leatherworklee

What material do you use to finish the seat after the tooled portion? In other words what do you sew onto the tooled parts to complete the seat. Vinyl? Lamb skin? chap and upholstery sides? Thanks for sharing. I am about to start my third seat. The first I covered the whole seat with the tooling leather. The second one used nagahyde. The next is a Corbin single seat and the customer wants and is willing to pay for top quality material.

I did the leather work for this clock and my nephew did the wood work. There are twelve pieces of mahogany wood in the frame. The face is cut from 9/10 ounce Wickett and Craig leather. The family tree is my Mother's 5 brothers and 5 sisters and my maternal Grand parents. This will be auctioned off as a fund raiser at a family reunion next month. I spent quite some time hunting for the pattern for the tree and realized later that it nearly identical o a tree in our back yard. The largest numeral stamps that I have are 1/2 inch and did not look right on the clock face. While looking for on-line numbers to download, print and transfer using tracing film I noticed a site for patterns for roman numerals. Light bulb goes on, I have I's, V's, and X's in many different sizes. I used Fiebings spirit dyes. and finished with a rub of Carnuba wax on the face and a light coat of neatsfoot oil on the back.

I have an old drill press minus the motor that I bought for $15.00 that works quite well. The most important things to consider are: Is your leather properly cased? Review casing procedures elsewhere on this site. And do you have a good solid surface under your leather? A good marble or granite block makes a big difference. Placing the tooling block on a really solid bench helps to eliminate a lot of bounce. I often use a "Hefty Handle" as well. I was having problems with bounce after moving my shop and found that making an extra leg for the table that I was using for a tooling bench really helped. I used a piece of 4X4 located directly under my marble block.I Hope this ramble helps.

Thumb and finger kind of like a cell phone. They are not much bigger than that.

A customer ordered two of these holsters. The weapon is a Ruger LCP .380 Automatic. I should have placed a coin in the photo for scale. These are small enough to be concealed in the palm of my hand. They are both hand sewn with a saddle stitch. The darker one is finished with Med-Brown Gel Antique and carnuba Wax the lighter one with Leather Glow and carnuba. The customer gave me a nylon "pocket Holster" that I tried to use as a pattern but ended up going back to basics with a pencil and a piece of paper to make the cutting pattern.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I made a round of the local welding/ Blacksmith shops today and bought an old but working drill press for $10.00 It doesn't have along enough throw for the work they do so they had replaced it with a bigger newer model. it should work great for what I need. Thanks again, Lee

I would like to have a hand press of some kind or other but do not feel like i can justify the cost of a new one. Has anyone ever built one or modified something else ( C-Clamp, pony clamp etc.) to use? I use a lot of 2-D and 3-D stamps and alphabets but sometimes have problems with "bounce" or double images. Any Ideas? Thanks Lee

Thanks Guy's now that you have named it I remember seeing them used but that was a long time ago and in a world far away. Thanks again.

This item was given to my nephew by a member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribe on the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho. It is about the size of a man's hand. It looks to have been crome plated and I can find no markings, numbers, names etc. The spring loaded rachet has three notches and hold the device from opening farther than set. The inside surface of each arm is smooth so probably not for gripping. There is a fairly substantial stud on the outside of each arm that might have held a heavy leather strap. The existing strap is fastened with a single piece split rivet. Does anyone have any idea what it might be? Thanks for looking Lee

Dear Friends. This knife was part of a E-BAY purchase of leather tools. Have no idea what is was used for. The only sharpenend portion of the blade is on the "U" shaped end of the "L" shaped blade. Blade folds into the handle but creates a triangle shape almost to large to fit into a pocket. Contact leatherworklee@yahoo.com

Friends. I need to find someone who can replace a broken blade in a horsemans folding pocket knife. It has 5 blades .... Hoof Pick, Leather punch, Mane/tail thinning blade, L shaped hoof pick and the main straight cutting blade is broken. Contact leatherworklee@yahoo.com

I find the W&C to have a bit softer "Hand" and is easier to work with than the HO. Both are excellent products but the W&C feels better and tools slightly better. Then there is the 10 side minimum order with HO. Lee

My brother is 5 years older than I and came home from Junior High school with a flyer for adult education night classes. It offered a class in leather craft. I was 8 or 9 at the time. Our father bought us a set of tools and practice projects. (I still have a cowboy boot shaped keychain that I tooled with my name etc.) I took a couple of semesters of Craft shop in Junior High that included Plastics, clay modeling and Leather. we added a few tools here and there up until about 1965. A lot of life happened and in 1978 we got into the purebred sheep business. My father had given me a personalized belt for christmas in 1967 and it had pretty well worn out by 1988. I needed a new belt and wanted one with sheep on it. A leather shop in Wyoming wanted $90.00 or more depending on the amount of detail involved. I called my brother and asked about our leather tools he did not know where they were ( He found them and gave them to me for christmas about 4 years later. Meanwhile I went to the Tandy store in Idaho Falls Idaho and bought the deluxe "Professional" leathercraft set which included the Pro leatherworkers tool set for $150.00 I believe that now a similar set sells for around 1300 dollars. My wife had been doing craft shows/ sales for several years with her Crocheted animals etc. I really needed a creative outlet and as I can barely write my name on paper I was amazed to find that leather just worked for me. I have collected a lot of books, patterns and tools a lot of which I purchased on ebay. I have a collection of about 40 different swivel knives. Long story but it covers about 50 years.........Lee

