Sherkhan1962

Hi all, Just a very quick visit on LW, being quite busy at the moment with my saddler's clamps making, what keeps me far from internet (my workshop is in the middle of nowhere). This morning I finished a little bag made for my partner. She spends a lot of time in the garden, as fond of growing things as Hobbits are (according to Tolkien), what explains the style I gave to it. It is fully lined with suedine and fully hand sewn. Beads are Tiger Eye, which I grinded to flatten one side to stick well on the flap. Braided cord comes from http://www.cordsandwires.eu/ where you can find some interesting stuff. More photos are gathered in a zip file that can be downloaded from this link: http://www.crafts-de...e's_Bag.zip If I can find the time for that during summer I'll prepare a "how to" illustrated and commented document with the patterns for those interested - just let me know. This bag measures roughly 220mm x 180mm x 50mm, big enough for a wallet, keys, phone, and other little things ladies usually have in their bag. I'll be back... Fred

Hi Andrew, The blades are simply inserted by force, but I am thinking about adding a little screw in the ferrule pressing on a flat done on the blade. The ferrule is a plumbery plug by far thick enough for tapping a little hole, so it should work. Another option is to add a Dremel keyless chuck of a much better quality compared to those found on most hafts (but consequently more costly). Yes, I can study specific awl blades. Send me a sketch with dimensions of what you would like and I can make a prototype for trial. According to the time it took me to make the first blades, which can probably decrease with practice, they should not cost more than twice the Osborne blades - but fully and individually handmade and shipped sharpenned like a razor. Hafts will be around 20 to 25 Euros in Ash and Sapele like on the photo, a little bit more if selling on Ebay (listing fees and percentage on the sales) but for a haft made of fine exotic hardwood the extra is simply the cost of the turning blank itself, usually around 6 to 15 Euros according to the wood specie (the work to make it is the same but not the price of the wood). I do not use a copier on my lathe: like the blades each haft is individually crafted. Here is my email: sherkhan1962@hotmail.com And here is the link toward a temporary page added to my website, from which you can see the saddler's clamps I make and download a brochure: http://www.crafts-de...lamps_page.html Cheers, Fred

A quick visit on the forum to post some photos of an awl made for... I don't tell you now, perhaps they do not want me to say that (I have to meet one of their directors first to be sure that I can ) and you will hardly believe me anyway; maybe later. Comments about the materials used are directly on the photos. The second awl is less "luxury" (and I plan to sell some - drop me a line if you are interested). Fred

Thanks to all for your comments. It' seems this section was perhaps not the more appropriate for this type of post, eventually not as visited as expected, but I will update it soon anyway and I also add a gallery (some further enhancements on the basic saddler's clamps are on the way at the time being.)

Thanks a lot Kindaki for your proposal and for this interesting reference. When I went to the USA in 1996 I was absolutely delighted before the quantity of affordable practical books (the How to...) that exist in English on an unbelievable range of subjects. I was tempted to buy dozens, but limited by the flight max luggage weight, and today when I don't find what I look for in French I buy in English, even novels - and it's definitely cheaper. I'll do some searches about this book, and if I am not successful to find a copy I come back to you for some scans (they will be limited to the drum heads only). Cheers, Fred

Thanks to both of you, MakerUnknown and Shtoink, for these valuable links which will save me time searching. Once downloaded I'll watch them quietly in my country house and workshop where I have neither TV nor internet. I hope I'll update this post in the (more or less close) future with the making of my own drum.

You are right, we are all native to somewhere (even E.T. is a Native!) I should have specified Native American or American Indian.

Thanks for the reply. Not many drum makers around it seems. I'll give it a try. The ones I wish to make are of the Native style, tied across the rim. If you have any good source for deer rawhide thanks in advance to drop another line.

