be more critical of the differences. I'm not talking about blades... personally, I favor ruby blades, for various leathers (but, for others, steel blades work better). Other people love the ceramic blades- I feel they have too much drag, for my own personal taste, but others will certainly disagree & that's fine with me. Others love only steel blades... If you want a Henley, contact Cathy Schlim at cschlim@yahoo.com.

Along with Grey Ghost, there is http://infinitystamps.com, http://harpermfg.com, http://springfieldleather.com & someone on ebay is selling them right now. As far as springfield, it's better to call the toll free # as much of their stuff is not listed on their website.

Ken: I believe it's goat lacing. I've found that the natural is very, very weak, but the dyed stuff is, for the most part, quite strong (except in just a few certain areas). We've used it for running stitch lacing in several of the pouches we do, & we use it alot for corners of wine glass holders & plant hangers. I've seen people make necklaces that look like barbed wire from it. It's relatively useful, once you do find uses for it. But again, I don't use the natural. It is too weak. russ

Marlon: nice work, both by you & your wife! You guys are so lucky to be in the heart of it all as far as being able to take these classes & meet with these 'masters' of the art. russ

Another goofy thing about the dog- she loves bread. We have to keep the bread locked up. She's already stolen 3 packs of rolls, opened the packs & eaten the contents. She recently stole the roll out from under a hotdog my wife was going to eat. My wife had put a plate down with a hotdog & roll on it right in front of her, and, like the trick a magician would do by yanking a tablecloth out from under the dishes on a table without disturbing the dishes, the dog grabbed the roll from under the hotdog & yanked it out, leaving the hotdog undisturbed on the plate.

We've all heard the excuse (or maybe used it at one time or another)... "the dog ate my homework!"... Well...my greyhound has developed a taste for leather, so I can't let her in the basement/shop area anymore. However, the night before yesterday, I had taken my carved leather checkbook & my stingray business card holder out of my pants & set them on the dining room table. I forgot to put them back & when I got up Sunday morning, I noticed a loose check lying on the floor, along with my money... the checkbook cover itself was missing, as was the stingray business card holder. I found chewed up cards, & she didn't do much damage to the checks & check register. Basically, she (relatively) neatly removed both items & ate everything else (she also chewed the toe plug out of one of my moccasins, too). I was royally pissed & she knew it & stayed out of my way. She IS a puppy- she just turned 2 a few months ago, & she's the nicest dog we've ever owned, so it's up to me to keep the temptations out of her way- after all, I am the superior species, she's just a dog doing doggie things that puppies do . Luckily, I had carved a cover in 2005 but never finished it, so I cut the inside parts & sewed it up on my Boss (used wide stitches, no groove cut in it to inlay the stitches- who cares- I needed it & it's for me. A bit too flowery for my taste, but, so what! It's in my pocket most of the time anyway. Anyway, my son helped me with posting a pic of the new one.

Here are some more pictures. My son is helping me because I'm stupid.

I found mine on the street. A building was torn down & the granite rectangles were carted away. Two slabs had apparently been dropped & they were in several pieces, lying on the sidewalk. I took home several smaller pieces, the largest one being about 19" X 16". That one is my tooling slab. The largest one was much bigger- I couldn't even fit it into my car. It was there for about a week & finally disappeared one day.

Spider: no, that's the original foam. Lots of wetting/stretching/molding/compressing. My older boy & I spent most of Saturday doing it. Thank you! Outcast: thank you!

I finally finished my first motorcycle seat. It was part payment on a Nikon D70s with a Nikon 70-210 lens. The man didn't want anything fancy- he just wanted a compass rose on it- in saddle tan color. The saddle tan looked too 'orangy' for my taste, so I applied a mixture of british tan/bick4 over topof the saddle tan, with 3 coats of neatlac & a light coating of pecards over top of that, & buffed. He liked the darker combo- said it "looked rich". Then he said, "you could have added more stuff to it". Oh well, kinda late now. Thanks for all who helped: David, Beeza & special thanks to Outcast, who answered all my stupid questions & walked me through the process from start to finish. Thanks guys!!! And no, I didn't take the pics with the new camera, 'cause at the time, I hadn't delivered the seat yet (plus I gotta figure out how it works now: [it's a computer first, & a camera second]). I'm gonna try to post now Dammit, I can't get but 1 pic uploaded: if I try to upload another, the original one doubles. Heck with it tonight.

I finally finished my first motorcycle seat. It was part payment on a Nikon D70s with a Nikon 70-210 lens. The man didn't want anything fancy- he just wanted a compass rose on it- in saddle tan color. The saddle tan looked too 'orangy' for my taste, so I applied a mixture of british tan/bick4 over topof the saddle tan, with 3 coats of neatlac & a light coating of pecards over top of that, & buffed. He liked the darker combo- said it "looked rich". Then he said, "you could have added more stuff to it". Oh well, kinda late now. Thanks for all who helped: David, Beeza & special thanks to Outcast, who answered all my stupid questions & walked me through the process from start to finish. Thanks guys!!! And no, I didn't take the pics with the new camera, 'cause at the time, I hadn't delivered the seat yet (plus I gotta figure out how it works now: [it's a computer first, & a camera second]). I'm gonna try to post now...

Ok, that does makes sense, but I think vinegar with iron dissolved in it is too strong for the environment of the leather & must be neutralized to bring it back to the normal ph balance of the leather, whatever that may be. As an absurd example, water is a very weak acid- to turn it into & make it a stronger acid would defeat its purposes & greatly harm the things around it that depend upon it (drinking, flushing out the body's toxins & wastes, cleaning things, allowing fish to live, etc...).

fiebings deglazer???

Huh? I thought that a base (alkaline) neutralized an acid, according to what I remember from high school & college chemistry (which is why you neutralize the vinegar dye with baking soda)... ...but what you're saying is that a base (soap) does NOT neutralize an acid (leather) & so the base (soap) must be neutralized??? ... I'm sorry... I'm confused now...