Sporq

So after a few ideas and some thinking, I've finally come up for a solution to my hand cramping when I'm tooling, especially beveling. Just put a small preferably round or cylindrical object under your ring finger, and wrap the finger around it while tooling. It supports the hand and, at least for me, prevents it from cramping or falling asleep. Notice the piece is not quite at the base of the finger in the picture. This is the proper placement of whatever object you're using. Curl your ring finger around your chosen object. Though you can't really see it, the piece is still in my hand in this picture. It also doesn't get in the way of anything I'm doing. I hope this helps out! Give it a try. Let me know what you think. I've got a couple of ideas for improvement already, one is to use a bead with an elastic loop around my finger. The other is a design for a fingerless support glove with a leather band across the area I've been holding the object to keep my hand from fully closing like it does without holding something there.

Looks like it will work, as long as that lower plate / lame will be able to move, otherwise you'll be limiting your arm motion, or possibly lifting up the pauldron when you raise your arm.

Looks awesome! I believe the wax substance you mentioned is called "Gilder's Paste" http://www.gilderspaste.com/ I know a couple of people who have used it on leather with great results, Though one says that it isn't terribly resistant to abrasion over time.

Well, for better or for worse, I like this wiki idea, and have already started to contribute to it. Hopefully it will become a valuable resource for someone.

Very cool idea!

Just a tip if you use a printer for patterns, especially a laser, and especially if it's on transparency paper: Don't put the printed side against the leather. You'll get transfer onto your piece. I always take a pen or something and write a word or whatnot on the printed side, so I can tell which is which.

I get better results when using the tandy super sheen if I use 2 coats of it as a resist, then let it sit overnight. The acrylic seems to set up better, and the resisted areas turn out brighter. I also do the final wipe-off with a damp paper towel or lint-free rag.

Make one. Take a piece of veg leather and get it wet enough to wet mold, then put it on your face, pressing in around your facial details to get everything right. Let it dry for a while, then put it back on, getting more details in and making sure it holds form, and repeat until it stops losing shape. once it's done, seal it with something that'll keep it from getting wet again and you're good to go.

Use a thinner / softer leather, and put the hardened or shaped pieces on it, using the thinner or softer leather like a hinge.

I found my dispenser after looking everywhere for it. It was right beside me all along, in a box, almost at the top. I just noticed it this morning x.x I'll have pics in a bit.

I've never seen anything for sale, but you could probably take two pieces of metal or wood, and put bolts through the ends, then sandwich the stamps between them so they are clamped on the side to hold them in place.

Gimme a day or two to figure out where I put the thing, and I will show you what I made. It's pretty much exactly what you want, in terms of function, but freestanding, made of wood, and could use a couple of modifications most likely. Pics to come when I find it. For now, I'll try to describe it for ya. It's a wooden base with two arms coming up from it, holding a wooden bar across the top between them, with 3 holes in the bar for the thread to go through. The base has 3 vertical wooden dowels sticking out of it that the thread cones sit on and can spin freely without toppling over. I designed it for the 3,000yard thread spools for fabric sewing, but it could easily be designed for leather thread. The way I have it, the thread is fed directly into my sewing machine from the stand, and it feeds just fine. You might want to add something to hold the thread when not in use, since you won't be using a machine.

You might achieve a nice look on your next frame by overlapping the mitered edges a bit, and skiving them down so they match thickness, but still keeping the angled miter cut look with some creative cutting and such. I may have to play around with the idea and show pics to explain better.

Nice work. I like how you attached it to the strap by slipping the loops through the braid, instead of just over it.

If you want to play around with it, you can use super sheen as a resist too, since it's basically just clear acrylic. You just gotta let the piece dry overnight before the super sheen fully sets up as a good resist, even though it'll dry to the touch before then. I've had good results using this with the newer antique gels they have, but I don't have pics of anything because they were all just playing with some different techniques on some scraps while working on other stuff. I guess if you wanted, I could make a couple of demo pieces for ya to show what I mean.

Just to save everyone time, Here's a direct link http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Nylon-hammer-for-Leather-DIY-Leather-carving-hammer-mallet-maul-for-Diy-leather-tools/1303528383.html

After you use the punches and bevel, you can take a spoon to the circles on their inside, and round them over some for a better effect.

looks great :3

nice, I especially like the border riveting.

Technically it should work fine on stingray. You might have to buff it after a while to get inbetween the natural texture of the stingray... maybe with a toothbrush or something.

This is just from my experience, but: The regular edge beveler can be angled however you want along the edge, but can lead to a wiggly looking edge bevel if not kept under control. The keen edger's round underside makes it easier to knock just the corner off at the same angle every time. The keen edger seems to have a narrower cutting surface as well, about a 1 size smaller cut than the regular flat one, and the curved underside means that you have to strop it with a rounded strop instead of a normal one you likely already have. Not hard to make one, just use your keen edger on both top grain and flesh side of a straight edge of leather, preferably a 7-9oz in thickness, then move back a little from that rounded edge, and cut it off entirely. Mount that cut-off on a flat board, and rub it with rouge, and there you go. As far as choosing between them, I like both for different things. if I'm going to slick a belt, I usually use the keen on both sides of the leather, then slick / burnish the edge. It seems to give a better even rounded edge this way. On holsters and sheaths, I tend to do the same. a size 2 and a size 3 should be good for just about everything you want to do. I tend to go with a regular flat beveler more when making crease lines in leathers, or knocking off edges that I want a more severe angle on without using a french skiver or other skiving knife. With the crease lines, I'll use a straight edge and either a stitching groover cut or two or swivel knife, and then knock the edges of those cuts off with the flat beveler or a french skiver..whatever is closest to grab usually, but that's just me being lazy. I tend to prefer this method over using a v-gouge, because I feel I can control it better, and it's one less tool to buy and sharpen. (But I tend to be making cases with 90 degree angles in them more than sheathes or holsters, so I don't know how useful this will be for you.) If anyone has any corrections to this, or additional advice, I'd love to hear it as well.

I'm really enjoying the work you put up here. How do you come up with the border designs you use, like on the sides of this case?

If you need some quickly, you might try running to a tractor supply or a local co-op. They almost never source from tandy. That being said, I've not encountered this problem that you've been having. Maybe someone pulled the fleece over tandy's eyes on a batch from china.

I'm not sure what everyone else prefers, but I love using leather balm with atom wax on the flesh side after dying. It leaves a really nice smooth texture, but tends to look a bit crackly when bent. You might try that.

You might consider trying to grab some white hair-on cowhide and airbrushing the stripes on yourself. Might not be worth your time, but I know people who do costuming that use faux fur and do tons of different effects by airbrushing the fur, and it usually looks really good. It'd just be a matter of finding the right thing to paint / dye it with.