Hi All, I chose the «Leatherwork Conversation» section to introduce the saddler’s clamps, table and worktop vise-mounted stitching ponies and other stitching aids and accessories I am going to market soon. I let the LW management to decide to move it or not to a more approriate section considering this topic is somehow a market survey together with an advice request (thanks). Saddler’s clamps are of the European styles (there are a few minor differences among them) of which the overall design is a bit modified because using a different making technique: Their limbs are not cut out of solid wood stock but made of wood slices bond with epoxy and shaped under pressure (moulded wood, nearly unbreakable), what provides a number of advantages. I attached here an overview (thumbnail) but being limited with the attachments maximum size I add the direct link (at the bottom of this page) to download a quality *PDF file directly from my website server. This brochure shows the two main models, their options, and it explains more extensively, although not completely, what are the enhancements compared to traditional clamps. One web page with more photos, illustrations and extensive explanations will be added to my site later on and I update this post once done. Do not get confused: These clamps, which I have registered the design a while ago, have very little to do but for the operational principle with the stitching ponies one can see everywhere, made with three bits of plywood and one wing nut worth $15 to a maximum but sometimes sold less than that because they are produced in developing countries, where the hourly wage is well under one buck and raw material also much cheaper. They also suffer from the poor image they give to a tool that has been for centuries a real tool, in fact the most important one together with the awl and the needles - basically the only three things you need for hand sewing. Unfortunately traditional saddler’s clamps have nearly completely disappeared from the market and these ponies that now replace them tend to present a device holding the work piece to be sewn as an accessory and not anymore as a tool. There is also one important issue to point out: What tool do you really need? I wish to take the time here to compare any sort of device clamping a work piece to be sewn with any sort of device that permits to drill a hole. If you have only one hole to drill, have a stroll in the forest, pick up one hazel branch and one ash branch, and once back home, with a bit of cord, build your own bow drill. This will cost you absolutely nothing but the drill bit to attach to the ash branch. - Coooool! If you have ten holes to drill, get for a few coins an old used bit brace in an antique or secondhand shop. - Peanuts! If you have 100 holes to drill, buy a low cost Asian electric drill at the local something-depot. - Cheap! But if you have 10000 holes to drill, forget the free bow drill, cheap bit brace and low cost electric drill: You will have seriously to think about the purchase of a decent milling-drilling machine with an X/Y table and an engineer vise. - Damned! This costs me one eye, one arm and one kidney! But you have no other option - but to spend a few years drilling with a bow drill if for you time does not matter - if you want to be efficient. Same way of thinking concerning sewing devices: Your knees, unless they have been replaced with Titanium prosthetic ones, are free and they are sufficient for temporarily holding a work piece to be stitched over a few inches. If it’s more often but yet once in a blue moon, get any cheap pony. If more often, buy a well built pony for which you have usually to stick in the $100 to $150 range. But if you hand sew a few hours per day, sometimes every day, you will have to think about investing in something better. At this time I do not have calculated yet the accurate final retail prices of the clamps I am going to produce and I have also minor issues yet to solve (finding hinges that have no play at all for instance: unless I decide to make them myself to be sure). Please already note that the classical clamps will all have curved profiled wedges added to their limbs for a better leg grip - bare limbs have the tendancy to slip a bit on the legs. They are not shown here but these wedges will be integral parts of the clamps. I have also to make one last prototype of a simple but enhanced table top pony using marine plywood for customers tight on budget. Their price range, depending on the models and the options chosen, should start from around $200, perhaps a bit less (I mean less than $199.99!), for the simple traditional one to much less for the most sophisticated model than the Swiss Oschner saddler’s clamps (available among others at http://www.leder-louis.ch - search for Sattler-Nähzange, because it is not translated from German, check the price in Swiss Francs and convert it into your own currency - I won’t say it directly here!) If I can sell them for less I will do, just remember that besides the cost of the material and products I can hardly change (sliced wood and epoxy are not that cheap!), I am a Western European for whom the cost of life here implies to pay myself not less than what I usually earn when working as a Marine Joiner employee, therefore without the hassle - but also the benefits like coffee breaks whenever I wish - of being self employed; otherwise I’d rather go back aboard ships. Any comment, suggestion and, also important, a sufficient interest that I could consider implicitly as a potential pre order will help me to determine if wether or not I keep on going into this project - thus you have time ahead to start saving. For these reasons feedback to this post would be much appreciated and I thank a lot everybody in anticipation. http://www.crafts-de...rochure_web.pdf Fred

I prepared this file quicker than the previous one (Archery Arm Guard - Pattern & Instructions) posted a few days ago in the Leatherwork Conversation section - I'm a bit lost among all these sections..., but it should be understandable enough although instructions are more limited. Dead link removed. Fred's domain name is unregistered and he hasn't been around since 2014. I have posted a copy of his file at the end of this thread. Enjoy and share! Fred

Thanks Sylvia for the booklet links - really free PDF are often hard to find. I just bought a 185K, cosmetically refurbished model of the 99K, but the mechanism is the same. Hand shake or kiss, you chose - because I noted you won't tell your gender

