immiketoo

I am in the process of coloring it now.

In case you haven't seen this elsewhere already, my latest piece. 8x8 inches.

You can emboss quite well without any foam or other material. If you like it, thats cool but it's not necessary.

Terry is EXTREMELY busy. Almost overwhelmingly so. If you want one of his knives, you will have to be patient. He's a great guy and he will get to your order as soon as he can. He is also a one man show and he refuses to compromise his quality. If you don't hear back, a polite reminder email is the way to go.

He was saying thank you to other people's work, including mine. Not actually saying it was his but implying it. Anyway, this was an exercise in social media abuse and I doubt he will do it again.

Any lacquer finish like neat lac, saddle lac, wyosheen or wood brushing lacquer is about as sealed as you can get. Buffing excess dye with a piece of sheep wool before finishing will help tremendously.

I use RTC on everything. Its a great resist when used with spirit based dyes. Because eco flow is water based, the only way to apply it without streaks or lifting is to use a sprayer and don't touch it until it dries. You can also lightly dab it on in light touches and apply a heavier coat later. Spraying is easiest. This is actually good advice for applying any finish if you want to avoid streaks.

This is an example of lifting. The areas where the leaf looks like its coming off the leather are done by separating the leather using a lifter. In this case a pro lifter by Ed Labarre.

Thanks everyone. Yeah this particular piece of are really begged to be put into leather. Its one of my favorite pieces so far. The IG thief has been duly chastised.

Thanks, Tina!

Yep he's been banned from here, Twitter and Instagram have been notified as well. He has been sent a few emails for cease and desist purposes and as far as I know he has removed many of the photos already. People like this are a blight on our community and should be called out in every way possible.

Thanks, Mike. It didn't occur to me that folks wouldn't know. My bad.

Hey Jeff, thats pretty insane. But there are scammers everywhere! Pretty ballsy to take rent money on an occupied house!! As for copyright, its intellectual property and I do have a few lawyer friends after 20 years in LE. They'd be happy to do me the favor but hopefully it wont go that far. cj, he clearly says thank you for the compliments on the popeye piece. Its not "Stating" its his but the implication is clear by accepting praise for the work. He has a website and says he's been at it for 10 years and that he can design or make anything. Seems like a shady move to me.

Nice knife. As stated, its correct. None of mine are circular. Most are asymmetrical as well.

If you've been around long enough, you've seen or experienced someone purporting your work or that of someone you know as their own. Or you have seen blatant copies of another persons work. For example, Richard Bourne has an instagram account with many people's work, including mine, displayed. On my recent Popeye piece, he gives a thumbs up to a comment of nice work, implying it was his without actually saying so. Then further down, he receives a lot of compliments and actually says thanks! My question is WHY? Attention? Generating business? I don't get it. If he could carve that popeye, he wouldn't need to steal mine, and if he can't, how does he expect to fill an order? As for attention, the leather community is incredibly tight knit and all he'll get now is negative attention, so thats a loss. Perhaps I should just say thank you for the publicity?? What do you think?

There is quite a bit of embossing here, and some leather plugs so it will keep its shape.

Thank you all. Its certainly fun.

If you give yourself a few mm of compression, it will hold better and not rattle around, keeping your straps tighter. As for super glue, It might work, but it might not actually harden on the metal, especially if its coated or plated. You could always test that and see if it works.

Never heard of tear mender. I will also say this about reina. Its a little gooier than barge once it dries. Meaning you get some boogers on the edge, so go sparingly.

Another alternative is to use a round knife. It might be a little difficult at first, but I bought mine specifically for this reason. Tight curves. Plus its handy to have in the shop. That being said, the round hole plus connecting the dots is probably the easiest way to go about it short of custom dies.

Well, that marriage was a LONG time ago. I remedied that problem in 98!

Lol, Jeff. Couldn't agree more, except for the wedding coordinator I was required to "Purchase" at the church I got married at who didn't do anything. Stood there with a big frown on her face and charged 400 bucks.

The biggest thing I see is it looks like you're carving with your leather too wet. You'll find you get a much cleaner result with leather thats moist, not wet. This and more time behind your tools will help you improve. As stated before, there is a way to artistically go outside the border lines. This makes the eye wonder what happened.

Barge and any benzine glue have toxic fumes. Renia is incredibly strong and is non toxic, plus its flexible. We have both in our shop.

E6000 does NOT work for leather in my opinion. I tried it and its a mess. Never dries firm enough to give clean edges and its not very strong. You can use white glue in a pinch though.