Rawhide

To save you time and frustration on edgers and awls, buy your edgers from Barry King, or Ron's Edgers. They are expensive, but let me tell you they are worth every penny and then some. I have Barry's grooved and bissonette edgers. They are about 55 bucks now, but still a little cheaper than Ron's. You may also look at Jeremiah Watt's edgers. I haven't used them, but folks swear by them. As far as awls go there's only three places to get a perfect awl blade, Bob Douglas, Bob Douglas, and last but not least Bob Douglas...You can get by with a cheaper haft, but don't skimp on the blade. Bob's blades were 25, last I bought one. (I'd skimp on leather before I'd skimp on my awl) Good luck.

Thanks for the offer. I think I'll be going up myself on Saturday though. He was there last year, so I would suspect he'd be there this year too.

I have seen Ed's mauls and I think they are beautiful...I have a couple of BK mauls now and they use a similar material for the striking surface. Which is the reason I want the Beard maul. It doesn't flake and chip and leave "dandruff" all over the piece. I haven't used any of Ed's mauls, but if it flakes any, I'll be in the same boat I'm in now. Bob's mauls never flake. I saw an ad somewhere like that and I believe the company was in Kansas somewhere, but I haven't called them yet. Kevin hopkins said he may have one around, so I'm waiting to hear back from him.

Hi Russ, Thanks for the info. I looked at Springfield's website and only saw Barry King's mauls. I have a couple of those already. Bob Beard doesn't make mauls anymore, so I'll have to buy used. I'll get with Kevin anyway, he may have one lying around somewhere. Thanks again. Marlon

I think Peter's tool is now $38.00 U.S., but hands down the best I've used. You can contact him directly through his email. He told me he was going to London, Norway and Germany for some classes, but he should be back in a couple of weeks. I don't know if he's got access to email or not, but for his email, Click here.

You can find some real bone tools at a good art supply store (look in the bookbinding section) or you can go to a bookbinding tools website and find them. Like Hollanders Marlon

Thanks bentley, but don't be fooled...I haven't the slightest artistic ability, but I can trace with the best of them! Jimnx, thanks for the compliments

Thanks for all the complements, Max, it's mostly dye. the white is the only acrylic. I sealed it with Bee Natural and gave it a once over with antique to fill in the crevices. Marlon

This is a portrait I completed for a family friend. Please excuse the poor camera phone picture, but it was all I had to work with at the time. She was so delighted, she actually cried... I don't know what kind of bird it is, I just started coloring and this is how it came out. Enjoy! (Critiques are always welcome). Marlon

...here are a few belts recently completed. The alligator belts have a filler in the center area to take away the flat look. The filigree belt below also has a filler, but this one is more raised to give a pronounced rounded appearance. Peter

I've been a bit busy lately so sorry for the late replies, but here goes. Johann, if you apply the rubber cement to the board only, it will be enough to stick well, yet easy to peel off. I try to peel the board from the leather, not the leather from the board. Mike, it's usually a one shot deal, I have had success using a board multiple times, but I usually don't try to save it. TT custom, it is hot press board #201 from Crescent. I don't know the difference in the numbers, I only know which one I use. Rickey, It's not an offensive question at all. Peter post to multiple forums, but they are all through email and he can post once to all at the same time. A couple of years ago I asked if I could post some of his work here for LW.net to see. It kind of took root there. I do it because I love his work and don't mind posting for him. He does lurk here every so often and has posted before. It's just a different forum type than he's used to. Hope this answers everyone. If I missed something, let me know and I'll get you an answer. Marlon

None from what I know...they both serve the same purpose, to prevent stretching.

The tooling didn't take very long, maybe 3 to 4 hours. The embossing took about an hour and the dying/painting another couple of hours. The red border actually matched the walls of the house it was to be displayed in, so hence the reason for it. I sort of liked it, but it really brought it home when put next to the wall. Well Bob, I can't seem to get the western floral like yours, so I figure I'd better quit while I'm ahead and try something I actually have a shot at! Thanks for the complements everyone, it means a lot to me.

Here's an eagle portrait completed a couple of weeks ago. Please enjoy and critiques are always welcome. Thanks, Marlon

Hi everyone, Our Guild president Dave Smith has offered to help set up and sponsor a class in Fort Worth if Alan or RawhideLady are still willing to teach. I'm not sure about all the details which can all still be ironed out, but he did put the offer out there. Let me know if you're still interested and I'll either be the go between or put you in touch with the Dave, whichever you prefer. Marlon

Not at all, I'm glad to share. Here's the basic step by step. 1. cover the handle with a thin piece of leather tightly, by wrapping it onto itself and glue it to itself. This will give you a base to glue to because the glue won't stick very well to the bare metal. 2. Then skive out the pieces to glue on from however different leathers you care to have. 3. Next glue them randomly onto the already leather wrapped handle. Don't worry about the residual glue, because it will give you some contrast when dying. 4. Let it dry for a week. (Yes a week). 5. Sand it with some progressively finer sandpaper I think I used 400/600/800 or so. 6. clean off the leather dust created by sanding and then dye with a brush. (I used Saddle Tan dye) 7. Seal with Neat lac, or Saddle Lac and let dry. Marlon

I did not use a blender, I used a safety skiver to slice very thin slivers from the grain side of some scraps. I used different leathers to give me slightly different colors when dyed. I used Leather cement as well to glue them down. Marlon

Hi Damon, He'll be at the offices.

I can only repeat it the way it was told to me...But no matter how you look at it, layoff - fired - terminated - contract extention, what ever... the fact remains that employment is no longer.

Ken, I do believe he had been working on more videos. I think he has his own production business, so he's still able to do them. I wouldn't imagine that he'd stop. Ben, I'm pretty sure there are plenty of mixed emotions running wild, but he seems to be in stride and doing well.

Amazingly ironic.

Yes George did start HC in 1996. In and around 2007-08 timeframe, he sold it to a group of investors that were already in the leather game. They kept George on as Creative Director, until recently. It will be a great loss for HC and a great gain for Tandy and the rest of the leather world. Just to keep George in and around leather is a blessing itself.

Just FYI for the leatherheads out there... About a week ago, George was fired from Hidecrafters. The official word is that they couldn't afford him anymore. However, George is now employed at Tandy and is their Digital Product Manager. He's doing well and is very happy. I resisted posting this last week when it happened, but didn't want a lot of folks bombarding George with calls. (probably still not a good idea). Anyway, George is doing great and we hope to see more of his creativity in the future. Marlon

Don't know if this is correct, but here's how I do it and gives me great results... 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 (like a stabbing motion). 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.) You should be able to feel a burr develop on the edge. the burr will be on the opposite side of the flat that's against the stone. It might be a good idea to put a black marker on the side you'll start with and work it until all the black is gone. 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 green rouge, but white/red 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.