WinterBear

You might be able to get some tack with only a few good sized pieces of zebra-print scrap. If you just want to try hair-on cowhide, with or without zebra print, Tandy sells a lot of hair-on scrap and it is well worthwhile to see if you have one close by with a well-stocked scrap bin to rummage though. You might also try Springfield leather if you just want to try un-patterned hair-on cowhide. They sell hair-on strips for belts, as well as quarter and half hides in light brindle, dark brindle, and salt-and-pepper (finely speckled). Try also making a post in the wanted section of these forums to see if any leatherworkers have some hair-on hide scrap they'd be willing to sell.

I'm not sure where the pink smooth stuff is coming from, but the hair-on cowhide with zebra print can be found from several suppliers, but you usually have to buy the whole hide. http://springfieldleather.com/product/13717/Rug%2CCowhide%2CBaby-Zebra-Print/ http://www.exoticleatherco.com/leather/hair-on-hide.html http://www.sbearstradingpost.com/LeatherHides.html http://www.southernhides.com/products.php?search=zebra - brown, yellow, blue, red, orange, green, and B&W hair-on print http://www.theleathercollection.us/#/hair-on-hide/4542909858 - several different stripe patterns http://www.cowhidesrugs.com/zebra-print-cowhides.html - pink, tan, brown, camel, green, blue, red, orange, and yellow hair-on print, Argentina hides sold by someone in Texas (http://www.communidadandina.org/ingles/cowhide-rugs-have-in-common-with-texas.htm) http://www.cowhide-rug-pillow.com/printed-and-dyed-cowhide-rugs.html -Argentina hides, from Argentina. Cost to import might be bad. Sometimes Tandy has the zebra print too. Try giving the one closest to you a phone call. The one local to me usually has some in the scrap bins, so I can get some good sized pieces every now and again for a decent price. Of the list above, I have dealt with Tandy, Springfield, and Standing Bear's Trading Post, and have been pretty happy all three companies overall. I've never dealt with the others, so I can't tell you what they tend to be as far a quality / communication / product / ship fees/ ship time.

Hehe, I think I know which guy's company you're talking about--I just bought some kudu horns to kit out for Wood Badge. By the way, would you mind if I picked your brains at some point? I'm to build the Lions Club a new costume and was considering making the head partially or entire from leather. The old fake fur mascot lion head just can't take a beating and looks terrible and smells worse, so I'm thinking a leather would take being dropped a bit easier and if it gets soaped regularly it shouldn't smell too rank. But, I'm going to need help to make the base (essentially a helmet), and at this point, I have no clue where to begin.

Nice work. Looks like you put a lot of hours in. The little touches are amazing, like the stingray cross, and the lacing on the shoulders. What is the weight of the leather for the various armor bits, or do you use different weights depending on what it is? And the fur is reindeer, yes? (edit--it would really help if I watched my spelling! ouch! corrected)

Around here, I don't think most of the riders who have a fancy floral Sheridan saddle get much lip--or the "lipper" only does it once. Someone who can afford and appreciate a Sheridan saddle spends a lot of time on a horse, and tends to be tough and quick. You don't try to pick a fight with them without finding yourself lying on the ground and wondering how you got there and why your teeth are lying next to you. Ok, ok, back to the bag. I have a question for you American guys then. Would any of you carry it if it was bigger (more of a briefcase or messenger bag size), had wider straps, was dark brown or black, was more utilitarian in structure and design, and had no decorative work?

