Studio-N

Well they are not ALL successful. Here is a POW-MIA stamp I did for a friend. The impression on the forground and background turned out good, but the lettering did not. After it is shrunk down, it tends to blur together. It should still work out good on a large plate, but I had to leave it off on the 1" stamps.

You got that right! LOL painting is a pain. cheers!

Here's a recent purse. It is made from cowhide split with a veg-tan overlay, gussets and strap. the sw pattern is carved/stamped and then painted with cova paint. Cheers!

Here is a checkbook cover for myself. I used Fiebings pro-oil dye and the gold frost highlighter from TLF.

Hello. Delrin sheet is not too expensive so I'm doing it for $7-$8 (simple beer money) for a one inch stamp. Mostly because I get to keep one too. However, I'm not doing any artwork design. It's one thing to trace a vector drawing in corel but it's another thing to do the artwork from scratch. I don't have time for that. Cheers.

"I'm a cowboy....on a steel horse I ride...." Absolutely love it.

These are just a few stamps I have done for a recent client. I'm making them from delrin and laser engraving them. These are 1 inch stamps and are made on flat plastic rather than the rod used by other engravers. They are mostly for use with an arbor press, but I have fastened a stamp handle from a simple 6" pipe and two flat brass caps. A little double stick tape works well for holding the stamps in place for use.

here is a hanging lamp I finished. It was a lot more work than i thought. Roughly 35 yards of lace went into this. I'm just not lining up to do another one any time soon. Enjoy!

Here is an interview with Summit who makes lexol. http://forums.roadfly.com/forums/detailing/4716867-1.html There is no oil or lanolin in lexol. it is artificial. There is no cow in neatsfoot oil. It is just a term for a generic oil (kinda like tung oil for furniture which may or may not contain the oil from the tung nut). Neatsfoot is mostly rendered pig fat. You can easily see this if you let it freeze. The lard settles to the bottom. So I reckon margarin would work as well as butter?

I had a customer recently comment that he put his brush in a cordless drill and it did the best cleanup he ever had. Even better than a toothbrush.

Yep. Kevin mentioned he had lots of them on an old post of the same item. I bought a one at their store, and it was not out on the wall or tool rack. I asked for one and they got them from the back. Cheers!

They are both an acrylic finish and both made by Fiebings. Resolene just happens to be the oldest of the acrylic finishes. The amount of light reflection (gloss) is probably the only difference.

I just bought a set from them and I want to say I am super happy with them. Chris says they'll be at Sheridan, and I'm hoping to make up there too. As soon as I get my shop set up in May, I'll definately need more dies. Cheers!

Check with Springfield leather about a 'easy beveler'. Basically it is a teflon blade that fits into your swivel knife and allows you to open up a swivel knife cut. It has some good uses and is very cheap.

Very nice idea. I'd buy one.

Try: Konomos Distributing Inc 5629 E Truman Rd Kansas City, MO 64127-2437(Kansas City, MO-KS Metro Area) Phone: (816) 483-9388 They carry all boot and shoe findings. ASk for Michael or Bill.

Hi Lindsay, Thanks for the kind words. I'm not selling these. The pattern is one of the free patterns from TLF but it is still their copyright. I thought I might use it in a class to eliminate the tracing phase. The front office did talk about maybe doing those spur patterns as a real craftaid in 2010, so keep your fingers crossed. My engraver is just my hobby toy that I originally got for my woodworking (see attachment). It has just found its way into leatherwork same as me. Cheers!

Hello. Mine is a Universal Laser Systems M-300 model with 45 watts of power. ULS is a great outfit out of Scottsdale, AZ. This particular model is an industrial model which will run 24/7. ULS has renamed all of their models to VersaLaser but the M300 is on par with all of their 'Professional' series. 45 watts is a lot of power and not that much is needed for basic leather work. Most of the 25 watt models will work. Prices run the range from $4k in table top models to high 20's in the pro series with all the bells and whistles. This particular unit was $16k back in 1999. There is a very friendly rivalry between ULS and the Epilog laser engravers. Both are excellent companies and both provide great machines and excellent support. There are now a lot of pacific rim machines around that may be cheaper. Good luck with those. 'nuf said. I probably didn't need to go to the extreme of making a plate. I could just engrave the lines directly on the leather and then go from there. This was just fun doing as were the stamps I uploaded in another post. I still like tooling, this just helps eliminate the pattern transfer phase. Cheers!

Now that I've got my laser engraver working again, I'm having some fun. Here is a homemade craftaid for a set of spur straps. I laser engraved it on delrin and you can see the results on a piece I pressed it on to. I have made a left and right plate. It is ready to start carving and I've marked all the shape cut lines and holes. Now all I have to now is make a few of these.

You can sharpen a pipe of the appropriate diameter.

Look here: http://bighousedaddy.com/bighousedaddys_biker_patterns.htm

Its been a while since I made any stamps due to some laser problems, but all that's behind me and so now I'm relearning some things I forgot. Here are a few new stamps I finished. These are done from flat Delrin sheet rather than rod. I just double stick tape them to a blank stamp handle I have but also for use on my shop press. The first is based on Jeff Dunham's character Achmed the dead terrorist with a little bit of white cova paint to bring out the stamp, the second is a darwin fish, and the last is a masonic stamp. Each is 1" tall.

You can find the wooden briefcase frame at grandpa's pastime. You provide the leather. Here is the link: http://grandpaspastime.com/BriefCaseFrames.aspx

I believe the rules of mail order apply: You only have to collect sales tax if you have a store (presence) in that outside state. The presence part applies when you cross your border to do a show.

Thank you Bruce! I picked up the Dixon Plough guage. Can't wait to break it in.