knuckles34

I dunno if anyone has heard of this shop, but I have ordered buckles from this gent for some time now. when I want a period buckle for a belt. He does sand casts of original pieces so you always get a first or second generation replica. All his work is solid, not lead filled brass sheet. great work. http://www.hanoverbrass.com/

I agree with WyomingSlick. No one likes a pain in the rear. You could advertise a thick one as, The Sciatic Sizzler. As far as production make a variety. thick or thin, your work will speak for itself.

I have found that if you give the originating artist proper credit and DO NOT make a money making enterprise out of your project as well as the aforementioned recomendations, you should be ok. check your contest rules.

See anything familiar ? Old dog harness. to small for a mule or horse. I'd put money on working dog tack. Mebbe a place to start looking. and if you found it local in the south, thats prime tracking dog country.

Seems like a good train of thought to me. I like the crafting challenge to. Nothing quite like a good sharp knife and alot of practice. I got into this craft for one reason and quickly figured out it calmed my mind and taught me patience.

I have ordered buckles from this gent for some time now. when I want a period buckle for a belt. He does sand casts of original pieces so you always get a first generation replica. All his work is solid, not lead filled brass sheet. great work. http://www.hanoverbrass.com/

I dunno about bench tops, I have a floor model from grizzly tools. http://www.grizzly.com/products/The-Ultimate-14-Bandsaw/G0555 for the more economical check your local home improvement stores. problem is that sometimes ya get less than you pay for.

Dangit !! now I'm gunna have to go out to the shop and do that. Got me thinking

Ok Relly heres that pic. This is a top view looking down at your jig. the stone face can be attached by a couple of clamps to your fence. away from your jig of course. The jig itself can be cut out of one piece of tight grained particle board as it usualyl comes in various thicknesses and is pretty true and square. or several glued together. you can use stone for the slides on your jig or even smooth tile like those little bathroom tiles they use fore mosaic. just set your fence/with faceing at the distance of your skive, place a piece of leather against it. Set your pressure jig against the leather and clamp it to your saw table. set your speed to as fast as it will go. feed your leather slow till you find its pace with the saw. that should do. one note though The blade feed plate for your saw, should have the smallest possible clearance. to avoid pinching and dragging your leather down Now that I saw Art's post get a knife edge blade too.

Your going to want to set your blade speed high. use a thick blade with lots of teeth less blade flex that way. and work on your feed method. you will need to make pressure feet to hold your leather tight to the fence, both before and after the cut. I would recomend a piece of 1 cm marble or granite to apply to your fence. jumping on my cad program now to draw a pic.

Looks better than my first holster

Awsome answer !! I agree!! I love my aviater snips. I have used them for cutting rawhide. Just gotta remember to get the straight cutting ones. as to thinning that skin, Ive never worked with it, but... I have used a random orbital palm sander to clean off the rollup on rawhide. used a 20 grit disk. flesh side only for your fish skin. and test out your grits. I only used the 20 because it was membrane rawhide, Hard stuff.