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immiketoo

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Posts posted by immiketoo

  1. Posted · Report reply

    While technology has advanced, I am not convinced that society has evolved.  In fact, one could argue we have devolved, and you'd only have to look at the writings of Plato, or Aristotle, Benjamin Franklin or any of the great minds throughout history to support your argument.  Most people now days have very specialized knowledge but lack experience.  For example, I know someone who has earned her doctorate, and calls herself a genius, but she can't figure out how to remove the monthly train pass from the plastic backing it came on.  Or whose sole conflict resolution skill is crying and slamming the door behind her.  Genius.

  2. Posted · Report reply

    16 hours ago, YinTx said:

    All good points, but sometimes I prefer knowledge.  Consider living vicariously through other's experiences.  Example:  One can see others getting STD's and pregnancies and addictions, and avoid having to gain that experience directly simply by knowledge.  I for one would not like to have to learn how to avoid such things only by experience, knowledge is sufficient for me, thank you.  Single experiences can be detrimental or have long term consequences.

    When it comes to leather, it helps me to have knowledge before trying to gain experience.  If I just picked up some tools and some leather and tried to do Sheridan work, I'd fail miserably and probably never pick it up again.  Reading, watching others, gaining knowledge on how it is done (wait... you wet the leather?  all this time I thought you were trying to keep water away from leather!) prior to gaining any experience was vital to any chance at a successful outcome.  Improvement however required experience.  And feedback, with more experience.  Add to that additional knowledge watching others share good and bad experiences (gaining knowledge vicariously again) allows even more improvements.

    At a certain point, gaining additional knowledge provides little incremental gains.  It's time to go into production!  Just $0.02, thanks for letting me philosophize for a bit on a Friday afternoon!

    YinTx

    What you're talking about is common sense.  I don't need experience to know I don't want to be shot, however, If I am shot and survive, I'll have experience in dealing with it should it happen again :P

    15 hours ago, alpha2 said:

    All true. I think that experience can be related to wisdom. As related to knowledge. (Knowledge is is being aware that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing to not use it in a fruit salad). You can see where experience could be substituted for wisdom there. My older sibling was all over book smarts.  My knowledgeable brother has actually DONE basically...zilch. He did read all about it, though. You wouldn't want to turn him loose on a project he had read all about. After a lifetime in aviation, he was incredulous that I didn't play around with Microsoft Flight Simulator. Really. I tried to explain that if I wanted to have a flight experience, I would go to my hangar and roll the plane out. I'm not sure he ever got it. I have to say, my experience has paralleled Mike's experience. I can only read so much before I need to do it wrong a few times, to learn what doesn't work. "I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work", - Thomas Edison. 

    Now, having said all that, this forum is a real shortcut to better leatherwork. It's like book learning and experience all wrapped into one resource. But, I'm still learning a lot by messing up on a regular basis. I don't expect that to change soon!

    Jeff

    Yeah, I can see how real flight is better than video flight :)

    14 hours ago, Sheilajeanne said:

    I used to have this as my sig when I was moderating on the Allnurses site: 

    Good judgement and the ability to make right choices comes with experience.  Experience comes from making wrong choices....

     

    And, from a famous SF author:

    Nitwit ideas are for emergencies. You use them when you've got nothing else to try. If they work, they go in the Book. Otherwise you follow the Book, which is largely a collection of nitwit ideas that worked.

    -- Larry Niven / The Mote in God's Eye (1974)

     

    I love it.

  3. Posted · Report reply

    On 7/4/2018 at 9:02 PM, Jack1970 said:

    Ok folks, I just got some new Barry King bevelers and I seem to be having trouble running them.  They're just the standard course bevelers but they are steeper than what I was using before.  They also seem to be a little courser.  All of this is fine but when I'm trying to run them, it seems like they stick to the leather.  It's like I can't just move them across a line like my craftool pro bevelers.  Is there some kind of a trick that I'm not aware of here?  It almost feels like the first time I've ever beveled anything.  I know that I'll like them once I can get the hang of running them smoothly.  Any help is appreciated!

    Thanks!

    Jack

    This will sound counter intuitive, but take your bevelers and run them on a strop board or very fine sand paper to take some of the sharpness off of the checkering.  Bob Beard told me to do the same with the bevelers I bought from him and I refused for a while on account of the idea of taking sandpaper to my new tools.  Once I worked up the courage, I did a few light swipes against my finger holding the sandpaper.  It didn't take many passes, and I tested it every few swipes.  Now I can run them smoothly and there is no perceptible difference in how the checkering looks on the leather.

  4. Posted · Report reply

    Knowledge vs. experience. 

    Throughout life, you've heard the terms book smart or street smart. These are equivalent to knowledge vs experience, and I believe experience is the greater of the two.

    Don't get me wrong, knowledge is important and I'll go back to that in a bit, but experience pays dividends in ways knowledge can not. An example I read recently illustrates this perfectly: Who would be the better musician? A man who knows all there is to know about music, composing, theory etc, but has never played an instrument, or the man who has no formal education in music, but has been playing the instrument of his choice for years. 

    The man who has been playing will have learned from experience how to match pitch,tempo and rhythm, and more importantly, he will have developed ability to feel the music and the stamina and muscle memory required to play, where the man with only knowledge will not.

    Now, imagine being able to combine these two men into a single, well trained musician. Knowledge PLUS experience is the key to mastery. 

    I believe the same can be said for any profession, especially leatherwork. I have purchased and read many of the books available about leatherwork. One in particular, Making Cases Vol. 1, was one of the first books I read. With my newfound knowledge, I set straight to work and much to my surprise, I failed to apply that knowledge to actual leather successfully. My project had so many flaws, it could only be considered a failure.

