WinterBear

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.

You have the stitching book, so I would recommend the Stohlman "Art of Making Cases-Vol. 1" which is a great partner book to the stitching book. Many things in Vol 1 reference the Stitching book. Volumes 2 and 3 expand on Volume 1, and deal with handles and more elaborate things. I have all three Volumes and the Stitching book and find them invaluable, but Vol. 1 gets the most use.

I'd suggest myself, but all of my state is pretty much rural, and shipping anything even out of state is iffy. I and several other people have been having a problem with theft (has to be a postal employee, and they've even admitted the thefts likely occurred there, but fat chance on getting anywhere) and excessive damage for anything that goes through one of the sort-centers in Denver. All I can do insure and hope for the best, and then hope I actually get somewhere with a claim. They don't even sort most of our mail in the state--most of it goes to Denver or Salt Lake, then gets shipped back for anything that is supposed to be delivered in-state. It takes a week sometimes to get a letter to Casper, which isn't all that far away. If there is a bad snowstorm, outgoing mail can take a long time to reach a sort-center, and we can expect our first storms any day now (usually already have had one by now, kinda off that we haven't).

Hey there. I am working on similar for my Troop. I won't be able to get to pictures or sketches until next week at the earliest (Eagle project this weekend and I'm in the middle of packing up house for a move), but the Troop has some old axe sheaths (hopefully they didn't get tossed this past week when they cleaned the storeroom). I am hoping to be able to use those old sheaths to build new ones, with a few improvements to hopefully avoid what caused the originals to fail in the first place, based on what I have learned here. (I found I shouldn't using rivets to keep the blade from damaging the stitching--I should use a nice thick welt instead! That way the blade doesn't get dulled or damaged by metal-to-edge content. Not to mention on the old sheaths that failed, most of them tore and/or rotted around the rivets. Some of the axes had pitting from contact with the rivets too.) This guy had a pretty good idea for one sheath, the second axe with the stud closure: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=24159&view=findpost&p=204808. I might replace the stud with a heavy duty snap and reinforced attachments, as teen boys tend to be rougher than norm on the gear, and I can see the hole wearing through. The first one might also work with a buckle or snap arrangement, for the same reason. I'd like to make similar to this for the hatchets: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=33688&st=0&p=208874&hl=axe%20sheath&fromsearch=1entry208874, but since the blade angle is a little different at the cutting face, I'd make it more of a pocket for the cutting edge. If you notice on that example, the bottom edge is not sewn. I think I'd like to have at least a stitch or two at the bottom edge, with the sheath slightly over-sized to accommodate. The strap will hold the cover on and in place. Rob Bennett, RMB Custom Leather on this site, has a great sheath for WWII axes on his website (http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/knife_store/item799-26319.html). It's for a crash axe, so the sheath is short and has the bit for the spike. But the part I like is the double stitching. Lastly, there is a tree-saw sheath here: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=34497&st=0&p=213834&hl=+axe%20+sheath&fromsearch=1entry213834

You may be right about them being rare. I'm not having any luck finding them, not even the bus. Which is odd, because earlier this summer I was able to find several. I'll keep my eyes peeled.

The one third from the right looks something like what was labeled as a bookbinder's tool in a museum I've been to. It was apparently used to add decoration in gold foil along the spine and on the covers. According to the label I saw, the tool was heated and used to sort of press/quasi-burn/stamp/bind the foil to the leather--with some sort of glue.