Hi Shtoink (how the hell do you pronounce this?) I see what you mean and I agree that it depends greatly on the position of the archer. When view from above you can draw a triangle using three main reference points: Eye/Shoulder joint/Hand. These points cannot be strictly aligned on a straight line because the head is not that mobile (except in The Exorcist!); it cannot twist aside that far. In such a case the string could smack any part between the eye and the wrist along this straight line. Considering this natural triangle more or less acute depending on how profiled is the position of the shooter, and having discovered myself (painfully at the beginning) that the string usually smack the lower half of the forearm, and that consequently the upper edge of quite short regular arm guard was a concern because it is too close to the area at risk, I decided when designing mine to extend it as far as the pit between arm and forearm, at the level of the joint, to be sure. But my design, although cosmetic, creates this slightly curved part that has the tendency to be shaped like a hook when I bend my arm. A straight edge all around, less nice, would correct this issue, which is not one for me but which might be so, I have to reckon, for someone else. Thanks for this appropriate comment that leads me to revise my document and to add later on the sketch I attached separately to illustrate the above. Regards, Fred

TapTapTap, I use stitching clamps, also called saddler's clamps, the European style. I will soon post something about them... Because I make them ! Cheers, Fred

Hi everybody, After having shown my arm guard in the show off section I have been requested the pattern by some of you. I did much more than a simple pattern scan, and from this link: you can download a complete *pdf document with everything needed but the cup of coffee. Enjoy! And thanks in anticipation for feedback and for the photos of the arm guards you will make. Fred EDIT: Dead Link Removed, file uploaded here:

Hi, searching info about the 29K the other day (I'm actually looking for one to replace my 99K that badly fell in the staircase - the handle of the ******* wooden case broke while descending ), I found this site: http://www.sew-europe.co.uk/parts_29K.htm With this quote: Internal Parts are Still Available and can be supplied on a 'Special Order' Check out the PARTS BOOK or Please Contact Us for Price & Availability. Normally you should succeed with them..

I agree with Ferg: if people need to bring their eyes as close as 6" to see what it is all about, not talking about the amount of work, it's better to stick with the railroad track. Perhaps alternate lengths of track with puffs of smoke and just the engine funnels, sufficient to lead anyone thinking about the whole train? This would break the straightness of the sole track.

Hi All, I plan to make traditional drums, Native style, which I intend to paint, and although I already own a moose drum (for a Barbie doll it should be a mouse drum) I don't have a clue about how the leather is chosen, prepared and treated for this specific use (the wooden rim is not a problem as I am a skilled Marine Joiner). Any information (differences between species, sounds obtained, preparation of the skins, useful links saving hours and hours of Googling for suppliers and drum makers, etc.) is much welcome. Thanks in advance, Fred

Your First Saddle????????? Damned!, you deserve compliments for sure! Another job that makes me think that I should try tooling. Thanks for showing.

Thanks Mike, Dragonworks and Ferg for your comments I highly appreciate. I am pleased that you like.

I present here the two first prayer pipes (also called elbow pipes) I ever made, having carved the bowls in steatite (soap stone) - I never carved stone before that. The stems are made of various wood and materials, and those interested to know more about these pipes and how they are made can find a full description with more and better photos on my website. They are shown here with the pouches I made later on. These pouches are made of cow leather lined with a coated cloth and the decorations are of various stuff: hairy foal skin, dyed snake skin, chicken leg skin (I didn't even know it exists before I found some on an online shop!), glass beads (loom with heddle beading) and gemstone beads, feathers, hairpipes, fox fur, Corian... Fully hand sewn and own design with obviously and once more a strong Native Influence (many years ago a psychic,however right on so many things that could be verified, told me it was the very first time I was living as a white man! After all, perhaps that this influence comes from outside and inside...?)

IT'S A BEAUTY! Nearly a shame to have to seat on! (clean your bottom first.) I also loved your masks I just saw on your site, which really deserves a visit.

It's a nice first attempt. I made some holsters in the past (when alarm guns were still legal in France - not a single chance here to buy a real one!) and I know they are not that simple to make.

Thanks Trekster. You are right, it is closer to a Roman sword than to a knife in size. But I am tall enough (6'4") to carry it!

Last post for today before going at the restaurant for diner with friends (yes, diner if you check the time of the post: I live in Europe and Earth is not flat), a large bag (approximately 50 cm or 20" wide at the top) which the decoration is once more obviously inspired by Native cultures. I chose to stylise the buffalo skull, being everything but confident in the result if I had attempted to make one more realistic. Realism is I think much easier to achieve with tooling and dyeing, techniques I do not have tried yet, therefore a bit of abstract was more appropriate. I went to some North and South Dakota reservations with it at fall 1996, where I gave a hand for a few days on a housing project with Habitat for Humanity (in Eagle Butte, Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation) and many people approached me to inquire where I got it. I consider this was a compliment. Thank them and may Wakan Tanka bless them.

Good job! I especially love the leaves on the second one. How do you adjust their length? I am actually making one on order, it takes ages to sew by hand.