    However, I now knew how NOT to do it, and I had gained experience. As time passed, my failures became less common and my successes increased specifically because of experience. The knowledge from the book was exactly the same. The words hadn't changed one bit.

    But then a strange thing happened. Because memory is fleeting, I happened to re-read one of those books and very much to my surprise, I had a substantially deeper understanding of what was written. The words were the same, but my experience allowed me to see more of what I believe the original intent of the author was.

    The practical application of both knowledge and experience resulted in MORE experience, and thus, a greater understanding of the knowledge. It sounds like a chicken or egg scenario, but its actually more akin to a symbiotic relationship, in which each element needs the other to reach its greatest potential.

    The point, if there is one, is that I encourage you to try something even if it's outside your comfort zone. I was reminded of this on a recent order, and much to my surprise, I found that I enjoyed the project despite my early misgivings, which were based on a lack of experience.

    Maybe I'll read that book again...

     
     

  7. Posted · Report reply

    You are correct in being concerned that dye can soak in to surrounding details, so you just have to be careful.  Never put a fully loaded brush against any part you want to leave another color.  If it were me, I would dye the red first and then carefully dye black around the remaining area.  If you chose to paint, you will want to use acrylic paints, and the techniques are the same, except that acrylic paint will cover dye.  However, I find its best to leave any area that is to be painted un-dyed.  Dye can leach into the paint and discolor the paint so that you need more coats to cover the dye.

  12. Posted · Report reply

    On 7/1/2018 at 4:20 PM, NVLeatherWorx said:

    The outer edge of the holster has been laced with a double whip stitch, as has been previously pointed out.  The decorative "tab" on the front is indeed a Blood Knot, and the "lanyard" is a simple flat braid.  All of these can be easily executed with some basic knowledge that can be found all over the internet.  The type of lace used for the outer edge and the lanyard appears to be a 1/8" Natural lace, maybe calf or could be Roo lace; Blood Knots are typically done with either latigo lace or created with lighter weight harness/latigo leathers for the larger designs (this one would fit that bill well).

    Looks like natural calf to me too.  Here's how I do mexican round braid.  I think it looks better than other braids. One in Kangaroo, the other in Natural calf lace. 

    20151022_125715.JPG

    IMG_0863.JPG

  16. Posted · Report reply

    Bill, 

    You nailed it.  In the museum in Athens, there was a LOT of bling, and a lot of gold.  There's another design that was my first choice, its called a meandrous.  Sort of like the wave pattern but spirals.  At the price point for these, hand carving it was out of the question, and the leather wouldn't have supported it anyway.  Greek clothing and are was very detailed and their metal work was astounding.  So much precision in their surviving jewelry.  I just tried to channel some of the feeling of the things we say rather than recreate a specific piece.  Hopefully, the client will like them.

  17. Posted · Report reply

    7 minutes ago, ABHandmade said:

    Mike, I liked your idea with an adjustable strap length. Everything else, as always, is superb and thoughtful.

    Thank you.  I like to use friction for straps and retention.  In this case, I just put two cords in one hole and there's enough friction to keep it tight.  And in the keepers creating a sharp bend and it won't move unless you want it to.

  18. Posted · Report reply

    8 hours ago, TSes said:

    I think it looks very nice. Your stitching is straight and clean, even on the back side. Great job.

    Thank you.  I remember the days where I would hide the back side of stitching :)

    8 hours ago, battlemunky said:

    Looks good Mike. What leather is that? It's like a fat milled look but not sure if that is actually milled or just character from the critter it came from.

    Honestly I have no idea.  Could be fat milled.  Nat calls it oil hide, but it isn't like any oil hide I've ever seen.  Has a textured surface on it and stamps ok, but its very soft.

    5 hours ago, DrmCa said:

    Nice!

    Thank you.

    3 hours ago, plinkercases said:

    I like this one better than the first. Nice work for sure.

    Me too.  The second one of anything is always better :)  Thanks!

  20. Posted · Report reply

    We were commissioned to make a series of bags for a Greek historical society as part of their costumes.  Each bag is supposed to be unique and the only requirements are that there is no metal on any bag, and that any design features must have been possible in ancient Greece.  This bag features all hand made construction, and adjustable strap with no buckles and a captive loop closure.  Of course, it's hand stitched and made with love :)

    The only cheat is the thread.  I should have used linen but this is nylon.  Shhhhh.

     

    purse1.jpg

    purse2.jpg

  21. Posted · Report reply

    3 hours ago, YinTx said:

    I can see it now.  Looks great the way you did it.

    YinTx

    It's one of those things that most people wouldn't even notice.  Good catch.

    2 hours ago, bullmoosepaddles said:

    Wonderful piece. Like YinTx I was wondering how it would be opened. Brilliant thought on continuing the stitching. It would not have looked nearly as balanced if you had. I would have never thought of doing that . It's kind of you experienced folks to share so freely. I for one do appreciate it. 

    How much time did the stitching take? If you don't mind. 

     

    To be honest, I noticed at the last minute that it wasn't going to work fully stitched, but I had already punched the holes.  So yes, it was me GAINING experience.  Stitching of the whole bag maybe took me 45 minutes to an hour.

    1 hour ago, Raksha said:

    And you claim you are not an artist... this is beautiful! 

    There can be things that are done artfully without being art.  I am just good at making things look nice :P

     

  22. Posted · Report reply

    3 hours ago, YinTx said:

    I like the texture on the leather.  Also, how does that closure work?  Seems like everything would be too stiff to pull the "tongue" out of the loop?  or maybe the loop pulls out to allow the tongue to be freed?  Well made, regardless!

    YinTx

    Thanks, everyone.  Yin, the closure tab is not stitched to the front all the way, only the top third or so, allowing it to move freely.  I just thought the stitches looked odd only at the top.

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