shtoink

I did a quick search for a leather skull cap pattern and found at least two that sounded promising. Here and Here These may, or may not, be what you had in mind, but at least you can see what's going between the flat, uncut material and the thing you put on your head.

I have to agree the Chief's statement. I've been watching this thread and debating on whether or not I had anything of value to add that hadn't already been said. The only thing that I have not seen mentioned yet is the focus on preferences. There is a reason that there are a wide variety in length and barrel diameter, and it's because there's also a wide variety of preference and hand shape and size. There are plenty of members in here that find they'll want a thinner barrel mated with a filigree blade for detail work but have a thicker barreled knife with a half inch blade for longer cuts that don't have a lot of curves. I'd even wager that some of these guys have several knives set up they way they want for each specific task in a carving project. It's all about personal preference and one knife with one blade is likely to not be up to the task of every job try to give it. It'll likely become more obvious the further along you get into leather working that you find the desire to not have to keep adjusting your knife, swap out blades, or that the knife just doesn't feel right. This is especially true if you have issues with arthritis and can't deal with carving for extended periods of time.

That turned pretty cute. I like the idea of a 3D shape with your own design. Looks like it'd make for an interesting project for kid.

Good news! I had to back-burner the project due to school, frustration, and incorrect adhesives, but things a getting back under way. I got myself some PVC glue so that I could convince about 50 individual tubes to become a single piece. The hard part was getting off copious amounts of CA glue that I slathered all over the tubes in hopes that it would have been good enough. Please note that is was not the correct glue to use, is brittle, sharp, and presents a real eye hazard when trying to scrape it all off. In the process, I managed to give my hand a minor laceration. Not something I'd have expected, so anyone reading along, store that one away for later referencing. I'll post up some progress pictures once I have a bunch of tubes all glued up. I really set myself back by not getting the right stuff for the job in the first place, but at least I didn't have to cut another 50 or so tubes sections to length. Before I'd dropped my bundle of tubes that were held together with CA glue, I was able to test fit them to the face plate and make sure that my holes lined up well enough. Using that template I made and taking my time with drilling out those holes really paid off. The biggest issue I had with that thing was keeping a scrap piece as a backing to prevent tear out. Up next will be joining the tubes to the face plate and making the rest of it all one piece. I'm thinking that I should find away to fill any voids in between the tubes and the side panels for the punch block.

With the images I found, this is what I was able to piece together. It's a bit rough and the details are a tad muddy, but it's in one image. The issue I was having was that there was some distortion from the light source in the center of the astrolabe as the rings move around. This meant that, without a bunch more work, there isn't a clean way to just print the image to scale and trace it to leather. An intermediate step is needed to make it into some line-art that is appropriately sized and transferable to leather. The original PSD file is around 100 Mbytes and consists of about 14 layers to try and capture as much detail as possible. It look like some of the gaps will need to be assumed or filled in with a "best guess" for those that want to push forward with it. *EDIT* It turns out that the image attachment system has the annoying feature of automatically reducing the image size to what it deems fit. It lets me upload an image and attach it, but gives no warnings or intervention for making my image much smaller than it should be. *EDIT 2* It looks like the only way to do this with bigger images is to upload to the gallery and link to it with the full editor. Not exactly my ideal method, but I guess it works. Just right click the thumbnail, click on the image, and then right-click the image when you can see the magnifying glass icon and then select the "Link to Original File" option. That should bring up the full sized image to be able to save it for later use. If all else fails, I can send it via email or something. The current method leaves a lot to be desired.

I have been searching around for high resolution screen captures of the intro to be able to see if I can piece together something that might be able to be used as a pattern. I've got some pretty good images so far, I just need to sit down with some image editing software to stitch them together and make some adjustments to make them easily transferable to leather.

I'd shot an email out to Paul about this right about the same time King's X put his post in. I might see making one of a similar design for personal use, but to put them out there for sale to others is a huge difference. Especially when you consider all the work and testing that went into the design of the knife. This is me personally, but I really question the motives of someone who's very first post is an item for sale. There's no history of the person's interaction with the community to be able to make any judgements on. There are a couple members in here who only use the expertise of the more knowledgeable people for the sole purpose of creating an eBay listing without ever giving anything back to the community.

WScott, our official zombie leather worker... What an interesting mascot we have, now...

Tree Reaper, It's funny that that is what you came up with. It was nearly the exact thing I had in mind when I suggested a cap for existing Chicago screws earlier on.

