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It would make sense that the reptile and aquatic creature hides would need different processing than mammals, but I don't actually know. What I would suggest is maybe seeing if your library has any book on the topic and work from there. A quick search yielded this book, but I am sure that it isn't the only one. What I also saw my searching was references to tanning kits meant specifically for reptiles. Hopefully this puts you on the track.

Well, if it isn't worth overdoing, is it worth doing at all?

Maybe a little bit of time with the grinder would fixed the outer dimensions, then flatten those points on the crosshatching with a file, and you'd be set.

According to me sources, the only one getting after it in the hive is the queen? Did this whole bee thing make anyone else think of ?You know, since the bee communicate through dancing... Maybe it's just me with my off-beat sense of humor.

The answer might not be with another stamp added to your collection. I have seen some amazing detail created with a sculpting tool. This will allow you to get subtle transitions on your mask without the need to mash things down into the background. There are a great deal of post in here, but this one and this one were what I found the quickest, and they do a good job of explaining what I mean. The first one even has a tutorial within the thread. The good news is, you can probably get away with a spoon from the kitchen or go to your local art-and-crafts store and pick up some cheap modeling tools meant for sculpting clay until you have the opportunity to locate a proper set meant for leather. The rounded end of a stick, bolt, or nail could even suffice, it's limited to your imagination. This way, you can get your current job done without having to disrupt your work flow much and it can be done for little to no monetary investment.

Welcome to the forums... There seem to be a few of us from Washington on here. It's always nice to see others on here from the same area you are in. To be fair, I am rather biased about this state, specifically the western side of the mountains. I have been to a number of other places, and while they are beautiful in their own ways and nice to visit, there is nothing quite like being up here in the Puget Sound area. We get teased about the number of rainy days a year we have up here, but I'll take weeks of mildly wet days with a light rain over hurricanes, tornadoes, flash floods, or extreme humidity any day. I try not letting the crippling fear of a long overdue earthquake looming over the region keep me down, though. On the leather side of things, I'm elated to see someone else joining in on the fun from the same area I am. Unlike most other mediums, you seldom end up where you started with leather. There's just so much you can do with it.

You might've even done something like this... It's worth mentioning that the head from that bolt was removed shortly after those pictures were taken so that it didn't present any issues when chucked in the drill, though.

I wish you had posted your sketches before you started cutting into your leather, I might been able to save you hours of squinting and guessing. Judging from the larger versions of the logo, it looks to be a single piston engine with wings. I did some searching and found these: This is a link to a listing for a pin that sold on ebay and the link directly to the image The attached image was found in this forum, but the ends of the wings are clipped for some reason. It might be a metal sign of some sort. This image isn't the biggest. It seems they still exist, but the logo has certainly changed since then. I can't read the page, so I have no idea if they have a historical section that might yield a better image.

The question still remains, is there any damage to the integrity of the leather? Leather items that have been subjected to long term exposure can/will experience a breakdown of the fibers within it. Essentially, the mold is digesting leather and there is a permanent damage to it. It's hard to tell from the pictures, so I only mention this as a possibility. I have had leather items that just fell into pieces after being cleaned up, which is why I bring it up. Once cleaned up, if there is any permanent damage to the leather, the surface will be dimpled and have almost an orange peel look where the mold used to reside. If this is the case, they would be a good candidate for becoming the patterns of a new bag.

I can't help but to be amazed at the flexibility and versatility of your talent. From where I sit, it seems to border on limitless. I totally understand. I find myself into a project and completely forget to take the time to get any photos of the progress. I get into a zone and loose track of everything else, it seems. It's not always a project that's planned either, sometimes it's a repair job that ends up taking a particularly clever solution to fix, but might not ever be seen when finished. This might work. Maybe a decent quality webcam that can be set to snap shots at a set interval or something. Mounting it above the the workspace might be good, but it'd probably be better to do multiple angles simultaneously to get some of the details that my fat head would most likely end up being in the way of a good deal of the time.

A horse... Sorry, I couldn't resist...

I was able to scare up a 3 part series on making a Native American drum. I will say that these are far from the best of quality in filming and video quality, but they do contain a good deal of information on some of the variations on the details of construction. You pretty much get to see a drum built in real time. It's done very much in an uncut, documentary style. He mentions different materials that are typical for use with these types of drums. I found that is from the Alaska region that is of a better quality that contains similar information and building styles, but more detail. It covers making the frame and proper drum skin tension before it's dry.I am sure there are more, but your search might have to become more specific. I hope this helps on your endeavors.

My apologies in advance for not having pictures just yet, but my 0.127" drill rod came in today and I couldn't resist getting a little time in experimenting with these blades. I'll have pictures soon. I didn't do anything fancy and just eyeballed it. I didn't bother with heat treatment or even a decent polish to the bevels since it was just my first shot to see how close I could get. I cut a chunk, bent it, and hit it wth a grinding wheel and it turned out a whole lot better than I thought it would for a first try shooting from the hip. The bevels are ever so slightly off and I found out the bend needs to be a bit more specific, but it fits in the handle and spins just as freely as the original one. Not entirely a complete success, but also not a complete failure. Despite a short list of things that I need to make adjustments to in making them, it turned out a whole lot better for a first try. I think that once I get the handle in the kinks and a nice jig to make it consistent, I should be able to do up a batch to get some testing done on them.

