Radthalan

What a great idea. It's larger and most likely softer than a regular D4. And if my wife got mad at me it be easier to see as she throws is at my head. DJole that is an awesome cup. You could sell those at any comic shop for a killing

Thanks for the info. I'll give it a try

Hey Dirtclod, is there a certain brand of shelf paper you use? I have been thinking of using shelf paper to try it out. And now I have a large project to do in the future and I might run out of tape if I use it as backing.

I don't know if this is what the pros do, but this way has worked out for me. I run water on the grain side and let it case over night in a bag. Sometimes I put a few drops of alcohol to prevent mildew. Pull it out of the bag and let the leather return to its origanial color. When it is done I use my slicker on the grain side. Then I put my tape on the flesh side, use the slicker to help stick the tape on. Then start tooling. Best advice is try different methods and see what happens. I have noticed that thicker leather doesn't need to taped or thinner leather if I'm not tooling too much. I almost always have to tape if I'm using my backgrounder or basket weave a lot. If you get those Tandy bellies, then you need to slick the grain side a lot and then let them shrink down a bit before putting tape on. This is what I found out in my limited experience.

To me it looks like you didn't cut a stitching groove on the back. So your stitches are sitting on top of the grain, rather inside a channel. Try tapping, rolling, or rubbing the back stitches flat and going over it with a over-stitch wheel. That might help with the appearance.

The underside looks just like the top side. There is no blade or sharp edge to speak of. At first thought it was edge tool too, or a tool that would hold a very small overstitch wheel, or a means for marking spacing on leather like a wing divider. While cleaning up the tools I did find a mfg name on it. But its really worn out and hard to read. Thank you everyone for all your input and ideas.

Hi everyone. Last week I was given a bag of scraps, from my mom's cousin. Inside the bag was three tools. I was told that this bag was in storage for 20 or more years, so I appreciate how old these are. Now I know I have a lacing chisel, (still very sharp), an embossing tool with an angled scribe, and what looks like a petal lifter. But I don't know what is on the other end of the petal lifter. I looked around but could not find anything. Has anyone ever seen a leather tool like this one? Thanks in advance

Wow it is like looking into a post that I would make. I see all the great stuff here and say to my self why can't I do that yet. Sometimes i feel discouraged too. I like to take a step back and realize that I am not that artist/leathercrafter. I need to work harder to get to that level. I try to do leather crafting or something for my leather crafting least a hour a day. Even if it is to practice drawing so I can make my own tooling designs. If I'm sick of swivel knife practice I move to stamping or pattern making for future projects or designing a tool cabinet I want to store all my tools in. Leather working is such a broad craft, you don't have to get stuck in one area and get frustrated or bored. Remember why you enjoyed the craft and you should feel all the doubt and negativity lift away.

If your awl is very sharp you will be surprised how easy it to push through thicker leather and into your own hand. I have done this many times. just remember strop the blade after sharpening and keep a box of band aids near by. LOL

Wow! I would be afraid to open it up for fear of being bitten. Those eyes look great. Real enough to prevent anybody from pickpocketing you wallet.

I was unhappy with the way it looked with the thread in the very large holes. So I pulled the thread out and used lace instead. The lace did a better job filling in the holes and covering the edge since the lining didn't burnish with the back of the wallet. I bought the same Deluxe kit last year and my back grounding tool broke shortly after. I did get it replaced. That was about the worst experience I've had with this kit. The best thing was, that it fueled my addiction.

To tell what color I'm grabbing I put a smear of color on the cap it self. For the dyes that have a black cap, I put a white label on the cap and put a smear of color on that. That way I don't care about the name on the bottle, just the shade of color I'm useing

That web site is freaking hilarious. I only hope people don't take it too seriously and freak out LOL. Thanks Bard

Yes it does. I kinda figured since water and oil don't mix. Your reply reassures me. I didn't want to wait or even artificially drying leather before oiling it. Thank you King's X

I have a question about oiling leather. Do you have to wait till the leather is dry, like bone dry, or can you oil leather while it still wet? If you can oil wet, how wet is too wet? Should I look for properly cased leather? I'm looking to use EVOO to help restore a sheath I'm making for a friend. It has become a bit dried out in the forming and slicking. I have cased the leather a little too much. Sorry if I hijacked this thread I thought it might be useful to know if it can be done even to a freshly carved piece of leather.

I use both chisels and awls. I purchased the Chisel kit first and used the small chisel for hand sewing when I was trying to learn how to. Then I got an awl and the Hand sewing book by Al S. And now I prefer to hand stitch with the awl. It looks nicer IMO, but I still use the larger chisels for lacing projects and they hold tight to the lace. A neat thing I learned about hand sewing is make sure your finger nails are trimmed close. I was putting little divots in the leather when I braced my thumb and fingers against my work when I stabbed with the awl. Luckily I smoothed them out with a burnisher.

All done with the case. Now I'm off to deliver it. Despite all the distractions from work and family, I sewed it up and fitted the phone. Just finished using Satin Shene to finish it. Unfortunately I lost the pics of me sewing it, burnishing, and hanging up to dry. I swear the images should be in my e mail. But we all know what happens when we assume LOL. So I just have pics of the finished case. I will say that crooked sewing line straightened out good (not perfect), but my edge came apart. The case is still together, but there is a clear line where the two leathers were joined. I'm guessing the leather was too wet or not enough time to let the glue set. I'll have to look for that in the future. Over all I'm pleased. I can see a big improvement in my work. My wife says I should post pics of my earlier work, but they are pretty raw newbie stuff LOL. Well there it is. I might consider posting my earlier stuff but I don't like to look back too often. I'd rather look to what I can do better in the future. And thanks all for giving me a place to learn and show off.

Truly amazing. I like the different textures of leather that create the different patterns on the wallet.

Well its been slow going but now I'm ready to do the final sewing. I need my mom's cell for the final sewing but I thought I show what I have done so far. Yes I did mess up when making a sewing channel. I beat my self up for a day because of this. I can't explain what went wrong, I was being very careful not to do exactly what I did.

Hello everyone, Hopefully these pics come through and are clear to see. Unfortunately our digital camera is broke so I took pics with my cell phone. What you should see is a carving I did for a cell phone case I'm making for my mother. As you can see it still unfinished but the tooling is done, and I thought I would post and see what everyone thinks. I do hope there not too big (or too small) and you can see what I have done ANDY

HI everyone, I hope I can learn a lot and give as much.