whinewine

Fishguy: My son picked up a set of burnishers for me from someone when he belonged to IILG. They fit my dremel & I use them all the time. I don't have a clue who makes them, but if there are members out there who do belong to IILG, they could steer you in the right direction. You could also possibly make your own out of a piece of dowel counted on dremel's sanding drum shaft & then use a file to work a groove or series of grooves around it to use for burnishing.

It does spread out from the middle if you do press too hard. It's a nice concept, but just doesn't work all that well. It works well with thin materials, like paper & thin cardboard, and maybe (?) cloth (although I haven't tried to cut cloth circles). Part of the problem (other than the flexing of the plastic & the spreading out from the center) is that the leather itself, being flexible and on the thick side, also wants to spread out as it is being cut ( especially if one is making a number of cuts). Perhaps if the olfa device were made of metal, with a much more secure method of gripping the bar (serrations??), it might work. My best suggestion is to buy the circles already cut (they are done with clicker presses). If anyone has found a truly successful method of getting perfect circles, I'd like to know also, as would, I'm sure, many other leathercrafters.

Very, very nice! (I generally do not make belts as people would rather spend just a few $$ at a discount store for a machine made belt, but I can comment on the craftsmanship- beautiful!)

Just a silly question: on the tools that have no more plating, would the addition of gunblueing help prevent discoloration of the leather?

It's recommended that all-in-one be applied heavy for the first (& only coat).

ED: Is the 300 a variable speed? Variable speed is a definite plus. I have a model 395, & that is, I guess, obsolete now, but it does a fine job for what I use it for. It's variable speed, up to 35000 rpm, & I use it with small burnishing wheels, cutoff wheels, polishing wheels, etc. If you really need a benchtop sander, a dremel may or may not be right for you. As I said, it is an extremely useful tool, but if you need the raw power & torque of a sander/grinder, a dremel can't do that. An example: Tandy just did away with their 2 & 3 lb rawhide/poly maul combos. I picked up a nice 2 lb maul combo & installed the poly head on the leather handle. I used a grade 8 bolt, installed the rawhide head & put a lot of leather punched-out disks on the bolt to make the handle. I worked the disks down on a 1" belt sander to form a very nice, tapered handle. A dremel would have not been able to perform that function. Again, the question is, what do you need it for? If you need to change a lightbulb, you're not gonna use a hammer.

Paul Burnette (Painting Cow) offers finished feathers; perhaps he has kits, on line workshops & painting instructions, too. There may also be CDs and tapes available through hidecrafters, done by people like billy twoshews & others. i took a class at the local tandy recently, to learn how to do a large (9") embossed & lifted feather that stands away from the background. maybe a local tandy store on the Island may offer a workshop.

deglazing is a chemical process which strips all (or much of) the old finish to allow a new start for finishing. fiebings markets a deglazing solution that strips off old finishes. highly strong fumes. use outside! it does work, but the result is not like starting with a fresh, new piece of veg-tan. i consider it a last resort- if you gotta save it, no matter what, you may be able to with fiebings deglazier.

Ok, Romey, we'll bite! How do you make it? Thank you in advance! russ

Beautiful work, Michael! We just got a rescue greyhound last week. I plan on making her a collar also. Your work gives me great inspiration. (Halloween is coming up, though, I'd like to perhaps dress her up as a war dog, with armor & spikes [although that really is a frivolous waste of leather & spikes to wear for just one evening once a year for what? maybe 3 hours???]

She's a very beautiful dog, Linda. We just got a rescue greyhound last week- Haley- (as in "Haley's Comet"). She wasn't fast enough & washed out at the track, so we adopted her. In this country, greyhound racing is very big business, all about $$$$$ and if they can't make it at the track, they're automatically killed (it's a dirty little secret). This is where the rescue organizations come in. I don't know what it is like in Australia with the greyhounds, but here they'll be killed if not rescued & adopted out.

Kevin: your method is how I would normally sew up an edge-to-edge joint... it's nice, it's easy & it's probably stronger than an Al Stohlman seam (unless the item going in & out of the sewn container would abrade the stitches on the inside. But Olaf was trying to emulate Stohlman's fishing rod tube's construction (so that the fishing rod itself would not see any stitches on the inside when it went into its new home), & I was trying to make life easy, assuming Olaf wished to emulate a Stohlman edge-to-edge stitch. Personally, I feel that that particular stitch is inherently more weak if subject to stress, as it is going through only half the thickness of leather, rather than the full thickness. When I make can koozies, I use your method & go through the full thickness (they have a liner placed in them anyway); when I make shotglasses, I do the same. They can be sealed so the liquid doesn't run out through the holes.

Sorry to interrupt, but a cuff tends to be larger -look at tandy's[..or hidecrafter's, I forget which], "cowboy cuff pattern pack"- you'll see the difference. They are almost gauntlet or bracer size, vs the wristband, which is very narrow, by comparison (generally 1" to probably no greater than 2"to 3"). This was always my understanding.