I spent some time rummaging through old emails from the time I bought my camera and found the review site I was thinking of tonight. http://www.imaging-resource.com/WB/WB.HTM. Take a good rummage through there and you can get all kinds of information, including standard performance tests/evaluations that are standard between makes and models, which I found especially handy for making comparisons. On the right hand side there are picks of what the reviewer though was the best out of categories for Type, User, and Resolution. The review for the Nikon D50 6.1 (body only) is here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/D50/D50A.HTM. The drop-down menu at the top has their review for the various features, and where the features were good, and maybe not so good. Check out the sample images in that drop-down menu too. The link at the bottom of the main review page will take you to the discussion by consumers. Something to keep in mind with digitals--there is a difference between "optical" zoom and "digital" zoom in digital cameras, especially in cameras with built in lenses. Digital zoom is like blowing up a picture on your screen. Yeah, it looks bigger, but the resolution drops off rapidly, and gets pixelated even at low levels of digital zoom. You lose detail. I actually disable the digital zoom in every digital camera I've owned. Optical zoom is the zoom/closeup you get due to the lenses, and the higher the optical zoom, the more detail you can get in a picture taken from a distance and then blown up. A 12x optical zoom and an 8.0megapixel resolution with my camera will allow me to do some cropping of a picture and still have enough detail/"sharpness" to get decent prints in a 8x10 format if desired.

Looks sharp Edvin. Is the company planning to expand any to sell overseas? I think your bag would be a smash hit at some of the universities and with some of the professionals that don't want to lug around a briefcase.

Well, it depends...I assume you want digital? What's your budget? The really serious photo bugs are going to ask you: what exactly do you want to do, what features would be nice to have, what's the range of items you plan to photograph and how close do you want to focus on average (there are cameras with settings or lens options that will let you focus on the face of a bee and there are ones that take lousy pictures from less than 3ft, ones that take good pictures of people but won't focus on anything less than 12 ft away), what will you be photographing under (daylight, indoors, light box).... You'll want to know about picture size and speed (how fast does it store pictures before you can take the next one), what type of digital cards/storage, and what type of batteries it needs, do you want a point-and-shoot or do you want to try f-stops and aperture settings? Do you want basic video capability (you won't get high quality there unless you pay through the nose or get a video camera). Some options in there will increase the price a lot too. Me, I just muck about with a Canon Powershot S5-IS, and it does almost everything I want it to. I can even use my old lenses with the appropriate adaptors, so what I do is just move the lenses to the new camera when I get an upgrade. The Canon I have takes regularly sized batteries (4 AA), and while it makes it heavy, it also means I can have a pocket full of rechargeables and take pictures all day long. I have an 8G SD card that I can store about 1000 pictures on at my highest resolution (8 megapixel). I sometimes will be asked to take pictures of jewelry for business cards and websites, and some magazine spreads, and can do a pretty dang good job with it if I set things up correctly (opals and mirror polished metal are hard!). I can take pretty good pictures of people and landscapes with it too, and everything in between. Not so good in dim light, but one can't have everything and most digitals have the same problem. I also haven't broken it yet, and it's been a couple of years now and I will admit I have abused it.

They sell cleaning/conditioning/forming cream for brushes. It's usually in a small flan container that looks something like a Kiwi shoepolish can, and is usually only a few dollars for the brand I can find locally. A can lasts me about 3 years, easily. You work it into a lather in the crease of your palm with a damp brush, then shape the bristles and let the brush dry in an upright position. When you're ready to use the brush, you just rinse it well and away you go. Baby shampoo or a very mild dishsoap will also do the same trick, but bar soaps and other shampoos/soaps should be avoided as the additives can make the bristles brittle or leave a deposit that is hard to rinse out.

Pretty much. If it'll kill a rat, it's something that can kill a person.

That is really amusing and it is really cracking me up. I haven't had much luck with getting things to line up with the Tandy checkbook kits either.

That undercoat looks pretty dense, like what you find in the semi-aquatic mammals. Have you considered that the fur could also be one of the larger weasels, like a martin, European mink, fisher, or something similar? I've had a large reddish mink pelt in the teaching lab at one time that looked similar to that color, and the museum tag stated that it was collected from a fur ranch in the 40s. Some of the otter pelts that were older than 60 years had attained close to that color as well.

Danngit. That scroll case just made me drool all over my keyboard. I have no use for a scroll holder, but that thing wants me to make one and find something to put in it!