What I've learned about background dying from my mucking about with watercolor paint, fabric dye, leather dye, and various other things: Until you are used to your dye and how it spreads/bleeds/absorbs, start by using a small pointed paintbrush. Never let dye or paint touch the ferule (the metal part)--Once it wicks up under there, it bleeds out at the worst possible moment. Clean your brushes well, especially between colors. When working with dye, I use a separate brush for each color family, as the dye can cling to bristles and contaminate the next color. Touch the loaded brush to a scrap of leather before every stroke (it helps bleed off globs), and if you use a piece of the same leather you made your project from, you'll get a good idea of what it'll look like (keeping in mind that dye usually lightens when it dries). Always touch the brush down in the center of a large area, and stroke into tight areas and towards edges. If you touch down in a narrow spot or near an edge, you run a good change of dye bleeding into areas it shouldn't. Not only will the dye color your hide, your fingers can easily transfer dye to something else. Wear gloves (Nitrile seem to work pretty well), and wipe or wash any dye off of the surface of the gloves as you work. Clean any spatter off of your work area so your piece doesn't pick up color in the wrong spot. Don't dye unless you have a full spectrum light or daylight. It is amazing how much a color looks different under the wrong light--I wound up with a freakish purple carousel horse some years ago, instead of a buckskin. Penetrating dyes are a lot like translucent watercolor paint. You can always come back and make it darker and more intense with another coat. You can't make it lighter again. Add color in layers to build up what you want. Intense colors (sometimes dark colors) will tend to come forward, as will those with a warm tone. Less intense colors appear to recede, as do cool tones. Put the dye into smaller containers. I now eye-dropper dye into a white plastic painter's pallet, like what watercolor artists use. Less to spill or spatter and get all over when the cat sneaks in and hops on the desk to see what you're doing, a fly goes skinny dipping followed by a hike across the piece, or the dog barrels under the desk because somebody let him into the garage. Plus dye is the pits to get off of a cat.

E-Bay has one of them right now. Texas Ranger Also, VW logo stamp on Ebay: Logo

Troy called it an extended pineapple, but I would ask him and the other knotters and braiders. Maybe ask them how they finish and wrap the butt of a whip? Or the decorative knots they put on their knifes, fids, marlin spikes, and walking sticks? I'm afraid I have no idea how to make a pineapple, and the instructions are way over my head still. All I can manage is simple Turk's heads, and haven't figured out how to extend them. The pineapples are a whole 'nother layer of complexity I haven't even begun to attempt yet.

What about something similar to the sheath in this thread? http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=33393&view=findpost&p=207387 I think you might also pick the user Knothead's (Brian's) brains. He does a lot of fid work and covers handles with various braids, many of which are round-ends.

No, not the wrong stuff, exactly, but stuff that is meant to be rubbed or wiped onto the tooling after the leather is sealed in whole or in part. Use the search bar up top with the words Hi-lite and Antiquing, or Hi-lite and Antique, or just hi-lite, and you'll get some idea of how to use that stuff. Look in the sub-forum for Dyes and Finishes--(http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showforum=18)-- there are a lot of great threads in there about which to use when, in what order, what not to do, and comparisons of the different types of dyes and methods. This thread has a video of how the antiquing gel or paste is generally used: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=33980&st=0&p=210550&hl=+hi-lite%20+antiquing&fromsearch=1entry210550 Pay close attention to where he says that he's put neatsfoot oil and Neat-Lac on the piece before he started rubbing the paste on there. If you don't all of the leather will dye dark, and the same color. He also seals the antique on there with Tan-Kote and Neat-Lac. You can also dye your project, seal it, antique it, and seal again to keep the antique on. I haven't used hi-lite, but expect its purpose is similar--it's meant to get down in the cuts and tooling marks and darken them.

By the "dye in the starter pack", what is the stuff exactly? Some of those starter kits come with one or more of the following: antiquing gel, all-in-one, hi-lite, and those just labeled "dye". I have quite a few of the Eco-Flo dyes (not the hi-lites, all-in-one, or gel), and they are all very liquid, much like Rit fabric dye, and mix easily with water. As far as the tips with the undercuts, the nice folks here tell me to not join cuts at narrow tips as they'll lift up, so instead, I stop just short of cutting all the way to the point. There are some really great figure carvers and dyers on here, and they'll be able to offer you some better advice than I. I expect they'll be along shortly. With more practice with your swivel knife and tooling under your belt, you'll really knock the socks off of people with this design. It certainly is pretty dang good for a first try! The design itself is great. I do have one structural concern with it though. That wing feather that extends past anything else will be prone to a lot of wear and will probably get mangled. It isn't wide enough by itself to support more than a very-light-to-light amount of wear. It'd be ok for something that was going to get very little abuse and direct wear, such as a barrette or hair ornament, or as part of a mask, but as a spur strap, if that feather gets rubbed with a jean leg or clipped with a boot, it's going to get mauled and maybe torn off.