Was this a strap that has already seen use on a horse? If that is the case, then it will likely have had a coat of some kind of finish applied and even oils and such from the horse.That would explain why you weren't able to get any water to soak in, and any tooling would need to have been done prior to all of that stuff. Maybe taking some time to strip any finishes and oils will make it somewhat accepting of water, but I have not heard of anyone having good results from anything like that. You'd still need to replace any of the oils removed and refinish. It's easier to just start with a belt blank than to add tooling to one after it's been in service.

They actually had the very same issue with some of the later chrome plated ones, too. I had to break out the files and Dremel to make it usable. The blade was at the incorrect angle and the waste would bind up between the blade and the exit chute. I talked to the manager about it and he said that he knew and apologized for not being able to do anything about it. To top it off, it's seems to be a low melting temp, zinc based alloy which may fracture easily if dropped. I think that a skiver made by ANY other place might be better. The last thing you need to the handle snapping off while using it and rink slicing yourself up.

I can confirm this... That is the link to the page from the company that makes this product. My first impression was "That looks a lot like MDF" as well. DavidL, I am not, by any means, suggesting that your quest is an impossible one, merely that it has a high probability of being an ineffective one from a cost perspective. If you really need these to have a specific look, then you'll need to have control at every step of the process. The only way I know how to make that happen is to do it yourself. Whether that means, oversee someone under you doing the task or performing it with your own hands, the idea is the same. New tooling will be how you achieve this. A new Sherline lathe isn't super cheap, but will certainly be a good investment if this is something you want to be able to do in-house to keep costs down. I personally recommend the 4000C package, as it comes with 85% of the stuff you might need if you don't plan on turning anything over 8 inches long. Add a self centering 4 jaw chuck and possibly a independent 4 jaw chuck to that list. You'll need to build up a list of steps to follow to have some repeatability, but thing like form tools that have the profile of the cap shape pre-ground can help speed the process up. That 4000C package run just a smidge over $1100. When you factor in shipping, the extra chucks and anything else you added to that list, it'll very likely be less up-front cost than getting your first order of caps made with that added benefit of giving you 100% control at ever stage and the ability to change the shapes and materials with very little time, order-size, or cost restriction. You asked for the opinion of others, but appeared unhappy with those opinions when they were given. The direction you head is completely up to you. I, personally, have asked opinions others in here before and even went against them. Sometimes the opinions were wrong, sometimes not. It all depends on just how strongly you feel you need to have this specific addition to your line of products. Will it be more cost effective to invest a great deal of time into having someone else make these caps and risk lost money if they turn out wrong anyway or to add an additional layer of steps your existing line? I can't answer that for you, which is why I kept saying that more research was needed. I think you would feel more secure with having control over the results and would recommend getting tooled up, but that is just my opinion.

I second everything that RavenAus and LTC have said. If you haven't worked with the equipment and materials, it's very difficult to see just how much work goes into something like this. CNC isn't mind reading, it has to be programmed. The materials need to be prepared into blanks first before anything else can even happen. You aren't going to have perfect dowels from raw chunks without added effort. A great deal of time is spent making sure that things go as planned, too. It's still very labor intensive, CNC just helps keep things consistent. To do all the steps by hand doesn't change much either. Don't forget that when you start messing with exotic hard woods, they very in price wildly based on availability, species, and who's selling. Forget about trying to find someone to carve these things by hand from exotic hardwoods, not without boatloads of money to throw at it. By that point, you may as well be making them from precious metals, because that is the territory of money you'd be venturing into with that one due to labor costs alone. Some species are more forgiving than others, too. I've run across a few that don't like being spun too fast and will explode if you don't take that into consideration. Some others that need to have light cutting passes or they'll explode. I still think that what you are asking for isn't a Chicago screw. It sounds a lot like the original thing that I suggested, which was a cap of some sort. I highly recommend more research. If you are still dead set on these things, you might need to find the required tools and tackle the learning curve to get it done your self, or see if you can't sweet talk someone local to you into doing up a few as a prototype to see if they'll even do the jab you want them to. This whole thing is a giant "what if" and it'd be a terrible thing to find out that you invested a ton of time and money into all this only to find out that it even work.

Are you sure that isn't "Northwestern Floral" ?

