Dan Hammons

Hi All, Could you fellow leather workers give me some advice as which Leather Guild you would recomend for a fellow from Utah. I know there are some good ones out there that just want to help each other . I would need a Guild that would accept me even though I can't attend meetings from where I'm at. I recently left the IILG very quietly based on my own personal difinition of right and wrong. I would like to enter some of the competitions but without being a member of a Guild that's not possable . I would be very gratful for any and all of your recomemdations Thanks a Bunch Dan.

At first the idea of pushing my kinife seemed like one of those " Ya Right" sort of things but it's not that hard to do and when you are cutting the tight turns of an oak or maple leaf you will be surprised how much better they look done in one smooth motion. There are some nice well built knifes out there that you can buy and I have a Barry King but I don't change the blade whenever I want to use a diff. blade. As far as cutting goes I would tell you that the blade is far more important than the the knife. Like they say "IF YOU CAN'T DRIVE A NAIL WITH A $5 HAMMER AN $80 HAMMER AIN'T GONNA HELP !" Dan

Hi Regis, One important thing to remember when figure or pictorial carving s when and where to reverse and double bevel. For most all of your fine detail and muscle tone work you will want to use a modeling spoon. Peter Main is a big fan of the modeling spoon and has designed one that you can purchase from him directly on his website. They were $35 when I bought mine and I feel that it is worth having if a person is serious about figure carving. It will come in handy for all your carving also and is very well made. I made a nice case for mine when I got it but the case never gets used . Dan

The only times that I've ever had a problem with leather cracking was once years ago and I put to much Neat-lac on a clutch purse and the other time was a checkbook that I had dyed black and the spirit dyes pulled all the oil from the leather making it stiff and hard. Dan

I could be wrong but I understand that to mean that you are not allowed to reproduce and sell the pattern itself. An example would be making a pattern pack of their free patterns and selling them. Good question though. Dan

I am sure you are incorrect when it comes to the free patterns and as far as craftaids go you sell anything made with them or anything you make using patterns from books you buy. When you buy a craftaid you are buying the right to use that pattern and the same thing applies to any and all tooling books that you purchase. The free patterns are just that free!! Many of those patterns on there you can find else where also and given to us so we will visit their site. Dan

quote name='Johanna' date='Feb 6 2007, 10:40 PM' post='2072'] I have a friend who is into designer purses. I told her that we had been discussing getting fair money for hand made hand carved custom handbags... You aren't going to believe what she showed me: This is The Bag Forum (pics of purses celebrities carry, too) The Purse Blog or Purse Forum (note the # of posts!) The Bag Snob (OMG! Look at the prices!) O M G is right !!! And to think I sold that Rose Purse for $150 We need to find a way to get these women to see our products !! I was thinking how nice a Market Place Handbag would look tooled with a rose pattern on it but was wondering who would pay $1000 for a purse. Now I know but you must realize that these type of people probably won't buy it unless you put a price tag on it of $1500 or more cuz how much they paid means something to them also. I'm Thinking about this very hard!!! This is the only Market Place Handbag I have made.

: Well, I do have a talent...I can sometimes persuade people to post their work and tell how they do it on the leatherworker board.... Johanna Johanna , You have alot of talent and we are all lucky to have someone such as yourself on our side. Your love of leather working is as real as anyones I have ever seen and TY for doing all you do for us!! Dan

Don't we all Billy!! I Like the tooling and coloring on the baby birds . Very well done. I found a bag the other day of things that I tooled for practice and learning when I first started. Maybe it would be fun thread to start and give the new carvers hope cuz there were times I didn't think I was ever gonna figure this out. Who knows if I keep working at it maybe I will someday.

That is a nice looking purse. I like the design of it.Looks like I'll be looking for the cutting patterns. I see what you mean about the braided strap and it looks good on that purse. Thanks for sharing that .

OK One more.!! This pattern is from Al Stohlmans Book on doing pictures in Copper.I carved it inverted and added the hills in the background. Needless to say coloring that Grey horse was a challenge.Carving is 12x18

Hi Bruce , The Green is Fielbings Kelly green and the red is Tandy pro dye. I think the real secret to the color is the first coat I put on. I deluted tandy yellow down to a around 50% and cover leaves stems and roses. Then I started shading the Green deluted 50% stating at the center out and same with the roses. With a black background you want the edges lighter to seperate them. Don't worry to much about getting green on your background it is a good base color for black anyway. The final coat is a dry bruch of each color. Sealed it with Neat lac and after that dryed i used high-lighter to fill in small places but wipe about (0% of what I put on off. By useing yellow as a base coat it intensifies your green and reds

The lace is What is holding it together

Hi All, I just finished this purse this morning and I think I;m all caught up on the roses and purses for now. Dan

Hello I have one of those and use mine all the time. If I am going to use a border tool on the edge of a project I run it down the edge 1st . I like to do this 1st when the leather is not as dry as when I bevel with a tool. Then I cut the rest of my pattern. For no longer than it takes to run down the end it provides a nice guideline for beveling also. I also made one out of a F-895 that I use for figure carving. I can make light impressions for a guide line or if I don't like my 1st choice of where to stamp I don't have to live with it.

Hi All, Can anyone tell me the best uses for buffed leather. I have some very nice pieces of it but don't know what to make out of it.

I finished this for a guy today and he was 3 kinds of excited when he left with it. Dan

Thanks Holly, I remember how tired of beveling I was doing this pattern.!! Like Peter Main said "You can do this pattern with only three tools."

Here is a clock that I made a few months ago and then just layed it up on a self and sort of forgot I had it. I took it down dusted it off and put the clock works in yesterday and figureded I may as well post it. My sister seems to think she really likes this one.

Thanks Holly,I measure to the center across and then use my compass.No need to worry about making a mark on the center of the leather cuz I have to punch it out to put my clockworks in. I do like to let my pattern spill over the edge of the clock face here and there which helps to break up the circle a little in case my knife wanders off the line. One more thing I do when dying a black background is not to worry to much about all the real small places to much. I put on a thin coat of neat-lac and let it dry and then use highlighter to fill in all the small and hard to get places. Another thing for those who have not used black as a background. If you noticed I left the edges of the leaves and roses a very light color so that they are seperated from the black. Dan

Here is a clock I just finished for my Mother

A couple of small pictures I made from some small pieces of leather I had sitting around.

Here is a couple of projects that I have done recently using Helly Green as my background color. After dyeing the background Fiebling Tan Antique was applied .

He liked the purse so much he had ti have a checkbook to match.

i All , Here is a gun sling that I finished a couple day ago for a client.