LHissong

What kind of dye was used for the holster? I've had decent enough luck with Fiebings green dye for a couple of projects. Granted, these were bags and not holsters, so I'm not sure if it would apply to your project or not. However, I got some pretty bright *green* from it.

Some new projects I've been working on.... hopefully getting better on the edge finishing and slicking. Haven't perfected it, but I have read the tutorial recommended to me on my last post and it is helping dramatically in a short amount of time.

Hey all, thanks for the advice. DeVillage, this one was meant to be 3 pieces. With the leather I had at the time I was unsure about getting one full back/flap piece. I had also cut a sample piece to try testing the design and it came out like my friend/customer wanted so I improvised with the pattern a bit. I've screwed up some large pieces by bad tooling and I was looking to lessen that impact.

Just finished my latest project.... a friend of mine wanted a bag made for his wife and provided an image that he wanted. Constructive comments definitely welcome. I'm finding messenger bags to be fun, but taking alot of leather and a ton of time to stitch. Luckily, most people who have items I've made seem to enjoy the rough around the edges look and feel, but at the same time I really would like to refine everything some more and I'm not sure how to do so.... Any advice? -Lee

I understand and appreciate your advice. However, please do not assume I haven't studied this a bit. I have not had anyone to show me tooling in person, so all of my tooling has come from texts and video tutorials specifically. I do know that my beveling needs work and I have improved from each piece to the next. Still have some technical kinks to work out. I think I get too much in a hurry and hit a bit too hard on the beveling tool. I have gone back over and made sure there was overlap on many of my projects and still have difficulty eliminating tool marks. I tend to have difficulty walking the tool properly. I've only been tooling for a month or two when I decided to add to my medieval themed interests.

Agree completely with you on other colors. I ran into something like that with my lion bag. Had it dyed so the lion was a very realistic color and the border was sort of a watered down red. Lacked that deep feeling darker colors often give so I redyed it. These measure quite large as well. I just measured the newest one at 16in at its widest point, about 13.5 inches tall, and 4 inches deep. I've been using Eco Flo mixes of Java Brown and Canyon Tan for the main body and then Canyon tan at differing levels of watered down or a hint of another color for most of the detail work. Never been too happy with the splotchy coverage and uneven look, but after putting on some mink oil it actually looks okay, though not anywhere near perfect. Going to try experimenting with some antique stains and see if I can get better definition on the tooling.

Hi all, Started to try some tooling with some of my leather bags. This is my latest. Still stitching it. This was made for a friend of mine for a Christmas/Thank-You gift. I wasn't able to get a picture of the bag with the lacing for the toggle and the shoulder strap before getting it to her. This was a commissioned piece made for a friend who wanted a Christmas gift for his sister. My mother is holding the bag in the picture. Feedback is definitely welcome. If anyone is curious, almost all of it is hand drawn or freehanded with the swivel knife or stylus, so there are definitely imperfections. There were images used as reference for the central animal images, however, they were not duplicated exactly. However, alot of the people that have inquired on the bags have seemingly liked the rough hewn look, so I guess it has a silver lining? What do ya'll think?

Hi all, Been looking at some medieval pieces lately and haven't been able to find a lot of information about how they were tooled. Some pieces, like the attached picture of a round canister, are obviously incised and could be recreated with modern tooling. Others, like the rectangular case, are three dimensional and difficult to make out how such crisp detail was obtained. And yet others look like they are somewhere in between. Does anyone know how the three dimensional relief tooling was done in period with such detail? Best I have heard from other sources indicates some use of a stylus on the grain side and perhaps some form of wooden last or molding block, but really no other detail is given. Anyone have any ideas?

Hi all, My name is Lee and I am a 26 year old graduate student in history at Arkansas State University. Heavily involved with the SCA and began working with leather just recently. I also used to be a rather large gamer geek (proudly) and some of my leatherwork has taken on aesthetics from various series I fell in love with, especially Legend of Zelda. Included are some pictures of a medieval themed satchel (heraldic wyvern) and my now completed Zelda satchel (though the pic is sans strap and buckle). The Zelda bag was my first large scale tooling attempt, and the wyvern my second. Still have to smooth out my beveling and work on some things. The non-tooled bags were what I started out doing before picking up tooling and were used as pilgrim's bag gifts for loved ones. Looking forward to interacting on this board, learning some new things and getting to know ya'll.