CTaylorJr

Excellent job! She will be happy with that for a long time to come! I'm guessing the wear will be determined by the use of the bag and how it's treated.

College professor at UTD sent me a pic and asked for me to put it on leather. She's happy with it and I may make one for me, I like the way he looks in leather!

No name brand with a 3.5x magnification. Works pretty good, but not as crisp as the actual Optivisor I wear at my father's.

Things I've learned from leather working Water based dye doesn't mean it cleans up really well with water When pounding on a hide, make sure objects on the top shelf of the workbench are secure, or at least not heavy! An uncovered pricking iron will usually find a fingertip when reaching for another tool in the rack. Any spill of coffee, soda, or water will always find the piece you're working on. Cats can make a HUGE mess on the bench if you come into the room and scare them. The needle you lost and couldn't find will be found by the significant other's foot. When you drop your swivel knife, it will always find the hardest object on the bench to land on, blade tip first. Never forget a piece of rawhide in the soaking bucket for a week, it gets quite fragrant in the garage, during the summer in Texas! Measure twice, cut once... I need to put this one on my forearm! Leather items make great chew toys if left unattended. You never have all the tools you need... How many others did I miss?

All of the work is very nice. I love the scale pattern on the 2nd bag. Did you carve the scales and then bevel? Looks very good!

I like the look and style of that bag. A friend of mine does the mountain man camps and that bag would fit perfectly in that.

Thanks Eccho, the backgrounder is a Craftool 888, it works really well for this type of figure carving.

Great idea on the mason jar wraps! Is the lining pigskin?

These things are getting addictive. This is the 3rd style I've done and the folks around the lake marinas love them. Around 6oz leather, resist was resolene, dye is saddle tan.

Interesting. That looks a lot like salt drying out on the surface. Doubt it is, but I'm going with what the Chief said, something in the water or the stain more than likely. Do you know how the sides were treated and stored prior to purchase?

I'd say you hit it spot on! Great replication and the stitching looks very good. When full of shells, how much does this belt weigh?

The fossil fish are a lot of fun to do for sure... For the background on this one I used an 888 and an old 118 for the interior, for the outside background I used an old tool that doesn't have a number or name on it. It looks like a Tandy craftool that a few of my friends have. I'll see if they have a number for theirs, my pattern is a bit different, but gives the same effect for the most part. Charlie

Great looking masks and a very pretty face! I see you are in Mass. There are more than enough colleges there that would have some willing models for you. From my experience, most will work with you as long as they can get some pictures for their portfolio. I haven't tried mask making and I'll have to shortly it seems since I have a niece that is wearing me out about it! I may bend your ear a bit when it's time! An air brush is a tool that you'll never live without again once you begin using it! I haven't used mine for leather work as yet, but is use it a lot in a couple of my other hobbies. Charlie

That looks great from here! Looking forward to the finished pics.

A friend brought me a picture and asked me to do it in leather. I had a lot of fun with this and learned quite a bit as well. Charlie

It looks like the swivel knife blade needs to be stropped. Also, try and end your cuts at the feather tips and not begin at them or swivel through them. What size blade are you using on your swivel knife? If the piece is as small as it looks (based on the stretch clamp mark) I would recommend a small angled blade. Keep practicing and you'll be doing the wings in no time.

Are you talking about gum tragacanth? It will give that type of look when burnished a bit.

I have a box of those types of "strops". I can't see it well, but I think that the leaf overlapping the border would look better without the bevel and just a slight undercut look.. Charlie

Damp leather also tends to mark very easily and when sewing there are a LOT of opportunities for marks. Charlie

I disagree with Busted. Small items I may not use this for, but for the larger purses, bags, long knife sheaths, etc, this will be a nice addition to the shop? Why? Well lets see If you know the length of thread required you don't waste If you know the amount needed, you don't have to end up "pulling" yards of extra thread throughout the entire sewing process If you know the amount required, you don't end up running short at the end of the project... Just my thoughts, and I live in Texas... Charlie

I was told that there was an adult section to this forum. I have made a couple of pieces that I would like some advice on and the adult section would be best. Birthdate is 07-12-1966 Name: Charlie Taylor UserName: CTaylorJr IP Address: 76.184.251.169 Email Address: ctaylorjr@tx.rr.com

How much of the decorative bead are you looking for? I have several in black or red that measure approx. 22" x 12". Instead of a "diamond" of beads these have only 2 or 3. Charlie

Definitely saved the pieces. One is in use on the back table for small items and the other is being used for my height gauge that I use to find/mark center on my knife blades prior to grinding. Still a couple of viable pieces of rock. Charlie

Got new granite today! Not lab quality, but would look great on a kitchen counter! A friend has a neighbor that does counter tops and he brought me quite a few pieces of different sizes. Happy again! Charlie

Clean? The only way my work area would look that nice is if I died and the wife cleaned it up to sell everything! I like the way you have a lot of the tools organized. I have a drawer to my right at my bench and never thought about putting the tools in it the way you have. That's perfect! I may have to plagiarize that idea! For the record, I am jealous of the Singer items! Charlie