electrathon

Kevin, I had some spongy blanket material that I cut up into little pieces. I just kept stuffing till it got firm, then sewed the last two inches shut. Aaron

Here is an example of pulling it into shape with a vacuum packer:

Attached is a picture of a leather ball I have been working on. I looked for a long time to find a pattern and finally decided to cut apart a ball, tweak it a little, clean it up and go from there. Aaron ball .pdf

I finsihed my ball, this is my first one. Now I need to adjust a few things and make a few more. Aaron

I made a leather ball. It is almost done, just need to stuff it and sew the last two inches closed. Aaron

I use an altoids tin, one has sewing needles and one has lacing needles.

As always, excelant work! How many hours do you have in tooling this?

If you do not go with a poly maul get a dead blow plastic hammer from Harbor Freight. About $5 and they work good. When I am basketstamping I use it instead of my poly maul because of the less amount of bounce.

Brake cleaner will work great. Simple green will work too, but it will take a lot more rubbing and will leave the machine wet, so you need to be more carefull. The great part of brake cleaner is it eveporated very fast and leaves not residue.

Yes, the kind you do vegatables with. When you pull it out it will be the exact shape (once you get the hang of it) of the object. Then you would just need to sew around it, in the flat. Your molded piece of leather will look like a bowl.

You will not find a better top than a solid core door. They will not warp, bounce or whatever. They are cheap too, because you do not care what it looks like.

You need to go to the thrift store and get a vacuum packer.

I am impressed. I don't impress easily.

I think up to about 6 or 7 oz. If it is that thick it will leave a divot, but still work. Up to about 5 it will work without a noticable divot.

I use one. It works well. It is for thread, not lace. It is just like the bigger rotary round punch, but smaller. Aaron

I am impressed with the quality of your work. Aaron

I believe those are the tools that come in the beginner kits. They are far worse then the regular craft tools.

One of the best parts of going in to Tandy is getting hugged. Leather girls and huggs, mmmm. Aaron

Try y-knot-lace They have kangeroo. My guess is if you want quality and are not using kangeroo it is only because you jave not used it. Far and above the quality of cow. Aaron

Chan's videos are great. He is likely the best teacher out there.

Oil, neet-laq, antique, tan kote.

I saw your first picture the other day and quickly passed on. To me, the pirate head pictures reminded me of a Halloween costume. This morning I saw the scabbard work, it looks awesome! The filigree is excellent. Very well done concept. Aaron

I understand the idea of wearing a high heal so that the heal has a harder time going past the stirup. I was/am questioning the inswept rear of the heal.

I looked at just two items, both had the starting price of your auction exactly the same as the elite price. A lot of people that are Tandy shoppers pay elite. There are a few of the reqular Tandy resellers that simply walk into Tandy and get best price, then resell online. I don't know how much they make, but usually the people they sell to simply do not check for the sales. Aaron

The boots look very nice! I have a cowboy boot question for you. Why do some of them (like yours, but I have seen some other makers do this) have the rear of the heal tip in at such a radical angle? It seems to me that in doing this it makes it much more likely that you will slip or twist your ankle since the heal of your foot is far less suported. They seem to have more the apearance of a female high heal instead of a male work shoe. I am not critisizing you, it seems to be a common design style, just do not understand. This is coming from someone who has a really messed up leg, I could never wear a boot that has so little rear support in the heal area. Aaron