Samalan

Grind it to one bevel in one direction and that's into the bevel until you feel a slight wire on the flat side turn it over holding the flat side down on the stone very light pressure move it side to side until the wire is gone then the most important part strop with a leather strop charged with white lot's of people say green bar but in my opinion white is best be very carful not to roll the tool up at the end of the stroke one stroke on the flat side with the tool completely flat on the strop the bevel should look like a mirror don't do to much stropping get it to the mirror and stop you should be able to strop at lest ten times before you need the stone again and at that point the stone should take jus a few passes then strop again white bar is aggressive so not to much stropping I have been sharpening my carving tools this way for thirty years with the best results I can sharpen any one of my chisels to a razors edge in less than sixty seconds sharpening should be fast and easy hope this helps this is all IMHO.

It looks like a tubular type I think if I were to make this I would use a solid copper rivet with a burr just for strength that's just IMHO

that's some nice work Tim

no wet mold do your layout lines on the leather then stamp cut holes edge do whatever you want nothing is going to change don't wet mold or you will have a real mess that's just MHO.

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I use tooth extraction pliers they grab even when the rivet head is just below the surface then I drill the pliers make it so the rivet cant spin haven't burnt any leather yet also I use them to tighten screw backs If I was to lose this tool I would get another pair that's for sure.

That's a very nice job for first try my friend .

Nice work my friend

I would end up stitching my toes together or something else fun to watch though.

Excellent do not roll the blade at all when stropping people have a tendency to doing that . A friend of mine came over to my shop one day to see how a carving job I was doing for him was coming along he was a woodworker also with a much bigger shop than mine I had an open roll of chisels on the bench he started telling me about this machine I should buy to sharpen my chisels I said that's ok I'm good he said ya but how sharp can they be as he was reaching to get one all woodworkers know you always get cut getting or putting them away well next thing blood all over the place holding his finger he sad wholly shit are they all that sharp LOL yep that they are. good luck with that sounds like your on the right road now sharpening should be fast and easy.

you must develop a wire no wire it's not sharp that 4000 grit stone is to fine to start with start with 400 then 600 then to the strop on the strop white bar compound this will make it look like a mirror if you did it a correctly and the blade steel is good you should be able to strop at least 10 times before it needs to go back to the stone and that stoning should take around 5 min then strop then back to work .

That thing is beautiful good luck with it .

Nice work looks like your good to go

So many damn questions LOL

I would cut that right in the center of the two screws skive about 1/2" to 3/4" on the two cut ends of the inside of the belt then make the addon piece lets say it's an inch then make that addon 2" for a 1/2" skive or 2.5" for a 3/4 skive then I think I would make the keeper that 1" wide put it back together with nothing less than barge cement then stitch top and bottom no one will ever see it and if you do the barge right it will be very strong you can even put in an extra two screws if you like hope this helps Good luck

looks really nice stitching looks great also

I started out using leather point needles but found them cutting the thread on the back stitch now I use what's called a diamond point I think that's what it's called never had a cut stitch again and it's good for stitching in a grove for the straight line look.

Can you show the other side

I think the point has a lot to do with it also is that a round point you know it could be just the lighting on the thing and being straight on angle beautiful job on that Hags.

that's a very nice job what size needle and thread the holes look a bit big

looking good Chuck it would be nice to see the back side just to see how you addressed that .

Very nice my friend I did a shell box in that pattern but it was not as nice as yours.

one other tip when you tighten the locknut on the foot pressure spring don't make it to tight it can jamb that rod from going up and down so just light pressure on that nut.

Welcome from Massachusetts this is how it all starts next thing you know tour buying 5,000.00 dollar sewing machines and all the hand tools it does not end you'll see but good luck talk soon.

Well there you go then permanently blinding someone with oven cleaner or something of that sort would be the best deterrent I agree I wonder why we go with the temporary blindness stuff that has all that infrared tracking dye that don't wash off and all that good stuff in it you can use it for an attacking dog's to. Are those attackers that were charged sent to a prison for the blind . LOL