ReneeCanady

I haven't tried it yet, but this was a question I had a while back as well. I got this response, sounds good Renee, if you go to a local hardware store, take your beveler. Find the bin where they sell wooden dowels, and try your beveler on the smaller ones (around 1/8th of an inch) until you find the one that matches the curve in your beveler. You then need to go to a auto parts store, tell them you want a very small jar of VERY FINE valve grinding compound. Mount about 14 to 18 inches of the dowel rod to a 1 x 3 board, . . . apply the grinding compound to the top of the dowel, and pull backwards on the handle of the bevler, . . . the opposite way of beveling leather. The first time you do this, . . . you will be matching the dowel diameter to the beveler, . . . and it may take 20 or thirty minutes, your arm get tired, and you may say phooey on it. Stay with it, . . . about every ten strokes, . . . try your beveler on a piece of scrap leather. Once you see it is starting to cut a lot better, . . . take about 15 or 20 more sharpening strokes. Then use your beveler to bevel the edges of a piece of 9, 10, 12 or so oz leather, . . . about 14 to 18 inches long. Get it wet and allow it to dry so it hardens up, . . . rub jeweler's rouge on that rounded leather edge, . . . and from now on, . . . THAT is the strop you use for your beveler.

This is probably not the best pic to use for showing the resist on the lettering but I think you can see how dark it is in the lower part of the lettering. I use resist on the raised part of the letters. I use about 2-3 coats of resolene to get this turn out. I have a habbit of using Med Brown Antique Gel from Tandy as a dye itself because I LOVE the shade of brown. So I used the resolene on all the lighter areas on the entire mug, make sure it is completely dry (atleast 24 hours), I use a wool pad to apply the gel over the entire mug, and then a moist paper towel to wipe off areas I have resisted. Infact I use the paper towl over the entire area just to slightly lighten/even out the gel completely. LoL my point that I forgot was.....You can resist the entire project to keep it lighter in color as are my gears and lettering and then use the med brown antique gel over the entire project. The gel will seep into any tooling/deeper spots on the leather like in my gears shown above. Most important thing is to be patient enough to let all your coats of resist dry.

As it seems to be my newest line to you......DAMN WOMAN! LOL That is awesome! I love the color blend as well.

Nice! Even managed to capture the cuteness in the eyes

I really don't know much about chromed tanned leather, but I do recognize that tool roll as the one that Tandy just put on their site. I haven't had a chance to watch the video though. What leather do they recommend?

Same to you Double U!! Not long ago we moved my Mother in for age/lonely issues so she is in one spare bedroom, and the other spare is my leather working room (I need a leather working house with all the stuff that's in there lol) anyway, my sister and her kids are here for Easter and we just put a big blow up air bed in that room for them. Needless to say I feel completely grounded like a 2 year old. I can't get to my toys!!! I am also anxious to get stuff done. Be sure to post pics of the second item, I would love to see!

Awesome! That came out really nice!

I am clueless as to why it won't work. Are you planning on sewing it? If you plan to use just the glue I am of no help really. I know that if you are sewing it later you should be able to stretch the leather and make it come together nicely. I make round mugs that a seam has to meet, but I skive both edges and bring them together. Even that is not completely flush.

I think you did a great job! Normally I wouldn't have liked that color because I am a neutral kind of girl, but for some reason since you chose the white thread it makes it really cute, almost trendy yet primitive. It looks very functional also.

Jumping up and down like a little kid! Awesome thanks!

Very nice! I feel silly now. I just made a bag last week and fought with 8-9oz veg tan for the body and 5-6oz gussets. Good to know that a lighter weight will hold up

Love these!

Maybe you are on to something there!

Well my 2 cents here would be that the "blackjack" was already predyed leather when it was bought. I only use veg tan, but I did get some kind of grey leather for Christmas the year I got all my tools and played with it for about 2 seconds before I realized I liked the veg tan much better. With that being said, when I tried tooling the grey leather I got it didn't work so well because not only is it predyed or but it also has a slight finish on it. The finish almost makes casing the leather impossible. If you can't case it the tooling will not pop like it should and when I used the beveler with much more force than I would have to with a peice of veg tan it gave the same look at the photo for "blackjack". Almost as if the color you are calling white is actually what the inner part of the predyed black leather looks like (like when I hit the grey leather it was lighter in the area that was beveled naturally). One other reason that makes me think this is because the beveling on "blackjack" is rough. You shouldn't see all the tool marks like that...meaning I think they hit it pretty hard to make the impressions. Again this is all my opinion, I can't be certain.

Hey there Widget, I see you are from my town

Very nice....I'd say there was some patience going on with that lacing!

I hear that! I remember Christmas of 2011 when I got my tools as a gift I sat there thinking "and what am I supposed to do with these" lol! I now think it was a much better give than a vacuum and I have spent countles hours online looking like this

HAHA! I seriously just laughed out loud on that one.

Thanks H Factor. Cyber....this is why I keep you around! One of my leather working idols for sure

Thanks guys! Cyber....after our talk I actually laughed because that is the FIRST thing I say when I visit local farmer's markets and such when I see that ALL their stuff is stamped vs tooled. I always say "nice of them to have put the time in that one" LOL Then that's exactly what I did. Then again, the guy at the farmer's market is rolling in money because people just don't "know" there is even a difference. Hopefully with all the workers out there we can change that! For instance, the renn faire guys are making SOOOO much money on braces, pouches, belts etc...that are pre-dyed, not finished, not edged, no grommets, no tooling etc.. and yet they are the ones that will be there for years making the money lol

I don't know anything about saddles either but it looks awesome to me! Great detail and it fits nicely! I have to admit the mules haircut has be cracking up. Marine mule

This was a custom order from a girl I country line dance with. I had to make a pattern for this because I don't have one. Talk about a job that made me think. She gave me measurements of 12" wide, 5" high, and 2 1/2" deep. I was able to make it 12" wide, 5" high, and 3 1/2" deep.I made sure that was ok with her before I moved on. I just didn't think it looked right only 2 1/2" deep anyway. Thankfully she didn't NEED the 2 1/2" deep, it was just a random measurment she pulled offline. I should have used custom lettering, but I didn't Either way I am happy with the final result at my first attempt.