Cyberthrasher

That's the ONLY thing that matters. You got the kids saved, you and your husband are safe, and life goes on. Glad to see that he saved the most important stuff. But, it also kind of makes me wonder what he let go in order to save your work. That's a great husband you have there!! We're all here for you. I won't speak for everyone, but I'll help anyway I can. Looks like you're still better set then I am for tools, but there may be some stragglers around there. Just let us know.

Let's get this back up in the open. Come on guys!! Chancey's stuff is GREAT for bringing dead animals back to life!!!

Supersheen doesn't work as a resist for dye (nothing does accept for actual masking materials) Supersheen is compatible with dye as a finish though.

Depends on what I'm doing. If it's a solid color belt with lots of tooling, I either sponge it all on or airbrush. If it's multi-color, I may hand brush (3, 5, and 0/10 are my favorite sizes), or mask with liquid latex and airbrush. Other times, if I'm going for a solid color with natural color in the tooling, I use a blue Scott shop towel and wipe it on with my hand. For edges, I ALWAYS us a foam sponge brush after sanding my edge so that it doesn't soak the dye in.

Get a nice clean font that will be easy to cut and bevel, then transfer it just like any other piece of artwork.

Works and VERY helpful Wonder if we can find a PDF of it somewhere to get the information in the margins?

Stropping is a very mild form of sharpening. Basically you're just polishing the blade as you use it, not really removing any material as in traditional sharpening. Your tandy blade will probably need to be sharpened (actually, honed is a better term) and then consistently stropped as you're working. The wet stone is fine for regular sharpening/honing. You'll want to make sure it's not too coarse of a grit though so you're not re-shaping the blade as much. Basically it's just like any other blade, we just have to polish them up more often. Up in the "How Do I Do That" section, there's a pinned topic at the top on how to make a strop for knives. There's actually lots of pinned topics throughout the forum regarding knife sharpening. There's nothing really leather specific about it, or USA for that matter. You just need a chunk of wood, some honing compound (the kit comes with jewelers rouge, but I'd only use it if I were out of compound), and a strip of leather or even poster board. http://leatherworker...hp?showforum=36 here you'll find a bunch more stuff on sharpening knives in general http://leatherworker...hp?showforum=10 yes, the kit knife will need some work. Hopefully in time, you'll decide that you want to stick to tooling and end up getting a better swivel knife to work with. Here are a bunch of videos from Pabloz (a very talented knife maker and leatherworker here on the forum) that will show how to sharpen and care for your knives, both round/head and swivel knives - as well as any other knife you may have. Learn these videos well!!! http://www.leatherwr...s.com/tips.html

In a previous post he said it was 2 weeks of work, which makes me even that much more jealous!! But, I suppose if you're working on it all day that's a different story.

I don't do holsters, but I'm afraid of the same thing happening with my guitar straps. I send out an aftercare sheet through email telling them how to handle it and care for it, and emphasize letting it naturally break in with use. I also send a printed copy with the leather - since I know they don't all read the email. I use Resolene on most of them. It's flexible, but will show spider webing if forced like that. I've only had one come back and ask "what can I use to soften this thing up?". I had to point him back at the aftercare sheet and give him directions again. I'm just happy that he asked first!!!

Hey, I got MY maul, that's all that matters!!!

wow!! That's super nice!! I've been wanting to make one for quite some time, but I don't think I'd ever pull off something like that.

As a business owner, it's your responsibility to pay those fees, not your customers. I'm paying PayPal a percentage so that they can collect the money from my customer and process it through all the proper banks. I don't even consider charging that percentage onto my customers because it's not the customer's responsibility to pay for my convenience. As Karina said above, do you get charged the processing fees when you go to the store? No, you pay the same price regardless of payment method. With all that in mind, is it really worth it to rub a customer the wrong way over a few bucks?

Sons of The South?? Yeah, that one's pretty killer man!!

You already know all of my favorite stuff Brother!! Hauss, since Chris is overseas and hopefully sleeping right now...... Go check out his full time band on Youtube - Sixgun Republic. There's quite a few there showing their varying styles - country, rockabilly, punk. Never mind that sleeping part - apparently I'm the one who needs some sleep since I can't tell the difference between morning and night.

If you haven't seen what the dremel press is, it's a little device similar to a drill press that you attach a dremel to and it lets you move the dremel up and down in a controlled fashion. But, it also incrementally rotates 90 degrees. I have mine setup horizontally with the my dremel burnisher so I can see what's going on a lot easier and just run my belts and guitar straps through it real quick with both hands. This is the one I bought, but it looks like they have a different version now. If you're interested in it, keep in mind that it's only technically compatible with certain models of dremel. They're all listed there I think. Basically, it just has to fit in the carriage. I had another battery operated dremel that wouldn't work on it, so I went and bought a new one to fit the press. http://www.amazon.co...8952287-0599345 I don't think it's a replacement for an actual drill press, but as far as burnishing and sanding, it's pretty handy in order to keep both hands free. I'm actually looking for a full size drill press right now, but I need to get a new bench built to house stuff like that.

WOOHOO!!! There's a little bit of wear on it, but as far as anybody else is concerned, that happened before you sealed it Glad you were finally able to get it taken care of. If you ever decide to take up leatherwork, you know where to find us!!

That's a GREAT little visual aid for people!! I never did learn those terms very well.

Yeah, when you first posted, I assumed it would be a minor role. I was pretty happy to see it front and center on the screen as if the whole commercial was designed around it!!

Yep, I just saw it too I think!! Had to show it off to the wife "see, these are the kind of people I associate with!!!"

Well, the best method is to have your friend measure his waist instead of going off of pant size. Pant sizes aren't uniform and are never represented in actual inches. But, if you MUST go off of pant size, I find that adding 4" will give you close to their waist size. So, I wear a 38 pant, and my waist size is just under 42". I like to add 10" to that measurement to account for the buckle flap and the adjustment at the billet end. There will be a little left over once you get it sized perfectly. Just get your buckle end all sorted out, install the buckle temporarily (or just set it in place), measure from where the buckle tongue hits the bar out to your waist measurement - this will be your center hole for adjustment. I like to add 4 or 5 holes past that since a lot of people gain weight and it makes for a better looking strap in my opinion. Either way, figure out how much extra you want to leave for growth, then trim off whatever excess is there after that. I can probably find some pictures somewhere to show it better than I can explain it, but that should get you started in the right direction.

It will be a while. I just need to figure out what font would be a good one that a majority of people might like. It's just good to know that you're thinking along the same lines.

If you want to get a BearMaul, just get ahead of Ed and let him know what you're doing with it. He'll be able to advise you on weight. most people prefer about a 16 - 18 oz for general tooling. Punching holes and slots, you may want to go a little heavier.

That's awesome!! I've been planning on getting a hold of you at some point to work on some custom alphabets like this!!

I always do custom fonts just like any other kind of artwork. Actually, my Craftool letter stamps are pretty much reserved as a "budget" option to save a little time for people. Just trace and transfer like normal, cut, bevel and off you go with any font you want.

You should be able to get them from here. Not sure if you need a Google account to get them, but it's easy enough to signup for one. This is the 2nd link that was added to the original post. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-4Qszr7V8BTZ285RFVEQVdxNVU/edit?pli=1