Dragons Pearl

I have a person that wants a black roper style wallet with 'Raiders' on the front and I plan on making a shield outline, but not the little raider guy (so there won't be copyright probs. shouldn't be a prob with the word I would think. any lawyers in the house?) and color them both silver. I will be doing them inverse so as to protect the coloring but I was wondering if using silver enamel paint from testors (the kind one uses in making models) would work. And if it did, what sort of finish could I use to further protect it from ruboff. And on the same line, it would be a good idea to dye the leather blue and then do a couple apps of black? Does the black rub off on the grain side as bad as the flesh side? Thanks in advance!

"The instructions also say to cement your project to some hard cardboard while you work on it to keep it from stretching? How much can a wallett possibly stretch from tooling?! Will the rubber cement come off of the back of the leather afterwards, or am I forced to line everything I make to avoid having a gooey mess on the back sides of my projects?" Well, as for this part, I can answer. The first checkbook cover I ever did, I didn't glue it down and did a lot of stamping and carving on it and it stretched like you wouldn't believe. I had to get the liner wet and stretch it to match the outside. Even still, it didn't fit quite right. The more tooling, carving and stamping you do to the leather, the more it will tend to stretch and go oversize to the liner. So its really a good idea to glue it down to some thick posterboard or thin cardboard. If you can find the pieces in between the layers in a case of soup cans, that makes a good piece to glue the leather down to.

Sorry to hear about the bad start on the belt, but good idea to use the rest of it for a practice run. The only advice I can give (cos I am a serious newbie too :biggrin: ) is to keep on trying. Might see if there is a place that has some scraps you could practice on. I went to a saddlemaker shop where I grew up and the fellow there just gave me some scrap pieces to practice on. I tried to pay him for them, he laughed at me and said to just practice, practice, practice. And pics would be great so we can see how you are doing! No matter if you think they look bad either. I don't like half of what I have done, but the people that have gotten the pieces have been happy with them. We all tend to be much harder on our work than others!

I would check yard sales, estate sales and ebay. You also may want to check around at some cobbler shops to see if they know of anyone getting out of leather or they may have some tools for sale. Or see if a local Tandy store would be willing to sponsor. Who knows, the answer is always no if you don't ask.

I want one of those! The kitchen table is all I have also. But then again, I don't have enough room for a separate work bench yet. I still need to shop around for a top piece at the headstone and counter shops for when I do. Really sweet looking bench tho. Gives me more ideas to use when I can make mine.

Thanks for the info Michael, I will give it a try next time I go to my moms house then. I think he would be happy I am using it for stuff like that!

I have a quick question about a sewing machine that my dad had. Its a Thompsons PW 200. I it has a walking foot on it, but don't have any other info on it. He used it for recovering seats for cars, bikes and boats. I wanted to know if anyone here would know if it would be good for leather. Mostly wallets, checkbook covers and such. Not gonna be doing holsters or anything like that yet. Maybe belts tho.

If you know of a place that orders boxes of soup cans, the filler between the layers of cans works great. Works for making patterns too. I have used it for making a few checkbook covers and a purse. Reused some of the checkbook cover sized ones too. Already has a layer of rubber cement so it makes it easier to glue down the leather.

Funny you should ask about the colors on the purse. Its Sharpie Markers! Worked excelent on the swivel knife stems eh? :biggrin:

Here is the finished roper wallet with the tiki and graphics on it that I made for my brother: And a dasher purse for my little girl: (well not so little lol. she is going to be 11 this month) Any comments, constructive crits and other are welcome! Still learning, but getting better. This place has given me ideas and information on how to better my craft.

Looking for a beginner/intermediate filigree pattern for a billfold, if there is such an animal. I want to try one and the free pattern shown on the Tandy site just doesn't feel right to me. Course it could just be the coloring that is used on it. Could any pattern be used and just cut out the background instead of ...umm... backgrounding it?

Yep, mine two. Gonna fire up the table saw when I get the chance and grab some scrap wood. Thanks for the link JustWakinUp.

Pete, True, but my copier does not have a reduce/enlarge feature, so I would have to make a trip down to the local Kinkos, which is across town. Doable, but I would rather do it at home given the choice. Still tho, would work for a more intricate pattern. Less time spent drawing lol.

Sweet!! You da man Ken! Thats exactly what I was looking for.

I have the A. S. Belts Galore book and want to make a belt with one of the patterns in it. Only thing is, its a 2" pattern and I need it to be a 1 1/2" pattern. Any ideas on how to shrink the 2" to 1 1/2"? They are both the rose patterns, but I really prefer the 2" one.

Sweet work on those pieces! The pocket idea is probably very handy. And here I was going to ask if there was an airbrush tutorial out there! I just did a dye job on a roper wallet that is just horrible to look at. (to me anyway lol)

Printed out fine on my comp at home last night. Wasn't to scale tho lol. But the dimensions are written on there so no biggie.

Very sweet seat!. Just picked up the issue this morning and the only complaint I have is there is not a decent shot of the seat in it. Just a few side shots, but there is one closeup that shows some of the lacing.

Thanks Cecil! Now all I have to do is wait till a payday when I have a little extra and get the supplies. Man I love this site!

The digital one looks like the one we use at work, but its probably lots different. Not had to replace the battery yet, but it doesn't get a whole lot of use. Just to calibrate the lab a few times a year. Works really good tho.

Thanks for the info guys! I will be looking into it a little more now. Not sure if I can run the exhaust up the same pipe as the furnace, but I may just have someone bore a hole in the basement wall and exhaust straight out. Would put the heater closer to the faucets too, so less time waiting for hot water. Also gonna check a few places to see how much they would charge to put one in. That scares me lol.

Has anyone out there got a tankless water heater in their house? I have an electric tank water heater and my oldest thinks she has to drain it every time she gets in the shower. The gym has a tankless and I talked to the owner and he loves it. Just wanted to get a few more opinons before I got serious about buying one. Looking at Lowes.com and checking out the Bosch ones. They have a 6.4 gpm for 998.00. Kind of a big output so I want to be sure it will work for us. Thanks in advance!

Sorta what I was thinking of, but the graphics themselves are sorta // instead of II so I need something to stretch them square. I may just redo the pics with the digital camera. I scanned that pic and couldn't see how the fabric was laying. I will try printing it out and seeing what it looks like tho. Thanks!

Possibly modify a cigarette case with a lighter holder? Make the case part taller and skinnier and the lighter part a little bigger around to hold a little spray bottle and a wipe. Not sure about the pen part. Maybe on the other side sew on a loop for a pen. Might also take apart an existing one to get the main pattern and then add on a molded pocket on the front for the bottle, wipe and pen. As for patterns, I have not seen any like you describe. Just my 2 copper pieces

I may have to post a pic of what I am talking about, but here goes without the pics. (at work again ) I copied a pattern from one of my dads old shirts. Unfortunatly, the fabric was a little tweaked and the figures are a little skewed. I traced it on tracing paper and tried to fix the problem, but the way I am putting them together (3 blocks side by side) makes the tilt obvious. Is there a program out there that will let you strech a picture to make it look square? : Forgot, I have the pic here at work! Here it is: I am using the face in the middle and the figure above it on each side.