WinterBear

So tell me. Is the wife going to slap a bumper sticker on your but that reads something like "certifiably insane" after you finish all of that? I'm betting you didn't measure the time spent on that in hours, but rather weeks. Gorgeous work.

It's all about the salvage when an ooops happens.

You can vinegaroon the whole thing black to cover it up. You can try to bleach the mark off with oxalic acid ("bar keeper's friend") or lemon juice. You can try to incorporate the mark somewhere that will be dyed near-black (very dk. blue, dk. brown, dk. green, dk. burgundy, or ...black). Last resort would maybe be to wet it and put more junk on it, then run it over with a car, and beat it with a chain and sell it as "industrial distressed?"

My neighbors KNOW I'm loonier than a web-footed bird, so nothing I do is likely to surprise them much. But even so, I don't think I'd care to have all those eyeballs watching me either.

What are you using to color your coasters?

Well, at least a couple of canteens will weight less than a saddle tree. You planning to make some leather-covered canteens? I'd love to see them when you are done.

I've seen it all ways, but haven't yet figured out which is best. I've seen stored rolled into concrete forming tubes laid on their sides (available at hardware stores for forming deck footers), and another person stored theirs in a dark room with one edge of the leather clipped onto over-sized "clothes hangers" that hung on bars. Some store it flat, some roll it op and stack it on a shelf and some store upright rolls in a box. I think each method has it's pros and cons. The flat method takes up a lot of space and it's easy to scratch the leather. Storing it rolled up on a shelf can mean that the ends can get stiff and change color where light hits it, but be of a different temper and color on the inside of a roll--storing it stacked on a shelf may mean that the roll may get crushed as well, so you may wind up with creases. Storing the rolls upright in a container means the bottom end gets smushed and the top end may suffer from exposure. Storing it hung from hangers means that it takes a lot of room, and the clips may damage the leather, or let loose, dropping leather to the floor and damaging it. The big concrete tubes seem to be the best to my eyes. The tubes can be bolted together (and a bit of epoxy covers any bolts so there is nothing to scratch the hide) into a simple frame bolted to a wall or stud, it's hard to put so much in a tube that the lower rolls are squished, you can sort by leather type and color fairly easily, and you can hang blackout curtain material or a bit of dark vinyl or denim over the tube openings to protect the leather against the light.

Knut, as far as I know currently, the injection molded variety are made by Oasis Canteens here is the US, and I don't know of any other suppliers outside of a Chinese supplier that requires a cargo container's worth. Oasis Canteen's US website is (http://oasiscanteens.com/products.html). They are slightly less at Cal Camp (http://www.calcamp.com/product_reviews.php?cPath=21&products_id=39). I'm afraid I don't know of any suppliers in your neck of the woods, so I'm afraid shipping might eat you alive, regardless.

Knut, which type of Scout canteen are you looking for? Is it the round plastic one with the spout on the front side rather than the top?

Like Spinner, I use sanding drums. The disks are more difficult to use. I also have some Dremel/Ryobi type coarse grinding wheels and cones which are pretty good to use as well.

And don't forget to wear a mask and goggles when you grind those nubs down. You won't want to breathe that stuff or get it in your eyes.

Glad you're back. Being in the hospital and sick is for the birds. Now, I don't know the first thing about holsters, but it looks pretty good to me, and I love that rich black color.

Oh I have plenty of paint...it's just in one of these boxes...somewhere. I'm still unpacking. And it definitely seems like this board is all about taking it to the next level. I spend way too much time rooting around in the old threads, just being boggled by all of the talent.

I'm afraid I don't know of anyone, but I could suggest the Help Wanted section of this board (link below)? You might be able to contract out someone with experience do the repousse panels, and perhaps have your local leather shop finish the jacket. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showforum=54

I definitely understand. Most of my stuff seems to be of the making do with what I have because I can't wait until something can be shipped and can't find what I need locally. I have been thinking about dying the linen thread myself because I have not been able to find the right shades of purple and harvest gold I need for a future project, and I can at least get the fabric and leather dyes locally.

Great idea! Question though--Have you ever considered buying unwaxed linen thread and dying that with Rit or leather dyes? That way you could skip the step of stripping off the wax and it might open up even more color options for you.

Hi. Welcome. I think what you want is called repousse or sometimes repousse embossing. The basics are given on the Tandy website (http://blog.leatherc...rlie-davenport/). In a nutshell, you press the design forward from the flesh side of the cased leather, raising the pattern up. I can also recommend you look at some of Clay B's stuff, he's an excellent artist who does "extreme embossing". Edit: I forgot. You'll have to use veg tan (tooling) leather. You won't be able to repousse anything else.

@rosiart I'll take your word for it. I don't mess around with either type, so I wasn't aware of the differences. I'm not a jeweler, you see, and can't really get into it (even though I'd like to). I rent, and the landlords tend to get a little hyper about oxy-acetelene gas, kilns, torches....

Yah. It has it's advantages, but the fact that the binder burns out, it's really hard to get a high polish on it because bits of carbon remain microscopically bound to the silver. I know someone who does tufa, investment, and cuttlebone for her casting (she's not really set up for lost-wax), and she refuses to use PMC because the carbon--a lot of her work is mirror polished, and the PMC looks greyed next to the other stuff because of that.

PMC is "precious metal clay". It's metal mixed with an organic binder that burns away when the clay is fired in a kiln. It comes in several metals, including copper, silver, and bronze. The clay can be molded easily, and many faceted stones can be fired in place, so it has quite a following among some jewelers and crafters. Er, edit. "Organic" meaning carbon-based. Not "organic" as in veggies grown without chemicals.

Am I reading that correctly? $8 for the head knife?

Impressive! And it looks sharp.