Colt W Knight

Wait, you aren't supposed to cuss at your sewing machine?

Thanks everyone

Thanks everyone

Thanks everyone

Thanks I think you should, if I have to make purses, Id feel better if someone else was stuck doing it as well. I have to make one for the mother in law next.

I just use a rubber pencil eraser.

What do you mean by 2 piece guitar strap? There are a lot of styles of guitar straps, and you don't have to follow any pattern. You can make them however you would like. Generally speaking, the average guitar strap is 48" from center button hole to center button hole, and taller straps are ~52-56". If you know your brother's guitar strap size, you don't need to make it adjustable. If you want some wiggle room you can add some adjustments.

A good friend of mine recently contacted me and told me that found a good deal on some nice Black Jack gator boots online, but when they arrived the color wasn't quite right ( which is probably why they less expensive). He tried painting on some Walmart acrylic and they ended up looking like a DIY antiquing job, complete with brush strokes and all. He asked if there was anything I could do. So I stripped the paint off with some Angelus Deglazer/preparer to get rid of those brush strokes. Then gave it a good cleaning with Fiebings saddle soap and water. I like saddle soap, when used correctly it really helps the leather in my opinion. While it was drying a mixed some Angelus white, cognac, and yellow to get a nice egg shell color and thinned it for use in my air brush. I tried taping and using piece of carboard to mask off the areas I didn't want to paint with no success, so I ended up just setting my airbrush smaller and doing it free hand. I was even able to do the emblems with almost no overspray. In the areas where I got overspray, I simply wiped it off with the deglazer (pretty simple actually). Gave it three good coats, and cleaned my overspray. Then I redied the soles black with Fiebings Pro oil dye, and gave the boots about 3 light coats of mop n glo (50/50 glo and water) through the airbrush. I think they came out well, and I am really liking my new Iwata airbrush. Cleaning has kinda been a pain, so I bought a nice heated ultrasonic cleaner. Now I can rinse the airbrush real quick, disassemble, and stuff it in the ultrasonic cleaner. The airbrushes perform better when cleaning them like this, and its a lot easier than how I was doing it in the sink.

+1 on deerskin for purses. The gals I've made deerskin purses for absolutely love the soft leather texture.

I quit buying from Tandy because the quality at my local stores diminished drastically. You can sand fuzzy leather, but if it's real fuzzy it may be very impractical.

I don't understand what this post is about???

Your engraving is absolutely fantastic. You wont have any trouble transferring over to leather. As far as tools, check out a fellow named Clay Miller, along with Barry King, Jerimiah Watt, and Bob Beard. Older, USA made craftools can be quite nice as well. You are use to doing quality work, so you will know that good tools are a paramount and unlike most of us who start off with cheap Tandy stuff and work our way up, youll probably want to start with the good stuff. Barry King is the only with a useful website. Check out Leatherburnishers.com for nice burnishers and mauls.

Yup, I don't know how doing stuff the same way as they have been doing inspiresome creativity. There are some members on this forum that are just cranky old guys who think only their way is the right way.

Joanne Fabric sells line 24 snaps with an inexpensive setter and anvil, but I don't know if you have the equivalent fabric type stores in SA.

I have nylon on my top thread and polyester on my bobbin, and when I melt the ends after sewing, the nylon melts and the polyester will melt and catch on fire.

Thank you

Bob sent me a Family Sew motor, and that thing has been the bees knees. After a lot of practice with the industrial walking foot machine, I have finally gotten pretty good at making nice stitches and stitching pretty fast.

What is the use of the straight guide over the roller guide?

That is slick

Thanks, I rubbed the hell out of it, then gave a coat of a beeswax mix I made up. Thanks.

I don't see any pictures?

Very clean basket weave on those spur straps. I have ordered a lot of leather from Hide House and the quality has always been good. I wish they had a better quality website.

I am trying to upload the pictures onto the site, since the new format isn't allowing me to use photobucket. Black deerskin and purple designer delight from hidehouse. The liner is an iridescent fabric (for lack of a better term) and the veg tan is all 5/6 ounce. I switched over to using Fiebings Pro oil dye on this purse, and I like it much better than the regular USMC black. I think I finally got the seam down nice on the flap. I have been struggling with that for a while.

That one isn't made with 6/7 ounce total of vegtan leather. Its a lighter weight, more flexible leather with, most likely, a card stock stiffener. I make a lot of padfolios, and 6/7 ounce veg tan leather with a thin liner and the pockets are plenty stiff.

Do you have a picture of what you are trying to accomplish? I don't see where a 4/5 ounce tooled leather with a liner would need a stiffener on a portfolio.