ReneeCanady

Wow, that's pretty interesting Electrathon!

I have downloaded it as well. I was a little iffy when it asked for my Name and Email address though. Then I realized anyone out there that wanted it could get it anyway. So I did it. It's a pretty good pattern with nice instructions. My thought at first was that if it seems too good to be true, it usually is. I must say this was a great freebie!

I have never seen anything like it either. Is it the spacing of the 0-9 set that is bothersome to you? If so, you don't have to line the stamps up from the edge of one stamp to the next edge. You can bring them closer, just be careful that they are aligned properly. If you REALLY want the set for 0-15 you could have them made I'm sure.

I couldn't find the posts you were referring to by Electrathon, but I am sure they were good. He usually has really good advice. I do beg to differ with you on the ABC stamps. I think if they are done nicely and you can't see the square shape of the tool bordering the letter, they seem to look okay. I know that a nicely tooled letter usually looks better. I have a very bad mental block with tooling letters for some reason. I can carve and tool things the exact same size but when it comes to it being a letter, I freeze lol. For instance I had to do this entire image on a 5" x 5" piece of leather and I believe there was no way in hell I was going to get the letters to look nice, even, and legible without the ABC stamps.

I agree Eccho! That would probably be one of the best things to do for all projects you make. I have made a few items a couple of years ago and I couldn't tell you to save my life how I even went about making it lol. You just never know when that same project may pop up again. That's a really good idea.

Thanks! I don't have a pic of the seam, sorry. If I remember correctly I used about a 6 oz piece of veg tan for this set. I make my pattern about 1" longer than I should so it over laps. Then, I skive to a feather edge about 1" on the grain side, and about 1" on the flesh side. After the skiving they will overlap very nicely with almost no seem bulkiness. I barge cement the skived edges together, and then sew them up. It's a bit of a pain to sew since the inside is tight. These were also for bottles so you would have a little more working room for a can koosie. Hope that helped some. I am terrible at explaining lol.

For this set I bought the foam sheets you find in the kiddie section of the craft store and used them to line the koosie. I have also done it without the lining and used a few really nice coats of resolene and then also use another type of water proof like the stuff you find in the store for outdoor water proofing items. If you use the foam you should still use the resolene prior to putting the foam on.

The message made me giggle as well. It wasn't what I was expecting. I wouldn't wear it, but I know a ton that would.

My first thought was that it could be some type of glue they conjured up, but then I noticed it didn't go to the edges so that's probably out. I bet you are correct on it being wool.

Good deal! I think you both made out on this. Love the sign and LOVE the belt lol.

Wow, that's really crazy! I would love to see the finished product as well. PS: The horror story comment was hilarious.

The Big Swan, you viewed these today? I have tried a few times to view the videos Chief posted and also the link that St8line posted and keep getting a broken link. I'll have to try again using another browser.

I too use my ruler when I am doing lightly colored items and don't want the guide line to show. I usually put my little anvil on the ruler so it doesn't move lol.

I don' t even know if I can actually explain this but I will try lol. The guide line is an amazing thing. I always stamp the first letter and pretty much leave it where it is with the stamp head in it so I can use the side of the first letter head as a guide to make sure the next is straight vertically. Now, when lining it up horizontally, use your guide line that you drew to begin with not the previous stamp. It will be slightly off if you use the stamp because the first stamp is now an impression and has basically pushed the leather out/down deforming that spot. I notice that I have to move the stamp slightly up from the previous...SLIGHTLY. This isn't always the exact case either. Mainly use the first stamp as a guide to keep the next straight vertically and use you guide line for the bottom of the stamp for horizontal guide line. Sorry I am so bad at explaining lol.

Ah cool.

Of course now that I moved to DE lol

Nicely done Kevin The best I can answer why no one comments is I think people tend to comment on the things they are in to and best fits what they like. It's what I told myself when I first started leather work anyway. Sometimes I would spend weeks working on one item and couldn't wait to upload it for a few "pats on the back" only to see that I had something crazy like 200 views and 1 comment lol. I think we all know this feeling one way or another. Keep up the good work

Would you mind telling where you got the pattern for the neck piece? Gorget or something like that I believe it's called lol. I REALLY like the looks of that.

Nevermind it was a link to his website to purchase the pattern. It's there if you want it I suppose lol. Doubt you would get it in time now though

Someone just posted this in the gallery yesterday did you see it? I think it was posted by Jacket Potato. Going to see if I can copy the link.

It would probably be cheaper for him to order the right size hole punch and do it himself? Really for a one time use he wouldn't need a mallet or a poundo board. He could just use a hammer and a cutting board lol. He won't need the tool ever again so.....

Call Tandy or SLC, for some reason I think I have seen the metal part you would use to do this in the Tandy store last time I was there. Maybe they have some kind of tutorial/kit thing? Heck, I hope it wasn't at Joann Fabrics that I saw it, possible. If it was at Joann Fabrics they would not have a tutorial on how to use it, but if you had it in your hand maybe you could figure it out *Shrug*. Sorry I couldn't help with this.

If they look like itsy bubbles, I have had this happen as well. Mostly get stuck in the beveled areas. I have come to find out it was done by a cheaper sponge as Cyber posted. Infact, it happened so badly to me that I have never used a sponge again. Not only were there little bubbles but also where every bubble was it looked dirty. I either now use a nice brush on technique and in most cases if I can I use my airbrush. A TINY bit of alcohol on a qtip worked for me on some of the areas, but I couldn't get them all off. Then I made an even bigger mistake, I forgot to reseal the resolene that I basically scrubbed off. I lived and learned I guess LOL.

I sent you a pretty long email lol. If you seal the leather and then paint it, wouldn't the paint just peel off? Especially on something that needs to be flexible like spur straps and bracelets?

The men's armor set is veg tanned leather dyed black. The chest is made of 4 pieces of leather on each side. The bottom of each piece was not dyed ( the strip), it was oiled an tanned in the sun. Then the entire suit was "finished" at the same time. The female armor set is also veg tanned leather and was dyed completely black and then I used acrylic leather blue dye on the edges. The design on the female leather armor was don't with paint markers that just happened to match perfectly to the light blue acrylic dye.