Rawhide

Here's the Peter Main way. (man I learned a lot from him). Fisrt strop your hair blade, yes, strop it. Using rouge on leather is fine. Pick out the leftover rouge from between the "hairs". Next the technique depends on the animal or person you are carving. If it's short hair, pull the blade in short bursts. If it's long, use long strokes. For a little more definition, take your hair blade tool and hold it like a pencil (if you have it in a swivel knife, take your index finger out of the yoke and hold it like a pencil), now using really short arching moves, almost choppy, go over the entire hair area. Marlon

Not me.

I add 3" for the buckle end and 6" for the billet end. That's 9" total. I have the customer give me the belt they are wearing to measure or I have them put a tape measure THROUGH THE BELT LOOPS to measure the waist. Marlon

Very nice Cal. And welcome to the forum and to the addiction, ahh... leatherworking. Marlon

Hilly, You are indeed a lucky one. When they get sore, whew!!, they get sore. Sounds like you pull tight enough. Just plain lucky. Marlon

Hilly, sounds like either you have callouses already, or you're not pulling tight enough. Marlon

I've done this with the empty blank CD spindles of 50 or 100 count. Works great. Marlon

You're welcome, and me too

Do you use the RealLemon brand in the green bottle, or an actual lemon and squeeze some juice from it? Marlon

Another idea to try is to take 3 or 4 cotton balls and put them in a cloth. Tie the cloth tightly around the cotton balls. this makes a little "pad". Apply your dye to the pad, dab off excess and then apply the pad to your work in circular motion. I like to start my circles before I touch the work to prevent excess soaking in one spot. The harder you rub, the more burnishing effect you get and you can apply as many coats as you think is necessary to acheive the color you want. Good luck. (By the way, this is covered in Peter Main's book "The Main Technique of Coloring Leather". Marlon

If you use leather for stropping, make sure it's a very thin piece, say 1/2 mm or so. This will minimize the rounding of the tip when you strop. (This is why I use Illustration board or heavy card paper, it doesn't give under the pressure of my hand.) The leather will try to wrap around the edges of the tool and tend to round off a bit. On a side note: Never been to Prague, what's it like? Marlon

No sweat, glad you enjoy it. I'm sure he'll be pleased that you all like it. Marlon

He uses a number 3 scalpel with #11 blades. Marlon

Rob, Inverted carving is the act of beveling the inside of the swivel knife cuts. Carving on the flesh side is called "rough out" carving. Marlon

Peter gave me permission to post this for your viewing. Marlon ...Hello, ...here is a blue, 1 1/4" belt (tapered to 3/4") just completed. This is filigreed (with raised filler) and has green snakeskin as a background. Again (and I don't know why), scroll cuts were requested for the back of the belt. It is laced with kangaroo, dyed blue. Peter

Make sure you have the doctor/nurse check your blood pressure. The swelling of the hands sounds like your pressure is elevated. The sharp pains, sound like carpel tunnel. Both of those sound like a trip to the doctor. Marlon

You might try a Jerry stripper. You can cut different widths by adding or removing blades. Jerry Stripper

I know what you mean. Just think, we used to have to start our cars out in front of it by winding it up. Now we have remote starts. I don't know about you, but I think technology is wonderful. Might as well use it while you're here. So if you have the money to spare to upgrade, I say go for it. You probably won't be satisfied until you know for yourself if the tool is worth the price. M.

In the words of Peter Main, MODIFY IT. If something doesn't work the way you want it to... make it do so.Marlon

One other thing to look for on the leather is no scars on the back side. If your leather has scars, it will be weak in those areas and tend to break quicker. When I use this tool, i put a little pressure with my thumb and index finger (on the hand that's holding the tool) on the bottom of the leather, sort of pushing the leather up toward the top of the tool. The instructions tell you to pull the tag end through the tool on the top side of the leather. I have found that if i pull from underneath, I can usually pull the entire length without it breaking. Marlon

Dany, welcome to the forum, where no question is stupid. We all had to learn somewhere. to answer your question, your blade should be wickedly sharp. You probably got an awl blade from Tandy or Hidecrafter's and it's not sharp at all. Here's how to sharpen it. Step 1. I use a diamond hone (course), but an arkansas stone will work as well. An awl blade has four flat sides (diamond shaped). place one of the flat sides against the stone on a flat surface. Push and pull the blade back and forth on the stone. Do this on all four sides. (this will take a while depending on the blade, it takes a little practice to know when enough is enough.) Step 2. Stropping on a stone. Grab a finer stone/hone (I use extra fine) and place awl flat against stone at one end and drag that side across the stone (away from the cutting edge) several times. Do this to all four sides. Step 3. Some people do this, some don't. I do. Strop again using wet/dry paper. 1200 grit and 2000 grit (just repeating step 2 on the wet/dry). You'll only need several passes with this. Do this on all four sides. Step 4. Most important strop on a rouge card. I use red rouge, but white rouge is just as good. Rub the rouge on a long strip of manilla folder or illustration board. then strop several times on each side as in steps 2 and 3. \ Now you should have a sharp awl blad that should pass through leather with ease. If not, it's not sharp enough. Happy sharpening. Marlon

I'd be interested in finding that again as well. Hope someone remembers where it is. Where's ClayB, he always know where everything is. Marlon

That's a good one. Although, I've never seen a good mechanic with cheap tools either. M.

I agree and disagree with you a bit. If you've never had a swivel knife that's considered high end, then there's no room to compare. The ball bearing is not intended to just spin the yoke and look pretty. It's designed to do just what you want the large barrel to do for you, keep your hands from cramping. This is especially helpful when carving a Sheridan design. The Henley's, while not as expensive as some maker's, but more than the knurled Al Stohlman knives, don't spin forever, but they provide the smoothest spin I've yet to encounter. Again I can carve for a much longer time without cramping with my Henley, than I can with any of my Tandy (Al Stohlman) knives. I do agree with you that a $12 swivel knife can give you great results, and a $1000 blade is no good if it isn't sharp and polished. But I have a couple of craftool swivel knives that I use for specific things, i.e. beader blades. But if you carve a lot, do yourself a favor and invest in a good swivel knife. If you are a builder and you use Harbor Freight type nailers, you'll buy more of them than you would if you buy one good Palsode or Porter-Cable. You get what you pay for, this holds true for leather tools, leather and anything else. Just my view.

Henley's are fantastic in my book, I have several Al Stohlmans, knurled barrels and stacked leather barrels. Henley blows them away. I have a narrow Henley that i bought from Peter Main with his specially designed blade, and I ordered a large barrel that I should be receiving shortly, and I can't wait. I have heard that Bob Beard's and Chuck Smith's knives are top of the line as well. Marlon