Peter Ellis

Siegel of California and De Mar Leather (in Brooklyn NY) both carry horse butts, which are in the weight you're looking for and come in sections on the order of 8" max width by about 42" length. I don't have any suggestions for the moose.

About 11 am this morning the semi pulled up in my quiet little residential cul-de-sac. When the driver opened the back, climbed in and grabbed the pallet jack, I realized this wasn't going to be my Momma's sewing machine I had him set the pallet on the front lawn since it was a nice day and that would give me room to work around the thing. I had no clue that the head would weigh as much as it does. Hey Steve, just how heavy is that beast, anyway ? Took me a while to get it set up, what with being new to these things in general and the instructions not being geared to beginners, but it wasn't particularly difficult. Ok, the business of balancing the head on the table and getting it bolted down, that was difficult - as in physically demanding to do solo. But, it's all together, it runs, I've sewn a bunch of scrap and seem to have figured out threading it correctly. The machine is a beast - and I mean that in a good way. The "instruction manuals" that came with it - not so impressive. I'm hoping the learning curve won't be too bad, but I already know the manuals aren't going to be much help... But - it's here!!!

I'm sorry to have to say that you are factually incorrect, but glad to be able to say that, in fact, there are surviving pieces of leather armour. Not a great many, but a significant number and quite enough to prove that the statement "not one single example of leather armour has ever been found" is simply not true. Leather armour is historically correct for certain times and places, in and outside of Europe. In addition to actual surviving examples, there are lots of written records that make mention of items such as "curies" which were a leather plate used to reinforce the chest area on a mail hauberk. Leather armour is not a fantasy creation, it doesn't come from D&D. But, we really don't have a very good handle on how they made it, what kind of leather they made it from, how they treated it, etc. There's another term that is a clue, but probably a misleading one "cuir bouille" - literally boiled leather, which is where the misleading part comes in. Yet it's pretty clear that they were treating leather to harden it. Modern experimentation and research has learned quite a few things about how to do this - but no one has found a medieval treatise explaining how they did it

There are some surviving pieces of leather armour from Western Europe. There's quite a bit of debate about how much of it there really was, and how much of what appears on effigies and memorial brasses may have been tooled leather or something else. There's a piece in the Victoria and Albert Museum that is a tooled leather piece for the upper arm (rerebrace) that is quite remarkable and really a good argument for some of the artist's renderings to actually be representing tooled leather. From personal correspondence I'm aware of a set of 16th century leg harness made from heavy leather and painted to look like steel. It's not on display and is not published to my knowledge. There was, apparently, lots more use of leather for armour in Eastern Europe, among the Magyars, Cumans and other peoples in that area. I'm not very knowledgeable about the Eastern European side, but have a friend who specializes in Hungary and has amassed quite a bit of information about the Magyars and their equipment. According to him, they used lots of leather.

Ed, I've been admiring your work for a while now. This one is yet another piece that is beautiful and inspiring. I love the depth you get in your tooling - whatever the colors

That "primitive art" has quite a substantial following. It's your opinion that the design could be better presented with conventional tooling techniques. The thing is, you can't get the effect 'roo achieved with conventional tooling techniques. She's done something different, adapting techniques from another medium to leather and exploring the possibilities, That's a good thing, something to be encouraged, not stomped on. We wouldn't have the techniques we do if someone had not explored and experimented before us. I look forward to some more experimentation along these lines. Gary, what you're describing sounds like inlay work to me. Another technique brought over from working in wood

Here's the thing - If you start reading through the various sections, like How To, or the ones that focus on Stamping, or Figure Carving, or Dyeing and Staining - you'll find that at the top are threads that are stickied. Those are there because they are so useful we don't want them to slide off the front page. Read through those and there will be links to some other threads with more, and you'll get a sense for which posters here are doing things you're interested in and you can look for them in particular for even more information. There is several years worth of posting on here. Enough to keep a person busy reading instead of tooling for hours on end

Or, rather than trying to modify a tool when you really don't have the skills or the equipment to do that, you might try looking for an existing tool that will do what you want. For this purpose, I suggest taking a look at woodcarving chisels. They come in a variety of shapes, including some that are pretty close to half round, if not perfectly so. They also come in more shallow arcs that also might make nice border effects. These tools are plenty sharp enough for cutting through leather, can take being hit with a mallet, work very nicely on leather and don't involve trying to convert one tool into another.

Mom and Dad are getting me a sewing machine. I just have to figure out which one... Great gift and it should help take my work to another level.... but the choices, oy!

