Rawhide

Tina, The "two tone" is something that almost made me pull all the lacing out and start over. It should be all orange, but the lace strings didn't dye evenly. Something I need to work on I guess, but since this is not a commission item, I figure what the heck.

You'll have to email him. He's a member here, but go to his website www.petermain.com and he's got an email set up there. I think I paid 38 total for the blade and handle. Don't pass out when you see his beautiful works of art. Make sure you tell him Marlon sent you. (if you still can't catch him, send me a pm and I'll see if I can catch him.)

Thank you much. Happy new year to you as well.

You're welcome.

Hi Tom, Thanks for the compliments. The strap edges are actually full strength orange, but the lighting does skew them to red. (Could be the el cheapo camera, too!!!)

First thing is to look at your awl blade. It's probably too big for consistent stitches. Once you've got a decent awl, next step is to maintain the same angle when stabbing the holes. If you have to put the awl down, then use the last hole stabbed to re-align your awl to the proper angle. Here's a sample of awl sizes. The holes are rather carelessly punched, but you get the size idea. As you can see the Tandy's are WAY too large for fine handstitching. Peter's blade and Bob Douglas' blade are perfect and essential for perfect stitching. You can also get good results with the osborne, but stay away from the Tandy ones. Especially the ones that come in the 4 in 1 pack. Peter and Bob's blades are only tapered at the very tip, so the rest of the awl blade is the proper width. To regulate the depth of a blade, punch out some washers of skirting leather and stack them on you blade this way they act as a stopper.

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Here are some pictures of a purse I made for my aunt. I got written permission from the University of Florida to use their logo. Critiques are always welcome, so please let me know the mistakes. Enjoy

I don't think the handles are any longer, but the beauty of a custom tool maker is you can call em up and request it. I'm sure most would be happy to oblige. The reason I like the maul better than the mallet is 1. Weight distribution. It seems to feel more natural to hold it. 2. I have far less glancing blows to the top of the tool. It seems as though you'd have more due to the round head, but for me, far less.

Well the main reason I went with the daylight bulbs, was due to Peter Main. He told me there's nothing worse than coloring something and it looks perfect in you shop, and you get it outside and the colors seem all wrong. I haven't regretted that move yet. I may still put a light there though.

I have a straight and a tapered 12 oz maul from Barry King. I like the tapered one, because I can lean my elbow on the bench or stone and the angle of the tool relative to the head of the maul is still flat. With the straight one, you have to get your elbow up to keep the angle flat. I switched from mallets to mauls a while ago, and I haven't regretted it one bit. I only use a mallet, if a maul isn't available.

I think so, I've been debating it because I have four 8 foot light ballasts in my shop all fitted with 5500K (or 5000K, can't remember) bulbs, so it looks like daylight in my shop, even with daylight I about produce more light than the sun.

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Here are some pictures of the spray table so far.

Not at all. I do this on every hand stitched item. Just place the point of the wheel it between a stitch where the awl hole is and run it back and forth over the stitches. This will help the stitches fill the holes so they disappear, assuming you used a proper sized awl. And help correct minor stitch laying problems so they look more uniform. The best compliment I get is, "what kind of sewing machine sewed this?". Marlon

Hisself, Thanks for the pointers. I just got back from lowes with a bunch of stuff to build myself a spray booth. I've got a 50 cfm exhaust fan that will move the air in a downdraft form. let's see if it works. I'll try to remember and take pictures to post later. Secondly, the compressor I bought was this one complete with filter and regulator. A little teflon tape and I'm spraying. Crystal, the posting said that the white jug was a rinse and cleaning station.

I know what you mean. Have a good trip. Which book are you after?

There are several skiving tools. One is the safety beveler, this is a pretty inexpensive skiving tool that uses injector blades to skive, material. Then there is the super skiver, a little bit better handling, but still uses the injector blades. Then there's the french edger, a hand tool that looks almost like an edge beveler, but has a flat bottom and a wider footprint. A head or round knife can be used, and then there's a lap skiver, and finally a bell knife skiver. I'm sure there are more tools for this but this is what I can come up with and they are in general order of least to most expensive with the bell knife being about a 1000 bucks used, and the saftey beveler, maybe 8 to 10 bucks. What is meant by skiving is reducing the thickness of the leather evenly, so as to reduce the bulk of the belt at the bend. The U channel you speak of is called a gouge, there are U gouges and V gouges.

ok just one more for the road...don't worry i'm not driving!

10...9...8.......drink...happy new year Peter.

If you work it into the leather with some clipped sheeps wool, that should minimize the cracking. If you spray it however, it's bound to crack.

I saw one that looks really neat. It's a little large, but the concept is fabulous. it has a down draft with holes in the "floor" and a cabinet underneath large enoughf for a pancake compressor. I has a box fan mounted under the "floor" that creates the down draft through a filter. I'll see if I can find the link or the pictures. Twin, My compressor is so small and quiet you wouldn't believe it. It's about as loud as a sewing machine running. It's got a little 3/4 gallon tank on it. Here are the pictures.

Better get it while you can if you like it. The company that made it will not be making it anymore.

Thanks for the tips Bree. I do plan to build a portable booth and fit it with a hvac filter and a fan. I don't plan to do enough to need explosive proof housings, but I'll keep that in mind if I ever produce enough work to need em.