Rawhide

I talked to Eric on Tuesday at the Guild meeting. The problem with the pictures is that the website developer had pictures with incorrect discriptions. Plus the cart was having a problem with incorrect pricing (sewing machines were for sale for $2.00). He wanted to take the whole site down to correct it, but they said to leave the site up and take down the pictures and the cart. Then the guy went on vacation, so they have to wait until he gets back. As far as the catalog goes, they've got over $100,000 into the new catalog, and it still has a long way to go...It's very expensive and time consuming and they wanted to focus on the website first, then get the catalog finished. They are slowly getting things in order, but things are really looking better for them.

you can do a 'leather' mache. I did that to my scalpel and i like it very much. It starts out with wraping the shaft with thin leather glued to itself...then take thin random strips of leather and glue (pva glue) it onto the wrapped shaft in a random fashion. let dry completely (i let mine dry about a week.) then sand the whole thing down. Dye it and coat it with Neat Lac. Makes an interesting piece and feels great in the hand. See examples here

Thanks guys...I don't know about the artist part, but I appreciate it.

Hi Richard, Unfortunately, this buckle does have metal on the inside. It's sandwiched between two layer's of leather. I used an oval buckle blank that you can get from just about any leather supplier. I tooled the front, then I used contact cement to glue the front to the buckle, then do the same for the back, using a bone folder to 'mold' the back piece to conform to all the creases. Then laced her up. That's it.

Hi, I used bleached rawhide lace. It's very thin, probably .5mm and it was dyed and dried prior to buckstitching. It is three separate pieces with the ends glued in place on the flesh side of the leather.

Hi resqman, That is a custom made stamp, for the Lone Star Leathercrafter's Guild. It contains the letters, the state of Texas, the star and the swivel knife.

This is going to sound cliche, but the real answer is keep cutting.... the more you cut, the more cuts you do the more the more errors you'll see to improve on. If you're right handed, cut the left side of the project first, then the right. That way you can see what you cut on the left as you cut the right.

One of two ways... you either cut half in one direction left side first and the other half on the right both starting at the top. or you could turn the leather and cut half and half. if you need an absolute perfect circle, use a coin or a circle template to follow.

Yep, I sure am planning on it. Hope you guys make it up, it'd be great to see you guys again. By the way, George has made a two gun rig for the IFoLG show that's outta this world. I can't describe it 'cause I don't want to give anything away, but it's definitely going to be a show stopper.

Thanks Bob and Tina.

Hi folks, Here's a buckle I completed for a competition sponsored by Lone Star Leathercrafter's Guild. I won 1st place with a prize of $50 donated by Leather Crafter and Saddler's Journal. Thanks to all that voted for my entry, and all here on the site that share lots of knowledge for the benefit of us all. Marlon

Your answer... ...lace is always dyed before the actual lacing process begins. I go to some trouble when preparing kangaroo lace...I buy it (from Australia) slightly over 1/8" wide....I then stretch it...cut it back to 1/8"...then thin it to around 0.6mm...bevel the edges....then dye as required. That procedure keeps me out of trouble for some time. When the lacing is completed, it is lightly dampened and gently hammered using a shoe hammer with a highly polished face. I then spend a lot of time with a (real) bone folder, slicking the edges until a nice roll is achieved. Peter

He always seems to one up himself with each project.

Hi Tim, Peter is a friend of mine...We kind of developed a web friendship after I took a few of his classes. As he completes items, he sends me copies of the pictures that he posts to the IILG forum. He is a member here also, and lurks every now and then. I am also a member of the Fort Worth Guild (Lone Star Leathercrafters). Marlon

Here's a new one from Peter Main... ...here is a belt recently completed. It is filigreed, backed with a pebble-grain black kangaroo....the lacing is also kangaroo, dyed black. The 'finger-cuts' on the reverse are shaded with tan to make them look more interesting. This belt also has a thick filler, to give it a 'rounded' look. Note that the belt is not filigreed in the area where the five holes are...this would weaken the belt. ...the shading on the back was done with a sable brush and tan spirit dye. The running loop is secured with what I call a 'keeper-keeper'...this is made from the same kangaroo leather that was used as a background behind the filigree work. Peter

Oil dye is really just a spirit dye with a little better alcohol and better dyestuffs for color. I would estimate the same dry time for oil dyes as regular spirit dyes. I do have to warn you that my edging process is fairly lengthy, so my timeframe may be different...

