bladegrinder

Thanks, the second knife is stabilized Black Palm, the first is Desert Ironwood.

I have one similar to the Badger at top with a water separator on the hose end that connects to my pancake compressor which is big and loud but I use it out in my shop. I run about #40-#60 thru mine but those pressures could be way off, it's just what that regulator says. I have a small glass jar that connects to the bottom of the brush verse's the open container, I can see making a huge mess with an open container. I use mine mostly for applying resolene but I also use it for shading around borders of sheaths and holsters. when I do shading the piece has already been traditionally dyed then brushed with a darker color. just brushing with dye will take A LOT of coats because it goes on so thin, sometimes just brushing then scratching the leather will show un-dyed leather. for maintenance I only use denatured alcohol and run it thru with air after using, sometimes I'll take the front sections off to clean the front of the needle and the mixing ports coming from the jar. be careful if you take it completely apart they can be tricky getting the needle back in right. these have really small O rings in them and if their really old you may have some leaks, hook er up and give it a run, it takes some practice to get comfortable with it. the other bigger one's you have pictured I have no experience with.

Here's a couple knife sheaths I just finished with dragon scale stamping. first a pic of the knife, then the sheaths. One is done in natural Herman Oak, and one with Fiebings light brown. Thanks for looking!

Nice little holster, no matter what I'm carrying I also always have a .380 in my front pocket.

For starters I’d try a few good rubbings with saddle soap.

When those stainless steel pins came out for tumbling brass I jumped right in, wow was that a good move. Pricey getting into them but no comparison to corncob.

I agree, I have a pretty well set up shop and a some of my equipment was built in my shop. I like fabricating anything I can myself. I had two treadmill motors laying around and the only thing I had to pay for for that tumbler build was the rectifier, the wood and the end caps for the pvc, but like Chuck said those motors aren’t just laying around. Both of mine came from treadmills on the side of the road and from what I remember it was kind of a fight to get them out, on eBay their averaging $80.00. So after you get a motor you have to figure out how to mount it, get a ac to dc converter controller and mount that somewhere where you can somehow connect a foot pedal to it in some fashion. While I’m sure it can and has been done I think realistically in the end a person would stand back looking at what he just built and think to himself…hell, I could have just bought a servo motor and been done with it. However, I do look forward to seeing a treadmill motor powered sewing machine posted up here.

I built a ceramic tumbler for putting stone wash finishes on knives with a treadmill motor. there is a DC rectifier it the junction box shown and it's powered by a variac, the red gismo on the left. I'm sure one could be used for a sewing machine...but...there would be a lot of tinkering on mounting it and powering it. in the end I don't know if it would be worth it over just rigging up a servo motor.

Thanks folks!

Thanks Gezzer, I love making this stuff. I feel lucky to be able to do this.

Just finished this sheath, first time use of one of Sergey's dragon scale stamps. the front was going to be natural but while dyeing inside the throat it leached thru to the front so I just dyed the whole sheath, natural next time!

I don't know much about horses, other then they can throw you...but that looks GREAT!

Thanks gregintenn, the blade is CPM154 stainless. the handle is stabilized blue dyed Box Elder burl with brass and red fiber optic pins and a nickel silver lanyard hole. it also has red G10 liners between the scales and blade.

I use mostly stainless steel for my knives and have never had any corrosion issues using veg tanned leather. I’ve never used chrome tanned leather so I can’t comment on that. I’m in Florida and right now the humidity is 90% and the feels like temp is over 100. The high carbon steels I use will rust here if you look at them cross eyed, that’s why I don’t use much of it where I’m at. I always coat my high carbon blades with a good wax to help prevent it. Your problem might not be the type of leather your using but where it’s coming from. Do you know what kind of steel the blade is made if?

Certain cap and ball revolvers will take conversion cylinders. I have a Ruger old army that will take a .45 LC cylinder, I don’t have one though. I like my cap and ball guns!

That holster looks great! I read about that gun on a muzzleloader forum last week, it's a beauty.

That is uber cool!

What I do is cut my patterns out for whatever I'm making and apply a light to moderate amount of neatsfoot oil with a piece of sponge prior to any stamping, carving or dyeing and let it set overnight. the next day it's ready to go. I know that's a lot of drawn out time, sometimes I'll do it in the morning and it looks ready hours later. I just wait until it looks like it did before I oiled it before I do anything to it. this seems to work good for me.

Thanks folks. Tugadude, I have a website. millerknives.com

Looks great. I'd tell people that's where I keep my first aid stuff.

Here's a couple knife sheaths I just finished, nothing fancy.

Dang!...nope, you could use 1 1/4" galvanized pipe. you might need a step stool to get to the top though.

Yes, that's cane toad.

I resized this one to 700 to see what happens.

Thanks Burkhardt! I did just that, to 660 and it worked.