Colt W Knight

I ordered some Al Stohlman books and tracing paper from Tandy Online once, and the local store folded the books and tracing paper roll to get it to fit into a smaller box. I am guessing so they could make some money off the shipping. I was pissed off. I got several yards of wrinkled up tracing paper.

I have been learning the hardway. Just recently picked up a few Al Stohlman books. Those things are a wealth of useable knowledge. Wish I would have gotten them a long time ago.

Just finished this leather notebook portfolio. It is going to be auctioned off at the Arizona Cattle Growers Association Cattlemens College this summer. It is made from 7 ounce veg tan leather with a deer skin liner. The pen holder is red lambskin. I have made several of these with a few different designs, and folks seem to like them. I am currently working on my PhD, and serving as the University's feedlot manager. I go to a lot of meetings and make a lot of notes when working cattle. These heavy duty portfolios just hold up and work better than the vinyl ones you buy at the office supply store. Still need to press it flat, hand stitching the edges usually puts a bend in the leather. I don't use a fancy stitching vice/pony. Just do it on the couch watching TV. I have to say, hand stitching these guys really sucks, but my old singer wont sew more than 7-8 ounce leather.

Looking good.

I would pack that around. Great knife with a slick sheath.

Thanks again everyone. I really enjoy figure carving. I am not a big floral person.

Thanks guys.

A friend of mine called me up and said he needed a new guitar strap. He wanted me to make him an extra wide strap, but didn't want a Country/Western theme. He specifically wanted a slotted length adjustment, and told me he wanted a New Orleans Voodoo theme. I'll be the first to admit, I have no idea what that means, but I drew up a sketch. This is a first for me. The few things I have tooled before have all been traced or from pictures. This is the first time for me doing original artwork. 7 ounce veg tan leather, deer skin backing, hand stitched and its got an aged looking finish. The deer skin feels amazing. Super soft. I love how it feels. I absolutely hate working with it. It gets dirty and stains just looking at it. Ugghhh. I had to throw away the first strip because the contact cement bled through. I had to keep cleaning my hands while stitching it because it would get dirty super easy.

Amazing work. I feel for you on the hand stitching. I have a couple projects where I have to hand stitch, and it is a miserable experience. One of these days I will own a big sewing machine.

Your tooling looks great. I have used the two tone strap adjustment deal before, bit yours looks outstandi ng against your main strap. I might steal your color pattern! Wish I could tool flowers. Im awful at flowers.

Mine arrived just shy of a month after ordering. It is high quality, and works phenominally well. I can't believe how nice I can make edges in just a few minutes. If you have a sharp edge tool, you don't even need to sand if everything is even.

A 22 LR is 0.223" diameter, and a 5.56 NATO is 0.224". I agree, a 22LR is the way to go for Zombies.

It was 5/16", but I changed it to 3/8". The strap is glued and hand stitched on with that artificial sinew stuff.

1) The way I beveled the face, she looks chubby ( I don't like that) 2) What is the best way to get hair texture? I just scratched in some lines that follow the hair. In person, up close, you can see the texture, but It just isn't good enough. 3) How do you bevel lips so they don't look like Mr Potato Head? and eye brows? Is there a procedure for eyeballs and glasses? 4) I finally figured out what I was doing wrong with the backgrounding tool, so that should be better on my next attempt. * If anyone has some literature or personal suggestions, I would be most grateful. I know I am not a master leathercrafter, but I do want to get better. I thoroughly enjoy picture carving. This was my first picture - I learned a lot about texture and beveling on this one. Learned more creating some flags

Backgrounded Dyed in some highlights Added some lighter antique Glued on the felt Sewed on the felt All said and done

I have been struggling deciding which direction I want to go into on my leather work. I know what I want to make, but I didn't really know what I wanted to carve. I don't enjoy leaf or flower tooling, but I do like Pictures and lettering. I am not very good at it, but I would love some pointers. When I carve a picture or an animal, I feel a lot more satisfaction than tooling a flower or a leaf. This is my lovely GF, Miss Ashley This is my stencil - I am still not sure what lines to simply trace and which lines to carve with the swivel knife. I have this stylus, I feel like the ball point is too big, but I really don't know??? Traced I am using a Pro Kraftool swivel knife. I keep it sharp, and it cuts beautifully. I am getting better at using this knife.

Jealous of your machine and holster. My MP40 is naked at the moment

I find that it is easier to Photobucket. You don't have to resize photos, and photos show up full size on internet forums. I hate looking at the little uploaded pics because the resolution is so small. 1. Sign up for a free account on Photobucket.com 2. Upload your photos to photobucket 3. Anytime you want to share pictures on an online forum you just copy and paste this link. If you want to share an entire photoalbum, there is a link for that as well. * Now you have your photos stored online, and you can share them on Facebook, online forums or emails. Here is an example

Thanks Red Cent.

Would love for the experienced folks to chime in on setup and capabilities. I am happy with this machine for sewing liners on my straps and slings.

I need to make an edge guide or Seam Guide so that I can sew a straight line. I am not skilled enough to just feed the leather straight by hand. Here is an example of sewing heavy wool felt to 7 ounce veg tan leather with the new setup. Note, I didn't have to help the machine at all, and I sewed slow enough I could manage feeding the leather straight.

What have I gained 1) The motor is definitely stronger and faster. In fact, it is way to fast. Trying to sew wide open almost always breaks the needle or frays the thread. However, you can just slightly depress the foot lever and sew very slowly. Even at slower speeds it is strong enough to sew 7 ounce leather or 7 ounce leather with a heavy wool felt lining. The motor is also strong enough to sew 2 pieces of 7 ounce leather. Although, I still don't have all the kinks worked out sewing two pieces of veg tan leather. I plan on adding some sort of attenuator so I can dial back the speed. I bought a plug in dimmer switch, but it arrived DOA. Ill have to take it back and get another. 2) The walking foot attachment needed a lot more foot pressure to work correctly, and it is tougher to turn your work piece with the walking foot on. 3) Without the stronger motor and the walking foot, I was having a really difficult time controlling the width of the stitches. The feed dogs didn't have enough grip/power to pull the big heavy strap through the machine. There was no problem on shorter pieces, just these bigger pieces. It took me 3-4 hours to hand stitch this guitar strap Took me about 3 minutes to sew this on the Singer 66

Here is what I have done to the machine so far 1) Made a felt washer for the thread 2) Added a control feed foot ( half ass walking foot) 3) added a bigger motor ( this one is 3-4x more powerful) 4) Foot controller instead of knee lever ( those old cabinets were made for little women, not a 6'3'' 260 lbs dude). I do not fit underneath the desk part of the sewing machine cabinet. 5) Gave the cabinet a good once over with some furniture polish

When I got this thing home, I went through and cleaned/oiled it thoroughly. Then I tried sewing some leather. I learned a lot 1) The thread has to sit on a felt washer, because the felt acts like a brake to stop the spool from unwinding when you stop sewing. 2) Foot tension and thread tension make a huge difference 3) There is a lot more skill involved in sewing than just running something under the needle. In stock configuration, I could sew 7 ounces of vegetable tan leather at 6 stiches per inch. I could sew heavy felt on the back of 7 ounce leather. But I had to hand turn the wheel to give the motor a little extra help to start sewing, once I got going I had to keep the motor going full bore to have enough power to continue sewing without aiding the wheel