No this is like a towing or logging chain each link would be about an inch long. This stamp is quite probably 50 plus years old. Thanks anyway. Lee Thanks I will give them a try. I may have to borrow the stamp from Bev and make an example to post. Later Lee

My friends at Dubois Leather and Shoe shop in Dubois, Idaho bought out an old shoe shop in Montana among the tools there was a stamp that imparts a chain link and half of the next link in either direction so when placed side by side you can put a chain on leather. The stamp is about one or one and a quarter inches on each side. I have not been able to trade them out of it. Does anyone have one that they would sell? Thanks Lee

Just wanted to add my best wishs to your gal. I believe that 4-H is an excellent program if the parents will support the kids but let the kids do the work and the learning. My 9 year old grandson desided that he wanted to get some lambs and get into 4-H. We found him 3 orphan or "Bum" lambs the first of them died of pneumonia within 24 hours the second lasted a week the third two weeks. He is now on the waiting list to get 3 more from the U. S. Sheep Experiment Station near Dubois Idaho. I hope that they will be healthier and work out for him. I am really proud of his decisions so far. He makes 6 generations of our family to own sheep. No Vegans here.lol

There is a gentleman in Pocatello, Idaho who makes buckle blanks for Beaders on the local Shoshoni-Bannock Indian reservation they are very high quality and built to last he makes many different sizes and shapes. I would be glad to pick some up and ship them to you. They run about $3 to $5 each. If you are still needing some. Lee

I once asked My Dad who was a horseman and about 65 years old at the time how long do mules live or at what age do they die? He replied that he did not know because he had never seen a dead one. Might make it hard to find mule hides. I personally have seen two dead mules both caused by close contact with automobiles. I have always been told that it took lots of gentle handling to make a good mule but some times a good bash from a 2x4 is needed to get their attention. My Bother-in-law once won a trophy for the Grand Champion Horse (Male) Mule at the Eastern Idaho State Fair. I told him that I had always thought of him as a champion A**. Lee

Must have music usually old cowboy or celtic. Native American flutes , drums, chants. Herb Alpert, Dave Brubeck or ???????? whatever. Maybe a pine or fir scented candle across the room and a bottle of Green tea(with lid). Lots and lots of light both natural and electric. Two goose neck lamps on table to eliminate shadows an overhead with 4 bulbs and between two windows. A good friend built me a tool box out of black walnut wood it is about 30 inches long 16 inches wide and 24 inches tall with 2 lift out stamping tool blocks that will hold about 200 tools it has 2 drawers for sewing/ lacing supplies and tools and one for hand tools such as grovers, edgers pliers etc. This sets on a hardwood furniture dolly. So it's lights on , music on ,roll out the tool box open up and go to work.

Well........My stitching horse is known as "Old Flash". This thing that I am sending this on is "The Boat Anchor" just to remind it who really is boss around here. I had a Chevy 4x4 that was built in part in Canada I called it' The Mountie" It was a RCMP A Royal Canandian Money Pit. I replaced almost everything except the bumpers in the 3 1/2 years that I drove it. My Brother has an old '68 Dodge pick-up he calls the Oat Eater. Lee

I use my Dad's old livestock brand which is now recorded to me in the state of Idaho. It is a G and a sideways or Lazy Y connected I have several different sizes of letter stamps and can nearly always find room for it somewhere. i feel like I finish projects better if I know that mark is going on. If I have room I usually use 3/16 inch stamps for the brand and at least 09 or 2009 or whatever year. On Larger projects I like to use Tandys 3-D stamp " Handcrafted By"with the mallet, swivel knife and head knife and then put the G-lazy-Y on that.

I like wylie and other old "Cowboy" Music and Cowboy poetry Ian tyson, Red Steagall, etc. My current favorite is David Wilkey and Cowboy Celtic. It seems that most old cowboy/ trail drive songs were adapted from celtic music from Ireland and Scotland. I have a real ecclectic collection that includes Jazz, Blues ,Pop ,Native American and even Bearing Straits from Siberia. Lee

Hello from Southeast Idaho I have been doing leatherwork since before Junior High School. My Brother and I took a night class from the local shop teacher. I have been doing it as a part-time business since 1988 as "The Sheep Shed Gift shop" My wife Crochets and I tool leather. I prefer figure carving on personal use items such as purses, wallets belts and buckles. Photo album covers and such. My shop is currently in an extra room in the home but I hope to soon remodel an old shed that has a dark room into a shop and store. I am a heavy equipment operator by trade and the Mayor of a really small town in the middle of the Idaho desert. I look forward to being part of this most interesting site. Thanks to Joanna and whoever else put it together. I found the site trough "Shop Talk" Magazine. Leatherworklee.