Troy Burch

You said you have a local Tandy store, you can save shipping cost buying saddle lac there it also comes in liquid form. Saddle lac and clear lac are the same thing as the old neat lac, just sold under different brand names.

nice

How big are these? lol, never mind It helps when I read the header.

In my experences Saddle Lac is by far the best, I use the spray can and spray two light coats about 30 minutes apart and let cure over night. I was using top coat but it's not much better than super sheen and it will give what you want resisted a slight yellowish brown tint. I use tan antique gel alot works great.

Springfield leather co.

Wet the leather then let it dry back to almost normal color, then put in a bag in the fridge overnight. This will make the moisture content even thruout the leather not just wet on top. The way you were wetting your leather the beveler cant do its job on the middle and bottom where its too dry. uncover just enough at a time that you can tool that area before it loses its moisture. no need to recover what you've finished tooling. do the decorative cuts and back grounding last as they need less moisture.

You don't have to cut deep to have plenty of depth in the tooling. The beveler will bevel deeper than your cuts if the moisture is right. If you've cut thru the leather with your beveling before your probly cutting too deep. I don't know of any way to fix it, but if it's ruined anyway properly case it and try to rebevel. If I were you I'd get some scrap and cut different depths and see which works best.

I was taught to cut about a 1/3 into the leather. I had similar problems years ago when I started carving. Your moisture content is not right, to dry or to wet will cause you to see the cut lines after beveling. How deep are you cutting your leather? The pic seems to show alot of cut lines after you have beveled, I don't think you need to cut deeper because the cuts are still there, maybe you didn't bevel all the way to the bottom of your cuts.

I don't know what kind of carving your doing but if it's figure (animal) carving you'll be wanting the smooth bevelers also.

If you haven't used one much the 1/2 inch barrel will feel more comfortable for sure, but if you plan on doing any carving you'll want a smaller barrel because as you follow your lines you'll be needing to roll the barrel between your thumb and finger when on the curves. With the bigger barrel you'll be stopping to regrip because you can't rotate it as much as you'll need to. the quality of the work will be pretty much the same but you'll save lots of time not stopping to regrip or turning your leather constantly.

That's very nice stitching, would you mind telling me what size needle and thread you use. Thanks Troy

sent you a pm

Nice work and very nice stitching. Look in the tutorals for Hidepounder's how to burnish edges, it will improve the final apperance. Troy

I like the black contrast best but the ox blood is nice as well. I think it would really pop if antiqued with mahogany. Very nice Troy

I have to say the beer can holder with a belt loop is my favorite. lol

No, It's been sitting on a shelf unused for years. I find it easier to prepunch my holes before I start sewing than to wrestle with the damn thing.

I didn't know they had gotten that cheap, My friend gave &7,500 for his about 30 years ago. It belongs to me now and still works like new.

I have the same problem. I have a stitching pony but can't use it as intended. I as I'm sure you do need my forearms or one elbow resting on something when leaning forward. I don't awl one hole at a time, I'll do 20 or so then pick up the needles and sew then do it again until I'm done. I've been intending to modify the pony and c clamp it to my table but to be honest I've gotten so used to it I don't believe the pony would be much faster. I've watched sewing videos where they use the stitching pony and I'm pretty much as fast as they are. But I've been doing it this way for 10 years, I think you'll find as you did learning to live in a wheelchair once your used to doing something it becomes a "normal" smoother process. I know this doesn't help much but as you get back into leather work you'll notice things will get easier and more natural as you go. Good luck Troy

If your talking about patterns you "bought" along with a how to video, pattern pack, or kit you can certainly use them on work that you sell or give away. However you can't resell or post the patterns for someone else to use. Well I just noticed camano ridge already said this.

In addition to what Ray said, Springfield leather company has free videos on their website showing how to use tools and stuff.

Best way is pick a project and do it. Your going to mess up some but you'll learn more in a couple of days than in a month of videos. We ALL have a trash pile. The marble slab is for tooling on for better impressions. Lots of tutorials on this site, stop worrying about ruining something and jump in and have fun with it.

Sounds like you need more advice than one post can give you. There's a lot of leather working how tos on youtube that will keep you fascinated for days. Good luck Troy

small funnel, large eye dropper?

Sounds like you want a creaser tool, look it up on youtube.

George, that's a good looking knife but I have one question, with the handle shaped like that does it feel awkward to use the opposite side of the blade because of the handle being upside down?