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Rawhide

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Everything posted by Rawhide

  1. Rawhide
    What should I polish the channels with? And oil with? Thanks for your suggestions.
  2. Rawhide
    Here's a picture
  3. Rawhide
    For you guys and gals that restore old tools, how do you do it? I have a rein rounder that I'd like to clean up. It's not in bad shape, but it could use a good cleaning. Thanks, Marlon
  4. Rawhide
    Mike, Gorgeous belt. Very neat handstitching. (a favorite of mine). Can I ask what leather skirting you used? Brand and color? Thanks.
  5. Rawhide
    a lot of sharpening is by feel. There is something to watch for when sharpening tho. The burr. this will develop on the very edge of the blade as you sharpen. A burr occurs when the metal at the edge of a blade rolls backward. You can feel it with a finger if you lightly pull your finger toward the edge of the blade. Take notice as to how long it takes you to develop that burr on one side. Use the same approximate time to sharpen the other side. When this burr occurs, you can use a strop to get rid of it, leaving a sharp edge. I use a tormek to sharpen my blades and it has a 1000 grit wheel on it. I've used the three stone set up as well and it works fine. Change stones once you've developed the burr on both sides.
  6. Rawhide
    I've tried almost all of them. Wooden, plastic mallet, rawhide mallet, Al Stohlman brand rawhide maul, ASB polyhead maul, Barry King straight maul, Barry King tapered maul. My latest maul ( i prefer mauls over mallets), is one from Ed "the bearman" LaBarre. I gotta say that this is the maul for me. It's very well balanced, never slips, and never flakes, and it's flipping pretty to boot! I love it. A maul, mallet, whatever is a very personal thing. You'll have to experiment to see what's for you. Marlon
  7. Rawhide
    I stopped using barge a while ago. it's too much of a hassle and very messy. I now use weldwood contact cement. I get it at home depot, it's cheaper and works perfectly.
  8. Rawhide
    Seemed to me that glue pots were always better suited for rubber cement. for my contact cement, I use an old plastic coke bottle with a tiny hole in the cap. I squeeze out what and where I want, and cover the hole with a small scrap of sheeps wool. works great and lasts forever.
  9. Rawhide
    Have you tried Ohio Travel bag? I think you will need a tax id to order from them tho...
  10. Rawhide
    Jeremy, I place the cord on a hook that's screwed into my bench, and then rub my wax back and forth over it. I rub fast enough to generate a little heat so as to sort of melt the wax into the fibers. I've never dyed my cord, but if I did, I would rub it with a white cloth until no more dye bled off, then wax it well.
  11. Rawhide
    Add a couple of LIGHT coats of neatsfoot oil between your dying, and finishing. Dying leeches out the natural fat oils and those infused during the tanning process. Take caution and apply this sparingly in increments. Neatsfoot is VERY easy to over apply and saturates the fibers. You can ruin a many of projects with oversaturating with oil.
  12. Rawhide
    Sylvia, I didn't use stones, I used Automotive sand paper. I bought them at O'reilly auto parts I think. I use a 4-sided strop, if you will. I rubber cement to it a strip of 800, 1200, 2000 grit paper, then the last side is a strip of manilla folder with rouge rubbed in. when either side gets roughed up beyond use, I remove that strip and rubber cement another strip on. for serious work on a blade, you could just use the paper glued to a hard backing so that you have a larger surface to work with. But the strips seem to work great for me.
  13. Rawhide
    Nice to be missed Pete! I would start with 800 to cut the serrations off, then 1000, 1200, up to 2000 to polish it up. It seems that the big companies are all the same now, they don't really take the time to churn out a quality product anymore. those old ceramics are probably 10 times better than what you can get now.
  14. Rawhide
    While ceramic blades are great for long lasting edges, they require A LOT OF WORK before you can expect longevity with your carvings. I had to to work on my ceramic blades about a half an hour on each side. If you look very closely at the bevel of those blades as they come from the store, there are a multitude of serrations. (use a magnifying glass). When you work all these out and make it smooth, they will cut a thousand times better. That being said, the blades from Leatherwranglers seem to me to be the longest lasting for carving without stropping. They have a great metal blade that they researched extensively and I use it regularly. It's always the first one I grab. (I've tried almost all blades too, Henley, ceramic, Chuck Smith, Al Stohlman brand, Barry King, etc...) Marlon
  15. Rawhide
    you can also use it as filler material. Say you want a belt with a raised center, or a little bit stiffer sidewall to a purse. Probably many more uses that we haven't thought of.
  16. Rawhide
    i used to get marks from slicking the back of the piece. When I flipped it over, I didn't realize that the little gribblies from tooling were all over the granite. Now I have a habit of using denatured alcohol to clean my block, before I flip my piece over for anything. I also don't lay tools on the leather as I'm working. I lay them to the side or in front. you might try some rubber or latex gloves to tool with, and see if that helps. Marlon
  17. Rawhide
    King's is not much more expensive than the tandy one and is MUCH BETTER made. I have 3 tandy ones and one Barry King stylus and will reach over all the Tandy's to get the BK one. You wouldn't think that it makes much difference but it does.
  18. Rawhide
    I second the Barry King one. Although, I sharpened mine to a finer point.
  19. Rawhide
    I use neither. Why? Because the leather will give and eventually round the corners of your blade. Use something hard and flat. I use the wood board, and glue a strip of manilla folder to it and rub in my polishing compound to that. Keeps corners nice and sharp! Marlon
  20. Rawhide
    you should probably make a wooden mold the shape of your camera body and fit the body of the case around it, then cut your bottom to fit, and sew it with the wooden mold still in place. just my $.02
  21. Rawhide
    kindle case tooled
    Comments: This is really good to say you haven't been tooling a while. You are getting great burnishing in your bevels which says that you understand the moisture control for cased leather. (quite hard to get the hang of in the beginning). Good use of the pear shader and matting tools as well. I still have my days with the pear shaders! Critiques: The backgrouning surrounding the "W" sort of has a pattern identifying the directions you tooled it, try to get more consistent with the amount of force used to strike the tool, and rotate it as you work. on your border that is also your leaf stem, use a pair of dividers to make your curves parallell. And lastly (more of a personal choice than a critique), but I would not use snaps on a case for an electronic device like this, because of the pressure required to snap it closed, it make break the screen.... Great Job...Keep up the good work.. Marlon
  22. Rawhide
    Ray, Not sure how it will handle slush and ice. Maybe a 2 stage is what you need. I know ice gets compacted and is hard to break up. Might want to ask a manufacturer how well it copes with your climate. you might need to install heaters under your driveway!
  23. Rawhide
    I like the ones that take gasoline! I used to live in Delaware and hated shoveling. I bought a blower and this was the best move I ever made. sold it when I left for texas. If I ever went back, I'd buy another snow blower, before I buy groceries!
  24. Rawhide
    It's been a while since I've done one, but you have to put in some work to get them right. If you look at them closely, with a maginfying glass, you'll see small serrations from when it was made. You'll have to polish all of these out. I would start by stropping it on about 600-800 grit sandpaper, then move to 1200, then move to 2000. The first and second level of stropping will take a while, but be sure you do both sides evenly (count your strokes). Marlon
  25. Rawhide
    My goodness Bob! Very classy and just outstanding work! I do have some questions. Along the scalloped border on the back, there is stitching following the scallops. is that just decorative, or does it actually secure the liner into the purse? Also, did you develop the overall shape of the purse, or is it a basic pattern? Thanks, Marlon.
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