I can offer some suggestions if I know a little more about what you have and what you are trying to do. More information please? I assume these aren't sheds from your placing them in the ant hill. Are they attached to the skull plate? If so, is the skull plate intact (both antlers are attached to the top of the skull and it forms one piece) or split (each antler is separate and each has a piece of skull attached). If not, were the antlers sawn from the pedestal and how far does the pedestal extend from the burr (how long is the bit from the burr/skin interface to where the cut is)? What type of leather plaque do you want? Smooth leather covered? Or sueded? Flat, or slightly domed? Leather antler cover on wood plaque? Do you plan on using a mount kit or make your own?

Maybe we should yell louder! Oo, snap caps. How'd I miss those? Now those guys will be nice for wristbands and snap wallets. Pardon me while I drool on the keyboard.

I could see where some of those things would be fun. I don't know if there is any kind of market here -- but I think there would be more interest in the Denver area though. They're also closing out some stuff too. The 3" re-enactment buckles for instance. Where am I going to get my big heavy duty (but not going to break the budget) brass buckles now? Guess I'll have to order them off the net now rather than buying locally.

What do you use for a plug Nighthawk?

Just for comparison (from http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk), the lowest published lethal dosage (LDlo) in humans (men and women) and lethal dose 50% kill (LD50) for rats for common household acids taken orally (as compared to inhalation or other methods or exposure) are: -oxalic acid as oxalic acid dihydride: LDlo of 600 mg/kg in humans for oral ingestion, and for rats, LD50 7,500 mg/kg for oral ingestion -acetic acid = LDlo 308 mg/kg in humans (no method of intake was given), and for rats, LD50 of 3,310 mg/kg for oral ingestion -boric acid = LDlo of 200 mg/kg and also 429 mg/kg for oral ingestion in humans (woman and man, respectively), and for rats, LD50 2,660 mg/kg for oral ingestion -acetylsalicylic acid (asprin) = LDlo of 104 mg/kg and also ~ 400 mg/kg for oral ingestion in humans (child and man, respectively), and for rats, LD50 200 mg/kg for oral ingestion -citric acid as citric acid monohydrate: no data given for humans, and for rats, LD50 of 11,700 mg/kg for oral ingestion So based on common concentration of these chemicals (excluding citric acid) for oral ingestion only and based on the lowest reported fatal dosage, the order of increasing toxicity for humans is: oxalic acid dihydride < acetic acid < boric acid < acetylsalicylic acid. For a 50% kill rate in rats, the order is farily similar: citric acid < oxalic acid dihydride < acetic acid < boric acid < acetylsalicylic acid. All this means of course, that if you ingested a similar concentration of any these acids, the citric acid will generally be the least lethal and acetylsalicytic acid the most. It doesn't mean that they are "safe", but it doesn't mean they are automatically extremely dangerous either. It just means that you need to follow instructions carefully, take reasonable precautions against splashes, accidental ingestion, skin exposure, and inhalation, that you don't mix it with anything else (even another "safe" chemical or solution), and you clean everything up afterwards and dispose of it properly.

Hi norfair. Where are you currently looking at your beeswax prices and how much are you wanting to melt up? Some hobby stores sell it fairly inexpensively by the pound for candlemakers and cosmetics. There is also a place on amazon that sells cosmetic-grade beeswax for less than $25 for two pounds (that includes the shipping too). And how much do you want at once? I can buy beeswax for $1/oz at the local natural/health food grocery store here, maybe a similar store in your neck of the woods does the same?

Beautiful tooling and stitching.

Nice to know I remembered rightly. The glue sounds disgusting though.

Good luck on the project. It sounds like it'll be an interesting one.

Chinchester has deer and reindeer apparently. http://www.chichesterinc.com/DeerLegs.htm http://www.chichesterinc.com/ReindeerFeet.htm Deer is NOT tanned, only dried. Reindeer is tanned.