Tzalabak

There are punches out there that can do specific shapes but that only helps, of course, if the shape you need is one of them. You might have some success using wood chisels of different sizes and shapes to kind of punch out the bits yourself. If you go that route, make sure the chisels are really well sharpened and honed, to get clean cuts. Bear in mind that I haven't tried it myself that way yet. So it's all just theory at this point. Hopefully someone with more experience can chime in and give you a better answer.

Brief aside: Tina, that piece is gorgeous!

I've never really had much in the way of happy results with any of the Tandy dyes other than the pro waterstains. The drying time is a pretty reasonable excuse for some of the problems. For dyes, in most cases, you usually want at least overnight. Sometimes at least 24 hours. You might also want to try buffing the original color after it dries, to pull up some of the excess pigment before trying to add more color or antique. For the resist itself, I find that, if I park the item in front of a fan after I apply my resist, a few hours is sufficient time for drying. Could probably get away with less. Not really sure how long I'd let it dry without a fan. Maybe still just a couple of hours. *shrug*

I've recently been doing stuff with resisting and antiquing. If you are using the Tandy antique, I have found that resolene tends to works as a pretty decent resist. Ironically, it works better (for me, at least) than Block Out. I haven't tried it with Super Shene. When I antique, I cover everything with my resist (again, in this case, resolene) and work the antique over and into everything. Then just wipe it back off, making sure to not press so hard with your cloth or whatever that you pull it back out of your lines. Nice deep, crisp lines makes it easier. Thinner leather or shallow cuts/impressions makes it a bit more likely that you will pull the antique back out of the lines. Also, try using a few coats of the resist, and make absolutely sure you let it dry long enough. If you don't, the antique just ends up mixing with whatever resist you are using and dying the leather. Hope this helps a bit. Edit: I'm sure the "only resist the certain parts" thing is a good way to do it, it's just not what I have personally done yet.

Very nice work. I've been thinking about doing something similar lately. The additional springs are a great idea.

Ok, I have real input as to your problem, but: Why does everyone seem to instantly assume that they rubbed people the wrong way or something when their problem isn't solved in the fastest way possible? Remember, there are a lot of people that use this site. A lot of them are newer than you, or as confused to your problem as you are. Just because you've had 48 people look at your question doesn't mean that any of those are a person that has an answer to your problem. It's possible that most of the views are from people that are curious about the same thing, and were hoping to find that someone had posted the answer in here.

The holes shown in that listing are punched. They are just using the scratch awl to mark the location they will punch. That's pretty much exactly what you need, I think.

lightningad, one of the biggest issues with the standard Tandy swivel knives is the way the saddle bit connects to the barrel. It's just metal on metal were the barrel goes into the collar. This makes it not swivel quite as easily or cleanly as it should. Most other brands use ball bearings in the collar, making for a much smoother turn. It's not really that much of an issue with the blades, although people often have preferences concerning blade angle, width, and so on. Edit: Had this post up since earlier in the morning, and didn't refresh, so I didn't see TwinOaks reply.

I can make do with any thickness that I get. I can't keep different thicknesses stocked, due to income issues, so, when I buy leather, any thing I make is out of whatever thickness I have enough of at the time, hehe. Yeah, I've been out to the Bonny Oaks Tandy. It's where I go if I'm in need of something quick, otherwise I order through SLC. Jim is pretty nice down there at Tandy though, hehe. The leather they have usually isn't fantastic, but you can usually find a few good bits among their stuff. I honestly don't know who owned it when it was on Broad, I haven't been doing the leather stuff for that long.

At the moment I make cell phone cases, Kindle cases, iPad cases and the like. I'm still rather new to the whole thing, so all of my tools are newish and still in use, heh.

Funny little world indeed. All of 20 seconds or so from where I live, hehe.

Ha! I'm on the TN side of State Line, close to the back of East Ridge High.

Until Recently, Ringgold, GA here. As far north as you can get along I75 before heading into Tenn. Now I'm just across the border in Chattanooga, TN.

I've been enjoying the Eco-Flo Professional Waterstains. Don't let the Eco-Flo label scare you away.

And sometimes buff again after oiling. Then buff after finishing (according the the finish you use), it helps either bring out the shine of some finishes, or give a nice mellow finish to others.