I use it strictly for making lace.

Ed, To tell you the truth, the best edge dye I've used is fiebings oil dye...It penetrates very deep in the edge. I tried the Angelus dye on the edge and didn't like it, but you may have better luck with it, but I like the oil dye. (As a matter of fact, I HATE the edge dyes)

That's exactly what I'm going to start doing...Wish I would have seen this about an hour ago...I just came from home depot.

Josh...I agree with you here. But I'll tell you why it is this way. It's not that it isn't taught how Americans had to fight for their beliefs, it's not that they are taught about God, not about the price and liberty of freedom...It is simply this, Americans have become complacent, because there is no major struggle going on. No one telling you that you can't eat here, or you can't have that religion, you can't assemble for a common cause. Sure there are the everyday politcal battles that go on, but for the most part that's a battle of ideals. With that being said the complacent American just let's everything slide, because it doesn't directly affect them in the immediate moment. No matter how hard it will affect them in the future, they'll only dwell on the now. What we need is persistence. The will to keep going, no matter what, no matter the education you have, no matter the money you have, continue to perservere. Continue to strive to be better than yesterday. Learn something new. I'll leave my comment with my favorite quote from Calvin Coolige: Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

Here's what I do. I sand the edges flat if necessary, Egde with appropriate edger. Sand again to smooth out irregularity and to round over a bit more dampen the edge and rub with glycerin soap burnish with cordura impregnated with saddle soap dye the edge and let dry remove excess dye with a t-shirt burnish again with hardwood then again with cordura impregnated with parrafin wax. then polish with t-shirt then seal with a mix of 2 parts leather balm with atom wax, 1 part resolene. hardwood burnish to shine the wax.

Damon, I'll tell you that a skilled carver can cut deco cuts with just about any blade, however, I've found that for me, my Peter Main designed blade (made by Henley) is by far the only blade I'll use for deco cuts. It has a much wider bevel than a standard blade, so it will open a cut wider without going deeper. I also use it to carve on thin leathers. As far as your deco cuts go, You'll want to taper them a bit more to produce that perfect look. The end of the cut should look like it disappears into the leather, not just abruptly stop. Sharpening is the act of aggressive metal removal to produce a very keen edge, i.e. sharp edge. This is usually done on stones, or wet/dry sandpaper. Polishing is the act of removing the scratches from sharpening and this is done on the rouge. The idea is to get a mirror edge on the business end. I say all of this with this caviat, sharpening is only done on the metal blades, most ceramics are strop only (lots of stropping up front) and the rubys are maintenance free (i strop mine anyway, but it's a preference.) If you have a metal blade, and you have not sharpened it, I suggest doing so and then strop it well. with a new blade, I use a diamond hone to sharpen quickly, then I use progressively 800, 1200, 2000 grit wet/dry automotive sandpaper, then polish on rouge board.

Hidecrafter's carries roo hides in a few colors, I think black, natural, and maybe cordavan/burgundy. You'll have to call em tho. I don't think the website is ready yet.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I kind of figured I'd do more damage than good. By the way Steve, where do I get croacus cloth? Thanks

Hi Bob, Will the blasting ruin the temper? I certainly don't want to do that. So far I've slow wet grinded the bevel, then used my cardboard wheels to put an edge on, and hand polished with 800 grit/1200 grit/2000 grit/green rouge strop. I bought one of those portable blasters from Harbour freight and some 70 grit medium, I was going to try it out on some old metal to see how well I can control it first. I may just leave well enough alone. Any advise would be welcome. Thanks. By the way, did you sell your extras yet? If you decide to let one of those beard mauls go, let me be the first in line!!!