Is there much of a market for these blades? I did requisition some 0.127" stock to test my ability to make these blades, but with the original poster's question, it got to wondering if there was much of a demand for them. I see complete knives show up on ebay once in a while, but the condition is not always the best. I know they still have a loyal following, despite not having been made in quite some time, and that there is very little possibility that NOS blades are even available anymore.

I'd give this thread a read, since it covers exactly what you are asking, but I'd also keep in mind that there absolutely no need to go out and get everything you think you might need all at one time. You can dig around at thrift shops, flea markets, estate sales, garage sales, and the like for used tools or just get some new ones as you need them. I would refrain from using a metal hammer to pound on your stamps with, since I don't see a rawhide mallet in your list. The metal hammer will mushroom the end of your punches. The list of tools you will want/need will be based on what projects you plan on doing. Also, you might have one idea when you start and find something else that'll interest you shortly after that.

This is the cheapskate in me suggesting this, but I have seen many leather weight lifting belts at second hand shops. Most just sit until there is a 99 cent sale of some sort. I've even seen some that were unfinished veg-tanned leather that would probably take some tooling. It'd be a cheap way of getting your hardware and pattern as long as you don't feel bad about tearing an old one apart in the process.

Aside from the short list of the guys in here that do up burnishers and mauls to sell. I'm skeptical that one exists. At least not commercially. I'd start with a message to one of them to see if they'd be willing to take on the project and hopefully, you get what you're looking for.

The act of flexing and bending the leather brings about a bit of change to the texture of the surface. There are a few types of leather, such as patent, that have a surface coating designed to be flat and smooth on purpose. Some will have a pebbling effect or be very soft, but it depends on the type of leather, too. It may start out very smooth looking, but as you work with it, the texture can/will change. It probably isn't something you need to stress over.

Unless you have full control over the speed of the spindle, I'd say that a router wouldn't be a good choice. I know they tend to have rather high RPMs and you'd more than likely end up burning your edges. At the speeds a typical router spins, there is only a fraction of a second between 'smooth & shiny' and 'burnt to hell.' A drill press, and to some extent rotary tools, allow for lower RPMs, so they are more forgiving in that department. I have heard of people scavenging the motor and speed controller from old treadmills to repurpose them in some way. They are usually cheap or free, have a decent amount of torque, and all you'd need to do is relocate the necessary bits into a new housing so you can make it do your bidding. That is, if you are up to making a dedicated burnishing station for you workshop/garage and you are willing to tear into old exercise equipment that you found on the side of the road someplace. Just a thought...

Looking pretty good for a 20 year break! On a side note, I think you have a finger shaped smudge on your camera lens. There is a consistent positioned blurry spot in every one of your pictures.

Why else?

I have been following the development of this thread and thinking the exact same thing. I actually have some duplicates and such of some of my tools that have been waiting to be adopted out to a new home that will give them the proper love they deserve. Since I am making my own swivel knives now, I have ended up with extra adjustable ones from Craftool that will need new owners, too. I was actually thinking that if the tools were mixed in with other things, they might be less likely to get slapped with the higher tax rate. Maybe have it as a care package of sorts with tools as the bonus.

There's more to it than that, but this isn't the place to get into that area of discussion. This was, however, my first try at doing anything with titanium, so the drill bit was a sacrifice in the quest of knowledge. It looks like I hadn't mentioned anything in this thread, but did in a another, about sourcing some carbide tooling for super cheap. Destroying one or two drill bits in an effort to learn how to work with titanium is quite a bit different than making it a regular activity and specialized tools were quickly added to a shopping list. Practical or not, it's still an experiment to see if it could be done and was only one subsection of the overall goal in the process of taking this project from it's initial design phase to a very stable and usable product. Haven't you ever done something just to see if it could be done? That should probably exclude things that happen while alcohol is involved, though. I think it might be necessary to point out that I am not making titanium a regular thing to be worked with and I have zero intention of making blades from titanium, either. It came up because it was presented as a challenge from a friend and fit into the goal I had put for my self, overall. This isn't a business for me, so I have the luxury of not needing to stress over many of the struggles that I have encountered along the way. It's an excellent learning experience that will allow me to take a small scale project, capable of being dealt with by one person, and scale it up to larger, more complex projects so that a better idea of how to handle 'snags' that come up during each phase of the project. I do appreciate the input, as it does give me the opportunity to see things from a different perspective. This has actually had the result of me taking into account aspects that I would, otherwise, might never had even thought to consider.

It didn't take me very long on this, but I think the results were very pleasing. It turns out that 0.127" drill rod is available and it is very conceivable to make new blades from scratch. I was able to take measurements from the existing one that I have here and make a reasonable facsimile of it. It seems that I was able to get pretty close considering the renders below. The other issue I saw was that these blades are difficult to sharpen and strop when they need to be as there are no jigs that will fit them. I was thinking about this one while driving and the idea to make an adapter to fit an existing sharpening jig would be the easier route. Why reinvent the wheel, right? It would hold the blade and slide into the post of the jig sold by Tandy. When the set screw was tightened, it would pinch the adapter against the blade and hold it all in place. My first iteration had me thinking of using a two piece design and it was difficult to come up with a way to keep the parts together. It bugged me and led me to keep thinking about it. It occurred to me that I could do it with a single piece and a couple of steps of machining. This is my render of the quick little model I did up of the handle and blade. Here is the cutaway showing how the adapter would fit in the post. The cut and hole sits right under the setscrew and allows a portion of the adapter to flex and pinch against the shank of the swivel cutter blade. This a cutaway showing what it would look like with the blade inserted into the adapter.