BurnTheBarrels

Looking through Tandy's book of leathers, threads, and sinew, they don't seem to offer much at 3/32". What would you suggest for an affordable 3/32" width? I know Rio Rondo sells 3/32" at like $2.25/yard, which seems a bit expensive (I use them to buy model horse equipment every now and then). There's a variety of laces listed at Tandy, but all seem to be rather expensive (to me at least, with the budget I have) and sold by the spool. For what I want to do, what are your suggestions as far as what to use? Thanks.

We tend to spend a few bucks on tack. Good saddles run about $400 - $500 (at least the barrel saddle I want) and it's not unheard of for top barrel racers, ropers, jumpers, eventers, essentially the top of the industry to buy saddles $2,000+. I've seen some English saddles at $5,000+. Breast collars (for Western riders, they help hold the saddle in place) can go from about $23 for synthetic up into the hundreds for leather, depending on things such as designs, if it's tooled or not, hide inlay, conchos/bling (gamers love bling), ect. I've seen custom leather sets with simple designs and minimum work for $200 (set being a sliding ear headstall and breast collar, simple being what is called the straight design,I'll see if I can't find pictures if you're interested). So moral of the story, we're much more willing to spend hundreds and thousands of dollars to get quality leather tack and not spend $5 on a shirt for ourselves. A lot of show people do spend hundreds on nice show outfits, but it all depends on what you're showing in... I can't help yah about sales though.

Thank you. There's two in my state, but I can't justify driving to either of them right now. There's one close to where I'll be in Cali, maybe I can swing in a trip out there lol.

What type of leather and what weight? For the lacing, will I need a needle? If so, what kind? What's the difference between a rivet setter and a snap setter? What kind of lace? And how should this be finished?

My project idea is to make a simple sheath for a Leatherman's tool and a small knife (the same size/width as the Leatherman's tool). What tools will I absolutely need for this kind of project? What are some substitutes that might be around the home that would work? What kind of material will I need? Also, the sheath I saw that I liked looked like it was laced together. Like the lace went around the two, binding them together. I don't know the proper terms/what exactly it was, sorry. It looks hand sewn but it could've been done with a machine for all I know. I was also wondering what the purpose of sewing around the edge of non-adjoining pieces was? Is it just presentation? Thanks in advance for any help. I feel like I keep repeating myself, lol.

Yes, width wise not thickness.

I'm wanting to try something, but the lace I bought a while back is too wide for the model I'm working with. I was wondering how I could split it from 1/8" to 1/16" and make it even? I'd rather use this up before I buy anything else...

Thanks for the tips Sylvia. I've been looking at crystals to start some small blinged out projects (not a huge fan of it myself but I suddenly got a craze to start making shiny things for others). So if that works out and holds up, who knows where it can take me?

Does anyone make anything for model horses? I have Breyers.

I wasn't sure where to put this, so hopefully it's in the right place. I have a noseband with my old horse's name stamped into it (did it a while before I sold him since I thought he was gonna turn out different). I was wondering if there's some sort of fill or way to reverse the stamping? Kinda like how wood has that putty stuff?

So many choices O.o lol Would the basic kit from Tandy be a good starting point?

I'll keep this all in mind I tried that code yesterday and it said that it could not apply to my account since it was already used?

I found a kit to make folding knife kits that I might try out, see if I can make something for my Leatherman's knife. While there's two stores in my state, they're kind of far away I already looked into that, maybe one day I could swing a special trip down to one of the physical stores.

I'm not entirely sure what it is exactly that I want to make yet (is that a problem?) but what would you guys recommend as the essential things to get started in leather working? Where would you guys recommend starting? A project, perhaps, or a kit of some sort that's easy to learn from? Eventually I think it'd be nice to start making horse and dog items, since they're my favorite animals and I've always wanted to do something related to them. Opinions, thoughts, things that work or don't work, where to find things, that sorta stuff... let me know what you guys have to say.

Thanks I think I found someone though.

Yea bronc halters.

Anyone want to walk me through making nosebands for horse halters? Or if you know someone who dabbles in horse tack, point me their way/provide an email if they have one? Thanks!

I did a second pair (a pair that I had actually used before) because I was bored. Any input? I'm still looking for inexpensive things to make so I can keep practicing. Luckily I found out that the other brand of spur straps we carry is cheaper, so I might head over to work tomorrow and pick some up.

I just finished these today and it'll probably be a while before I can really use them, but so far they seem to be holding up. Both my dad and brother have a habit of trying to pick things off so they were both scratching at the paint to try and remove it. So far it seems to be holding up? Here they are. I took the cheapest spur straps from Fleet Farm and added some turquoise and purple polka dots. I'll take a better picture tomorrow... this was with my phone. I kinda failed at a polka dot pattern... and the purple looks really dark both in the photo and in real life.

Thanks guys It's more raining/sleeting than snowing here, but up north got about 11" I think. Course, the only time it snows and it's possible to hit the Bayfield County snowmobile trails, I have other plans haha.

Hi everybody! My name is Shelly and I happen to be from the land of ten thousand lakes. I want to try painting on leather for custom horse tack, and maybe learn a bit about tooling too. This is my Quarab gelding, Monte. He's grade but his sire is Munzeer, from an Impressive bred mare. And yah... that's me. I also have two dogs: The puppy, Annie Oakley (Lab) attempting to befriend a bull on a cattle auction I was watching. She will hopefully be the family hunting dog, and her training is going along smoothly. She just needs to get out of the chewing on everything stage first This is my Australian Shepherd, Rascal, who was left with me one Christmas and has been here since. He doesn't like the puppy very much... Besides horses, I dabble in some web design and programming. I pretend to draw and sometimes write stories.

Ahahaha the ceramics part of my high school art class = fail. My "bowls" always came out dilapidated, one side would be a good quarter inch thicker than the other side... I don't really like working with clay all that much, though I've tried sculpting some horses off of pictures before (always a fail).

I hope to see this go a bit more in depth! I remember all that painting stuff from a class last fall - oh, I miss painting but not on canvas for some reason... - but am still a bit lost about painting on leather. If you have any advice for horse tack, I'd love to hear! I'm still wondering about how to prepare a piece and how to seal it/prevent cracking from regular wear and tear of being on a horse.

Thanks for the link! I've been skimming it and it brings me back to the days I was in a painting class at college - oh how much fun that was! (Ok, I didn't like the instructor but spending about two hours in the morning doing nothing but painting and listening to my iPod? Best. Class. Ever. XD Sure I've dabbled in painting since but canvas painting bores me....)

Yea I get that. I've seen people ask before and they give vague answers, like "the number one best paint out there".