I was implying that the cap would be applied afterwards, but I must have overlooked saying that specifically. It sounds like you are pretty set on going the route of having these, so my suggestion would be to see if you can find someone local that would be willing to make some up to your specifications and then test them. The other option is to see if you can make them yourself and test them. Either way, testing them would be very high on my "to do" list to make sure they did the job you needed without failing. I could see them being used as an accent, but not much more. I won't claim being an expert on the topic, though I have some familiarity on pushing the boundaries with things that can be done with wood. I've made further refinements since those were made, but the big thing was lots of testing. It's possible that you find a way to make it work. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

That was a great call! I knew they looked familiar, but I couldn't get the thought to coalesce on why they did.

I have my doubts that you'll be able to find any, custom or otherwise. The biggest reason is strength. At the sizes typical Chicago screws are available, even plastic will be stronger than wood. The grain, the grain direction, the size, the species of tree, and plenty of other factors will all contribute to what will ultimately be an item that will fail under ordinary use. What might be worth looking into is having small wooden caps bonded to the top of the outside portion of the Chicago screw so that you still get the desired look without the risk of having your products seem poorly made. Hopefully this helps.

Yes! There is a great deal of research done on that very topic. A sharp corner is one of many types of stress risers, but is easily eliminated with a radius. In the case of a hole, a circle is ideal. I tried to find somewhere online with a good comparison between the two, but didn't have a whole lot of luck. Most places tended to go well beyond the concept I was trying to convey. I did find this page, though

I know that there has been plenty of questions on the topic of printing directly on to your leather and there are some places out there that can provide such services, but not many answers for being able to do it with what you have at home. I have seen methods that involved things from specialized printers for direct garment printing to special glues to apply to your image to adhere it to the leather, but nothing that was easily done at home. At least until I saw this... This method is for inkjet printers only and limited in size to what your printer will fit, but it's very easy and should work with anything porous, such as leather. The guy doing the tutorial shows the method with a wood board and mentions what will and won't work. I hope others can find this method a happy medium until Direct to Garment printing becomes a much cheaper and more viable option.

I see that I'm not the only fan of Hack a Day! I saw that desk on there recently and thought it was a great idea for those with limited space or that travel.

I can so relate to that...

There's been the occasional discussion about dog collars and exposure to water. It'd take a bit of searching to find the specific threads, but I can at least pass the gist of them on. With veg-ten, the location from the hide plays a part in the amount of stretch that can happen, so can the size of the dog. Closer to the belly has a lot more stretch than the section along the back/spine. If a dog likes to pull and enjoys the water, it will make stretching far more likely than a small dog that won't get near water. Compare labs to poms, for example. If you plan on dyeing the collar, getting wet should also be considered. Like it was stated above, perforations along the width become likely places of failure. Rivets or Chicago Screws used on a stretch prone leather will also be likely to fail. The material and technique you use to make the collar should take into consideration of the animal that it'll be used on and how it'll be used. This is definitely not a "one size fits all" sort of thing, especially if you don't want the collar to fail or the dog to become injured. Hopefully this is gives you enough to be able to move in the direction you need to.

If I'm not mistaken, modeling spoons fit this category, too. I guess it depends on the type of detail needing to be done, though.

Randomizing the tool orientation will help disguise the regular pattern that happens. In some of the narrower and curved spaces, a smaller tool with the same texture to the surface will allow you to have few restraints on tool position. This is similar to the technique you'd use to smooth out tool marks while beveling, but over a large area instead of a line. The good news is that you wouldn't need to start over, but just bash some irregularity into the backgrounded section. Just be careful not to hit too hard with a tool that has a smaller face, since it'll dig in deeper. It's all about practice and getting familiar with how the leather behaves. Proper casing can make all the difference in the world, too.

I'm usually pretty surprised when something similar hasn't been done yet, especially when it's as popular as this show is. I did a bit of digging and found numerous still of the astrolabe in the intro... First, the astrolabe as a whole A wiki page with some clickable thumbnails Several more close up shots on the details There was a bunch more, but it would require further weeding through the pages to find the stuff missing from the gaps. If you want to go that far with it, it'd probably be easier to snag a copy of the intro so that you can go frame by frame and transfer what you see to a sheet of paper. After that, I'd do exactly what DavidL was saying and put it on a belt. It might not be the exact thing you were asking about, but it'll get you a good start. I found another one... and another one... It looks like both of those are people trying to get more detail from the rings, too.