Goat is thin (2oz or so), & very tough. It is primarily used in the bookbinding trade. It is carveable, toolable & takes finishes very well. Veg-tanned cow, if it were the same thickness, would, I think, be substantially not as strong as the same thickness of goat. Years ago, tandy sold rolls of goat lacing (I don't know if it was chrome or veg), & it had a superior feel & finish. The stuff sold today, IMHO, is crap, with the exception of kangaroo, which tends to be very expensive.

I myself use an old diamond shaped blade that tandy used to sell back in the '70s. I'm not sure what they sell today. I know they have fixed-blade osbornes, but their replaceable blades I believe are leaf-shaped, rather than the old style tapered-to-a-point diamond blades. I don't particularly like to do very complex, angle-type hand-sewing things, so if I can make my life easy & find shortcuts that work for me, I'll do it. People will not pay for the extra time involved in doing something complex. Al Stohlman was a master of the craft. People who know WILL pay extra for the Stohlman name ... they won't pay extra for the olandrea name , nor will they pay extra for mine. They will, however, pay for something that is reasonably priced and a good value. I have stuff for display that is complex, and, perhaps 'wow!', but is not for sale, because it shows simply what I am capable of doing (& not what the average person is willing to fork out, $$$-wise). It's, shall we say, advertising.

Here is a suggestion: first, lay our your stitches with an overstitch wheel, or marker, making sure they are absolutely even and match up on both sides (across from each other)... Then use a straight awl to do the holes at an angle, so they will match up together at the edge/seam. Then, if using enough cord, you can loosely stitch up until you reach the top... then beginning at the bottom, you can use a modeling spoon to begin to pull the stitches tight (this is the easy way with using 2 straight harness needles). You could also use curved harness needles after making the awl holes.

It looks like the sides are not evenly matched to each other- in other words, the stitching on one side starts higher on one side & ends lower on the other side of the back piece (the flap side). If you look at the pouch on the left in the first photo, you can clearly see that things seem to be visually cockeyed (technical term) on the back flap. That looks to be a major part of the problem.

there is an individual here who does blades. do a search for 'blade sharpening available' & you'll find him. my son & I had our head/round knives sharpened by him. I haven't tested our blades, but, go figure, most sharpening services DON'T HAVE A SINGLE CLUE about weird stuff like leatherworkers own & use.. most of these guys sharpen according to standard knife angles & don't realize much of the stuff we use are sharpened to much narrower angles (closer to exacto knives, rather than the standard knife angles or axe angles that they're used to ).

Springfield Leather may be able to help. Give them a call. Did you try Ohio Travel Bag? They carry stuff that no one else seems to have. Good luck.

I was told to use the back of a business card. Because it's thin, flat & hard, it'll allow the angles to strop evenly, whereas, if the piece of leather is soft & spongy & can flex, the angles might not be properly polished. Actually, I use both methods in conjunction with W&D sandpaper glued to a board. As Mike said, the important thing is that you DO strop.

It's unfortunate that you believe science is 'technical mumbo jumbo' as you term it. For years I had traveled to North Carolina to dig out gemstones (emeralds, aquamarines, sapphires [same material as ruby= corundum], tourmalines, garnets, amethyst...). Most I kept as specimens, but many I cut & polished into cabachons, including sapphires. Diamond is what is used to polish corundum- not rust (jeweler's rouge). But that's okay. You know what you feel, and you believe, and that's all that matters to you. And that's fine. All I have on my side is science ('technical mumbo jumbo'). I consider this discussion about stropping ruby blades ended. :deadhorse:

Sometime back, there was some discussion about stropping ruby blades with jeweler's rouge & I adamantly disagreed with those who insisted that jeweler's rouge... 1) would be able to strop ruby blades, ...2) and that one could definitely discern a difference after stropping, and that the composition of jeweler's rouge ...3) WAS aluminum oxide. I stated and felt that any perceived benefit of stropping with jeweler's rouge was the result of a placebo effect, since ruby (corundum) was the second hardest natural substance [9 or 9. something on the MOHS scale]. However, at that time, I felt it was not worth arguing with those who insisted I was wrong. There are different types of 'rouge'... yellow, green, white, blue, black... none of which are red (ie, 'rouge') and all of which significantly differ in composition from Jeweler's rouge. Jeweler's rouge is simply rust- 5.5 to 6.5 on the MOHS scale= NOT hard enough to polish a ruby blade.

This looks surprisingly like tandy's old deerfoot modeling tool- a deerfoot on each end- one each of a different size. the originals were not sharpened & were primarily used as modeling tools, although they could be used as lifters, but did differ in efficiency from real, sharpened propetal or petal lifters (the ones with the wooden handle that give you more control by allowing you to slice into the leather). i'm sure these can be sharpened, but then you're always concerned about slicing your hand on the end closest to it.

I'm sorry. it IS 6", not 4" as I said before (, although it would be difficult to pull a 6" piece through, because the blade is 6" wide). Probably 5"or 5-1/2" would be more practical. Again, I have not set it up nor used it yet, so I can't tell how good it really is. I like the handle, unlike some of the ones being sold on ebay currently that have no handles to hold the blade to the leather.