I've got quite a list of things I do or want to do. From various historic patterns of bags, pouches, bottles and jacks to modern journal covers, messenger bags, purses to archery quivers both contemporary and historic. Runs through lightweight and flexible for the pouches and bags to pretty heavy and stiff for the bottles and jacks, and then the various weights used in doing journal covers (and other variations on that theme), messenger bags and so on. Not sure if that helps or not Thanks for the suggestion Art. Now to find a time when Steve's working and I can make a phone call. The joys of trying to fit this stuff in around a day job

Hi Steve. I was hoping to get some advice about the kinds of questions to ask, because right now (a) I don't know enough to ask intelligent or appropriate questions and ( I don't know enough to know whether I'm getting straight information or sales wash.

On the cylinder v. flatbed issue, I'm pretty sure that I need both options, which, I think, means go with a cylinder arm machine and a table attachment. While I can certainly understand the value of setting up once and leaving it, right now I'm in a position where I can go for one machine, not two. So I'll need a machine that can do double duty. I'll just need to organize my work flow to do batches of a given thickness, then adjust for the next batch of something different. Thanks for the advice.

I am in the market for a sewing machine. I need something that can handle lightweight material - upholstery leather - up through 12 oz. Is there a single machine that can work well across that range ? Any suggestions, advice, recommendations from some of the folks who have experience with machine sewing ? Thanks in advance for your help. Peter

Out of the box I loved my Boss. No problems sewing, worked great, I was incredibly happy. Had not had it for two weeks when I let a friend use it for some canvas tent repairs. It's been a couple of years now and it has never worked right since then. I've talked with the factory, taken it back to the Tandy where I bought it and had Jeff spend a good couple of hours working with it. He got it behaving decently, I brought it back home and it took a couple of feet worth of stitching to be an expensive hole-punch again. I don't know what the problem is and I don't know how to fix it, which makes the machine pretty much an irritating roadblock in my shop. I'm considering going to something in the Cobra 4 category and keeping the Boss on the chance that eventually I'll learn enough to be able to keep it working. It could be nice for taking to shows and permitting me to do some work on site.

Shafts live in my back quiver My bows are all modern longbow varieties. Still working on mastering a plain ol' stickbow before I try changing everything to shoot Magyar fashion.

Not quite finished yet, I still need to put a couple of hangstraps on and then it's done. This style of quiver was popular across much of Asia and Eastern Europe for several hundred years. With the current upswing in the popularity of mounted archery the style is finally making it to the U.S. It's about 6 oz leather, finished with Fiebing's saddle tan oil dye and tan-kote.

Hey Gents. I'm having trouble visualizing quite what this project is, what it looks like, how it works. I work with and around legal pads all the time, seeing that I work for lawyers But - I just don't quite follow the text on this one. Could we get a picture or two in here ? It sounds to me like this might be a good project for me to get an understanding about, what with having good connections to a possible market and all .. Thanks.

I'm not current, but at one time I lived on the island. No Tandy at all, and the one place that carried leather working supplies was out in Islip and it shut down more than a decade ago Sorry I can't offer more helpful information.

I wasn't able to find the Deft finish this evening (only checked the Sears hardware on my way home) but I saw they had Minwax Polycrylic and was curious if anyone might have tried that product on leather. I'll get to my local Lowe's another evening on the way home and see if they carry the Deft product here. Some of my stuff sees lots of weather and sweat. Anything that can help waterproof is worth looking at.

Not a stupid question at all. I was wrestling with the problem myself when I scrolled down and saw your post...followed by the helpful responses

Hi Storm. I really like the Victorian style you've been working with. You're doing a great job with it. On the history front, I think you need to look a whole lot further back in time to find the beginnings. I've seen a leather case for an oliphant (hunting or war horn) dating back into the 1400's with acanthus scrolls (Metropolitan Museum of Art). I posted a link to some pieces in the Victoria and Albert Museum and to a couple of other museums in Germany with carved leather items from the 1600's back to the 1300's. I find it very interesting how many of the modern "Western Floral" themes can be seen in pieces from 500 or more years ago.

For me it's the constant losing battle to try to keep my "shop" space instead of having it filled with other things. Mail gets set down on the table where I try to do my color work, 'overflow' furniture winds up in the garage where my powertools and metalworking shop is. I'm constantly looking for something that's under other stuff or otherwise hiding from me. I would really love to have an area that isn't constantly being encroached upon that can just be my shop space and not have to begin my work time by trying to clear the space needed to do the work

Another student eagerly awaiting the first day of school

Very sharp. You really captured the feeling well.

I used Minwax special walnut stain on a piece I made awhile back, mostly just to see how it worked. The piece came out a really nice deep and warm brown - much as you would expect with a walnut stain. The stain works on leather. I don't think the oils used in wood stains are the kinds you would want to rely on for preserving leather. My instinct would be to use a bit of oil whether I went with the water based Minwax or the oil based version.