Halitech

when I use mine I do it after all tooling has been done and just lightly to smooth everything

Just placed an order with them, hopefully they can still ship the dye as other places are saying they have to use UPS or Fedex and shipping is crazy with them. Turns a $5.00 order into an $80.00 order

The few that I've seen have simply used the x stitch but have used the x on the outside for looks. I do like your idea of rolling the leather inside to get a smooth finish though as the ones I've seen just use a 6oz leather and cut it flat

Thanks for this Tom. I just made this from 2oz goat and hand sewn

I'm not sure on the 5 braid but if I remember right, with the 3 it's add 1 inch for every 12 inch you want for the final size

I'm with lel on this one. I asked Chief what he used on the back of his guitar straps that weren't lined and he advised to use sno seal. warm the leather up a little bit then apply the sno seal and then warm it up with a hair dryer to get it to soak in good.

Great work as usual Chief

Overall it looks great. Only thing I would do a little different is I would have skived the edge around the insert so it didn't have as much of an edge and would have laid a little flatter

nice work for your first project. and I've done the same, didn't realize it till I went to out it on my belt

There are some good tutorials in the How do I do that section. Finishing edges - http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=18101 Casing Leather - http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=19121 Making Belts - http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=60344 The type of leather will depend on the answer to what I asked above, are you going to be tooling it or not? If you are tooling, your only option is veg tanned.

you definitely received a treasure there and I don't mean the money value. I would probably start first with deciding how you want to do your belts/wallets/straps and go from there. Will you be doing any tooling? Minimal? Lots? Then look at the different designs of each and decide on the style you want to go with for each. If you aren't tooling, then you need to decide on what kind of leather you want to use. If you decide you are going to be doing tooling, get some of the rounders and use those to practice different things on. Above all else, do lots of reading and practice and don't be afraid to post in the critique section for a second set of eyes to help find things you might miss

not to hijack your thread but since you asked me to post, here's mine

well, I had some help from the back pocket on my jeans lol will do, not like it's going to be seen often but I'm tooling the front

I just started working out one based on your images and I was darn close. I went 5.25 wide, 5.5 high for the front piece and 6.25 for the back piece

Looks really good. Only thing I would have done different would be to put the top flap across the entire top so the rivets and sewing was holding it all together

I'll admit, I just have a dirty mind lol

I'm not sure but I've heard of other people using it so I would assume it can handle it. If not and he needs some help wet molding the leather on her, let me know, I'll be happy to help him out

I would hazard a guess that those are plates instead of letter stamps.

I know this will sound kinky but wrap her in saran wrap then duct tape. carefully cut it off then fill it up with expanding foam. Then use that to wet mold your leather. I agree with Bob though, might want to go heavier then 3oz for the cups

Only problem I see for me anyway, is the cost of shipping you the die and leather then paying to have it shipped back plus the time for shipping. Not saying that if you had a selection of dies available and I could buy the leather and have it shipped to you then just pay for shipping back to me that I wouldn't take advantage of it

beautiful work

looks really nice, still say the mexican loop would have looked better but what do I know, I'm just a guy after all

Congrats on the new house and baby, my condolences on no sleep for the rest of your life

lucky you I'd love to get one but the budget just isn't there right now. What did the Keystone cost you?