Rawhide

Bill, I think it depends on what you want to do or learn. He's charging $225.00 for a 2-day clinic here in Fort Worth, this coming weekend. The class is to cover carving techniques, and coloring. Marlon

Fantastic work. It's amazing what people can accomplish when they direct their energy in a positive path. Also Pete, you would be amazed at how far leather will stretch. If you look for work by Robb Barr, you'll find that some of his work is stretch 4, 5, maybe 6 inches from the flat plane. I had the chance to see some of his work first hand, and believe me, leather can stretch A LOT!!! Marlon

AH HA!! That's what I'm looking for! I had a sneaky suspicion, but I want someone to verify it. Thanks, You guys kick, well you know!

Thanks beeza. I do get that part but, what I want to know is when I look at the package and if it says engraver and nothing else, what do I look for to tell me it's an oscillating engraver? Any specific specs that only a oscillating engraver would have? Stuff like that. Thanks again guys, Marlon

Ok, One more question. How do you know your engraver is oscillating or rotating? I don't know much about them. Thanks for answering all my questions. Marlon

Thanks, I'll give it a look around town. did you buy your plastic at McMaster? Marlon

Leathercraft Tools by Al Stohlman - best book in my collection. If you are going to dive into leatherworking, I would advise you to get a head knife. This is probably, my most used tool for cutting, skiving, trimming, etc... The Leathercraft Tools book will show you how to use it, sharpen it, and maintain it. There is no other tool in that book that is explained in more detail than the head knife, and my belief is that Al wanted to show how important this tool was to the leather industry. I personally have an osborne round knife, an al stohlman brand head knife (both from tandy) and a danny marlin head knife (my favorite). I bought i directly from danny, but I think hidecrafters still carries danny's knives. Also, find and buy a good swivel knife. Hopefully you can attend some shows and get to hold them in your hand and test drive them. Marlon

You can probably tool a 2oz leather, but it's VERY delicate. It's easy to cut too deep. If you want light leather, but good tooling qualities, I'd suggest a 4-5 oz. leather. Marlon

Gremlin, what brand, model number, etc... engraver did you use? Thanks for the re-post from the lost episodes! Marlon

craftsman827, Sorry for the late reply to your question. I didn't realize there was another post. Anyway, I got my roo skin from Hidecrafter's. It is pretty expensive stuff, I think the skin cost me about 65 bucks (11.25 per sq ft.), But I looked at Tandy for the precut and it's like 35 to 40 bucks for 25 yards, I used about 30 feet of lace to lace up that cover and cut it all out of a circle about 6 or 7 inches in diameter from the skin. Marlon

I don't work for Tandy, but I teach a lacing class there once a month. It's fun, and entertaining. I would work for Tandy if I was out of work, but wouldn't be my first choice, because of pay. I know pay shouldn't be everything, but just not enough for me. I do think that Tandy has a wonderful place in the leatherworking community, and it is nice to be able to walk into a store front and put your hands on a product you plan on buying. I also agree with David that it is a great entry level supplier, and leatherworking would be in a serious slump if it wasn't for them. After all it's where I was first introduced to this great art. Marlon

You may be able to get what you want out of an old screwdriver. the shape is already defined. and all you have to do is grind the blade to the proper angle. Marlon

1/4 inch is a pretty wide hole. You may have to use nippers and punch them one by one or a single chisel and swell the holes. Marlon

I live in Fort Worth, Texas, originally from Louisiana. I am a design engineer. My wife is an educator at a daycare in town. I have one 5 yr old son, and my mother lives with us as well. (Yes my mom and my wife get along very well, probably better than me). Marlon

WTF

ClayB, I would still call the credit bureau and have them place a fraud alert on your identity. Even though you got your stuff back, you never know what they wrote down, or took a picture of. Today's thieves won't need the actual card. Marlon

Billy, I would love a scan of that if you can find it. I would like to redo the clamshell part of my horse. Marlon

If you're wanting to tool up to the edge, you may have to cement it to a posterborad of some sort or maybe shelf paper. I would pick something with high adhesive since it would be permanent. As far as wisdom goes, never play hide and seek with your kid and a downstairs window open high enough for him to climb out. :scared: Marlon

Damn it. Sorry again KEN. Ha, got it right that time. Marlon

Thanks for the link ArtS. Beverslayer, I just realized I misspelled your name. Sorry about that. Marlon

Kate, The only idea I can come up with right now is to make it a good bit oversized (meaning when it's dried, it will still be oversized). Wet it again and "form" it into place. You should have a lip that rises above the leather and wood. sort of like a gusset for a bag. Then once it's dried in place, you should be able to trim the lip off following the contour of the wood. That's all i've got right now. Sorry I couldn't help more. Marlon

Thanks to you all for your compliments. The tooling wasn't too hard, but I had to use a detail swivel knife blade to cut most of it, and a Barry King teardrop backgrounder for the background work. Even an A104 BG wouldn't fit. John, I would have used velcro if he had a screen on the front. If I could find some really thin magnets I would try that. But I used the snap since his is just a simple clamshell type. Ben, I just googled masonic symbol and clicked the images link and there were a slew of them, so I just picked one that looked good and fit my application. Thanks again for all the compliments. Marlon

A guy doing some framing work for me asked if I could make him a cell phone case with a masonic symbol on the front. Here's what I came up with. (nothing fancy) Tell me what you all think. Thanks, Marlon

Jesse, Nice work. It looks much better than my first carving. You will notice the differences in the next carving you attempt. One thing I noticed is beveling. You should define your bevel edges a little better. This will help the definition sort of "pop" off the page. I've never tried a backgrounding tool around the perimeter of a single carving like that. That gives a nice effect. I would try to recarve the same thing and use a beveler around the perimeter and see which you like best. You would probably get more responses if you posted this in the Critique my work section. Good luck and happy carving. Marlon

Kate, I visited HC today and the store was open, but the electricity was out. I didn't asked what happened or anything, but it was business as usual. One thing I did notice is that the phone did not ring. It could have been associated with the power being out. Ron also said that he had to close the store early (on a day previous to today, not sure if it was yesterday or the day before) because it gets dark sooner with the standard time, and you can't see anything in the store. Hope this helps, Marlon