Grandpa

I bought a small palm sander from Harbor Freight, works great!

I use the simple $4 stamp from Tandy, then add my initials using a 1/8" alphabet stamp set.

I did use one but think I may have been too light on it. It shows in the pic but you have to look close. I'm thinking a bit heavier will add better definition.

Excellent, looks great and I'm sure will be appreciated. Keep it up!

I'm pleased with everything but the Elk, the face looks goofy, and the Moose, but only because its on thin leather so it lacks definition. The Longhorn is on med and the trio on thick leather. Time to do 2-3 more elk/deer heads so I can get the shape & shading definition down better. I've lots of room for improvement but one never gets better w/o practice.

A portfolio for an 8½x11 tablet. It was a lot of work and a ton of fun to do. My first basketweave pattern and my first critter too, a squirrel. Double loop laced, pig skin for the liner and Acorn Brown all-in-one as it best matched the liner. Since its for me (I'm retired) I opted not to put a pocket on the left flap for papers, nor a business card holder. Papers can easily fit under the tablet<G>. I've a small slit in the center to clip a mechanical pencil into. Its not perfect, far from it, however it was an excellent learning project and for me a functional one for notes I may do for leathercraft or other hobbies I have. It was fun making something freehand.

I checked out the chart yesterday and they pretty much dropped the 'tree' tools and retained only the F912's in their place for that work which is what they offer as the replacement. 913's/914's/873/874/921's/922-3 etc are history. The book showing various tools and those tools no longer being available thru them - bummer! I have tha F927 and for the smaller trees it does a super job on the outter edges. I searched the web for the older ones too and no luck but think I may be able to do a little filing to tweak these two I bought so the impressions look better. Never thought a Fir/Spruce could be so hard. Pine is a piece of cake though<G>. I'll figure it out, no danged tree is going to halt my Pictorials and Figure Carving. My poor painting skills might though...

Ahh Ha! I wasn't aware of that. As I look at the impression of these, and then those in the book, it seems like he may well have thinned down and curved the bottom side of them removing the distinct sharper edge, which it looks like would account for what the book impressions have. I may do some minor modification experimenting with mine and/or try modifying a veiner as some already have a similar size and curve. Annoying for sure<sigh>. Thanks for the info!!

This is the tool pair (F912 L&R) used to do larger Fir & Spruce trees as per Stohlman's Pictorial Carving book. I've tried over and over for the last week to get trees to look similar to those in the book with no luck. Maybe its me but it almost seems like the tool impressions in the book are slightly different (yet similar) than the actual tool impressions of the ones Tandy sells and that's why they don't look the same. My local Tandy folks have had the same result as I too. Has anyone used these successfully and if so can you provide some advice, tips, tricks? TIA...

I'm interested in doing some acrylic leather painting if you will, scenes, critters, maybe flowers etc. I note several references on the 'net saying one should ensure the acrylic paint used is for leather, and others who make no mention of it at all. I've been told too that acrylic is acrylic is acrylic, that it doesn't really matter if it says "for leather" or not. Most items I'd do wouldn't be intended for heavy use, like a wallet for instance, but some could be for light use, like the writing tablet portfolio I'm doing now. Most would be framed pictures though. So I turn to those much more learned than I and ask: Is acrylic paint "for leather" a necessity or will pretty much any acrylic paint work on leather? Any other tips, tricks or comments would be greatly appreciated by this newbie leather painter. Edit: Should have mentioned that the painting would be over carved and tooled images as opposed to just paint on flat leather.

I have the HF set and use them for putting my initials inside of Tandy's generic makers stamp. They work excellent for that purpose. TAP LIGHTLY or the heads impression will imprint in the leather, however practice will get you there. HF sells larger size sets too but I find the ¼" to be suitable for what I do.

If I may be so bold - I'd be more inclined to simply make one out of an existing stylus by filing/sanding off the end and lightly rounding the tip to a fine rounded point. Or as mentioned, a fine tipped ink pen, another excellent idea IMO. I prefer using the standard tracing film too and hesitate to use something as fine as saran wrap as I'd probably push too hard and tear it or make holes, however a page protector sheet might fill the bill well as they come in a couple different thicknesses. I'll be attempting to do just that with a paper inside and the image of a critter on it soon for my notebook project. I like the idea of using clear packing tape too for smaller things, great thought. Now to experiment a bit with clear transparancies in my inkjet. Dang I enjoy this forum!!

Harbor Freight happens to have an amusing security bit set that has some nifty shapes one can do stamping with. I have this one and like the variety, and the price. http://www.harborfreight.com/100-piece-security-bit-set-68457.html

Not for me, and the projects I've used them on so far were not dyed or stained either. If you freehanded something they ~might~ but mine were within shapes I'd cut & tooled so they had concise borders & the colors stayed perfectly within those bounds. They also work great as a fill for stamped letters/names. No bleeding whatsoever. A lot of people in our local group use them and really like the end result on a variety of projects vs using a dye and brush method.

Saturate - you must have gotten a bad one. Mine are much thicker tips so perhaps that's why mine work ok. With mine I press the tip down several times which goes back up into the body of the pen or press and hold for maybe 5 seconds max and the ink inside saturates the tip. I have them for both gold and silver, which I apply to the item I want to color ~after~ adding an undercoat of sheen and letting the sheen dry first. Sheen first lets the silver & gold stand out, otherwise the leather soaks up the gold and silver and no color shows. Then seal again with sheen. For other colors I use Sharpie's, which for the last few projects worked perfectly w/o any undercoat of sheen. These are just regular Sharlpie pens, not the push the end to wet type like you have. I did roses, green leaves and brown branches and they came out great. I only use the sheen undercoat for the metallic color(s). Much easier than using a paint brush however both of mine were smaller projects so a Sharpie was a great fit. On a larger project a brush or whayever may be a better fit. I of course seal all that w/ sheen too. If you've not tried Sharpies, do so, the results are awesome.