electrathon

I just stumbled across this the other day. This year at the Pendleton Oregon trade show there will be a tooling class taught by Ty Skiver. If you are interested contact him soon. I have seen classes canceled over and over at this show due to poor exposure and no one knowing to sign up. Here is the link: http://www.ferdco.com/content.php?page_id=28 The web page is a mess, and hard to figure out what is outdated and what is current, but as of a few days ago this class was a go.

Ship it to me and $50 I will ship it and a duplicate back in about a week. If you are not happy with my work, I will refund your money (send it throuh paypal helps protect you). Aaron 503)761, 8276

There was a link in my post above: http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/1194-032.aspx Tandy calls them lok-eye. Have to agree. They are way too big for normal lacing. If you are using grosly oversized round holes like Tandy punches in kits they work. Go to normal lacing sized slots and they are a bad dream happening. Aaron

I am not a cowboy. I grew up in Alaska and ended up as an aduly in Portland Oregon. The area around here is not cowboy land at all, but overfilled with wacko liberal types (lots of guys carrying purses). The number one question when I do tooling and people see my work is that it is a shame that there are no design/styles for men. I have had a number of people see my work and comment it is great, but they do not like the girly designs. I know guys that would absolutly never park their butts in a brokeback mountain saddle (have heard those exact words). I like the purse. Awsome looking actually. I would consider buying it for my girlfriend, but you would not ever see me carrying it. Aaron

Look for plywood door skin used to make hollow core doors. Very thin, very strong. Far lighter and stronger than Masonite/hardboard.

Every since the site was upgraded it has always been slow. It was horibly slow for a long time and that has been repaired. Now it runs at what is an acceptable leval, but definatly loads slower than most sites. I think this has to do with the leval of stuff that loads with every page. I was not really trying to complain, I know it is what it is. Was just using it as a reason that having to continuasly reload the page can be anoying what it would be simpler/faster to be able to do it in one click instead of click/wait/scrole/click. Aaron

How about as an idea of simplification: I think many, many people look at nothing on the forum but the new content link. The forum is so overloaded with categories it would take forever to navigate daily any other way. Once we look at the post it is lost forever. Even if you remember it, it is very difficult to sort through all the pages and locate it. The active content link is a better step to being able to relocate a post. But, it is not convenient to click on (I am sure most regulars do not know about it and even fewer newbies do). Coupled with the fact that now you have to keep reloading the main page of a slow running forum, it is in a horribly inconvenient place, not good. So: I doubt many people want the posts to disappear like they do in the new content link. Likely most everyone would feel the active content link is what we need. How about just swapping the two? Those wanting to loose track of the posts they are following can then locate and use the new content link and those wanting to keep track of the links will click on the active content link that is now in a convenient location. Aaron

What he said:16: Round needles are good for round lace, flat needles are great for flat lace. http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/1194-032.aspx I have never understood the logic of tying to use those horrid, huge round needles. Get the correct needles and lacing becomes fun. Aaron

Without seeing or even having a description of the style it is pretty hard to say. Blind guess you are looking someplace between $35 and $100. But need a description and preferably a picture. Aaron

The grip down part is what bothers me.

I am not positive about this but my guess is that Tandy moved it to their pay to view site. http://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/t-instructional-videos.aspx

Drill the holes (I would use a sewing machine needle in the drill press as a drill bit) and then sew it by hand. Glue the edges togeather with contact cement. Mark your sew line (leave a little extra to trim off later n the leathers edge). Mark your spacing. Drill your holes on the marks. Hand sew. Belt sand the holster edge so that you have a smooth seam. Aaron

Am I looking at this correctly? It is a cross draw holster for a left handed person. Aaron

Your tooling looks great. I must say though that the first thing I did notice (the first pic is the back) is the streaking in the finish. Personally I hate the streaky look. Aside from that, it looks awsome. Aaron

Great looking work. Aaron

OK i just looked at your blog and I now understand. Your work looks stunning. The colors that you have painted some of the flowers is superb. The style of color that you use is something I have never done. I tend to lean far more old school and everything is brown. I used to leave the leather natural but now I tend to dye everything a shade of brown.

I have to ask. Do you consider this to be an acceptable apearance? Looks a lot like the one I saw at Tandy that I commented looked like poop. If I did a project and it came out with this horible of color variations I would be reaching for the black.

The store manager had a piece he had done that he had not wiped clean, but had applied with a dauber. It looked like poop. The appearance I got by wiping it down was not a bad appearance, almost on par with the Fiebings. The waterstain had far more coverage than the Fiebings did. The Fiebings was more transparent. I guess my test was trying for a usability test. If the product won't penetrate by design (a definitional difference between stain and dye) then it defiantly is not a product I would use on my work. Aaron

Here was my test. I took two scraps of leather (the same piece cut in two for a fair test). I used Fiebings on one and waterstain on the other , both brown. I applied both in a similar manor, flooding it onto a piece of sheep fur and then wet rubbing it onto the leather. Waited a short time (10 seconds) and wiped it off. Then buffed with clean wool fur scrap. Let them both dry. The color was adequate on the waterstain, but looked more paint-like than the Fiebings. Took out my knife and trimmed along one edge. The waterstain had virtually no penetration, the Fiebings went in about 1/3 of the way. I then took the test pieces and dragged the corner across the sidewalk (about 3 inches). The surface rubbed totally off both test pieces. The waterstain sample had zero color left, all you saw was the leather. The Fiebings piece had 100% color left, just no surface. My impression: I think this would work on something that was not going to receive any wear, like a wall hanging. I would trust the durability about the same as painting the leather. If you are going to use the item (wallet, holster, seat) I feel you will have far better durability (and better look) from Fiebings dye than you will with the waterstain. I am disappointed, was hopeful. Aaron

I am going to be teaching a basic holster class at the Tandy store in Portland Oregon. It will be at 10:00 October 22, 2011 and will run a little over two hours. We will cover basic design, wet forming, dying and stitching. I will be building one holster as a demonstration encouraging all questions along the way. The class fee is only $10 or two for $15, you are encouraged to bring a friend. If this goes well there will be more classes in the near future too. If interested contact Brian at Tandy to get signed into the class. The holster below is the style we will be making. Aaron

Neatlaq is a far more durable finish than tan Kote. Tan Kote is better for something you want to stay more soft (comparing a tooled purse to a dog colar). But, what I do: Tool your item. Seal it with a full coat of Neatlaq. Antique it with Fiebings paste. Seal it with Tan Kote. Aaron

This is a good step. Possibly, maybe, hopefully they will actually come out with some modern patterns too. At some point they will have to acknowledge that it is not 1956 anymore. Aaron

Bob, Kinkos (or similar) can scan or print it. Aaron

Look VERY closely at the tip. Magnification is best. You will be able to see if the edge is dull. If is is, you need to sharpen it. Stropping will not sharpen it. Stropping keeps it sharp. Aaron

Call the tandy in Portland OR. The had a flier up the other day for one that was for $800 if I remember correctly. Aaron