steveb

ha! love it, fitting use for the devil he's perfect to put your change and pocket detritus in! steveb

around 2oz.....

nyuk nyuk - actually i think he is from the New England area - but thanks for the comment....steveb I invite you to try using textures and thinking of your designs past their appearance.spend some time with a pair of scissors and some kraft paper and you'll come up with some unusual shapes also....not all usable, but some will be interestingsteveb

well i cant draw either, never held me back...lol...nothing that a scanner, a set of french curves, a compass or two and a good set of fonts can cure...good design is all in your eye, not necc. in your hands.... Be crafty, many font sets and even specialty fonts have all sorts of appropriate iconography that you can corrupt for leather craft, once sized up...having a friend or two who are excellent graphic designers helps in those special situations where only the best will do You can tun a picture into line art with high contrast and play all sorts of tricks with scanners, copiers and photo editing/viewing software - no reason to let crappy drawing skills get in the way. Even without those (nice to have ) skills, you can make do... steveb

I hear ya Mike, if i have time to, i will. If not, you can always check 'em on ,my site at some point in the future - but I am sure that is slow as a snail too...hope you can get your hands on a good 100mpbs connection one of these days steveb

wow - 8 large for a bag that has stitching that i can do better? yikes!! I musta missed school that day.... steveb

K - wow - what an honor!! I am happy to work something out...lets do it "off-bhoard" ok?And they are about 7.25 long and about 4" wide at the widest point - although that is not a scientific measurementsteveb no Grumpy - the color on the inside is an airbrush produced presentaiton...i always use a 3color bnlend on the insidesi have a good heavy maul and I tend to work on pretty dry material so a good solid "whack" is all I need... I am not big on soaking/casing and tend to spray bottle my work rather than soaksteveb

yeah, well you know how it is w/age Grumpy...kinda like a rash....ya cant hide from it!! steveb

another one is leaving HQ today...captain curts winged wheel...

came out great Kevin - really clean and precise...sure duane will dig it that kind of pinstriping reminds me of the vans that were all the rage when i was younger ....cragar rims, captains chairs and bubble windows

hate to admit it Bruce, but i actually get it...scary.... guess its true, Verlane once mentioned to me in an email that if you spend anytime in leather craft and construction you WILL wind up learning about tack, horses and the technical vagaries of saddle rigging and horsemanship. its true steveb (not a horseman, but not totally ing-o-rant about it either..ha!)

looks smooth and the excellent photo helps bring the depth out of your tooling clearly.. your bevelling looks really clean and the backgrounding looks great also...nice job! steveb

OK - I give...what are "buck rolls", and what do they do? steveb

got to yell you dave, the antiquing really made this shine, looks very rich..great job, kind of belongs on display rather than a bike as all your backgrounding is going to attract road grime and dirt. I hope the person that gets it is going to take care of it the right way....it deserves some special treatment great toolin', no foolin' steveb

mmm...nice... D.A.! I think i have granite envy, that is a really nice slab o rock i have a nice piece (well , for me its nice...) of granite - 3x2 - like 4" thick - that i paid $60 for - that has a nice smooth surface....perfect for what we do and came from right out in the stone yard, dirt and all........actually Duane and I bought our stones from Swenson at the same time during a visit....i will have it forever i think he got the smart stone tho, cuz boy my work sure doesnt look half as good as his does!! lol and ya know it is true what they ..."it is all in the slab.." ;-/ edit>> oh yeah, i as being such a smart-ass i forgot to mention, if you want to knock down the sharp edges on the sides of a slab of granite, take a red brick - a plain old red brick and run it across the edge lengthwise - it knocks that sharp edge right down beautifully, mine is nicely rounded, took me 20min....MUCH more comfortable and safer around leather than a sharp raspy edge - the guy at the quarry turned me onto that after i asked why the granite slab had a knife edge

yes John, I am lining my sheaths, for the most part..sometimes not...all depends.... on what is going on with the blade...and how i feel about it...i follow no rule..but you make me think?? should i be ...lol? AFA using snaps - my clients tend to keep their blades holstered for 99.9% of the time... so there is not alot of in and out and the little work a blade see is mostly utility work.("may i cut that cheese for you"?)..ha... i make more holsters for folders than i do fixed blades..so my main concern is keeping the blade secure - these are not tactical sheaths, thats not my thing the rivets are for one good reason - safety- i use the small #14 rivets and dome them good so they wont contact the blade it is actually easier to sew the loop on, but if youve ever gottten your blade hooked, or your holster/sheath snared, you'd dest hope your holster will let go - and it is alot more likely a single rivet will let go - you can pop it with a real good jerk -before a sewn loop does. I'd rather replace a sheath before having to try and replace a person who got hurt because he got snared by a seatbelt in an accident, grabbed by an assailant, etc.... steveb

that looks totally badass, the whole damn thing! niice!!

the stitiching is courtesy of my old cast iron Boss- 277 thread top & bottom , the backgrounder is from Bob Beard

mmm..thick and clean - very nice - got a question though. when i carry a knife i want it to ride high, because i am moving around alot, in and out of cars, sitting down, etc and find that a standard type sheath rides waay low for me - always pulling the blade away from my body and i am usually painfully aware i am carrying a blade...which is why i make my sheaths to ride high or horizontal.... what are your thoughts? sheaths are really a favorite of mine as they require me to take the time to really get to know the blade and how the person will be carrying, or maybe not carrying the blade...i take each one as its own special needs customer...lol here is how i handle a "high carry-ing" sheath for 2 diff blades- what are your thoughts Grunt steveb

wow - those are really cool..love the crazy color and the craftsmanship is killer... really different..thanks for sharing...love the big pics - lets you really see what your up to! got a question though, ive never used buckles on chaps - always zippers.....ever have any comfort complaints? steveb

lol - i dont know Luke - my whole rack is pretty small, so at most- it aint impressive! i dont do a test, i dont have a plan, i just work an idea - i have in my head, i go after a feel i want the holder to experience when he picks it up, it is more about the feel, less about the actual "look" and appearance of the piece... it is why i use great materials, deep and dramatic tooling and diff finishes kinda weird huh - most of us go for visual appeal, i like my work to have a tactile point of difference since my art skills suck and I understand texture better from a handwork and personal "using tools" skills perspective sometimes this quest for a tactile idea turns into a indecipherable piece o crap, sometimes it comes out just as i planned - and that for me, is the fun of it steveb

Thanks - i use the pebbly thing alot, although is getting a little played which is why i try mixing it up with other textures when i think i can, personally, i find that much more interesting to do from a hand work perspective and feel... the texture gives good "hand" to the owner -I like it when i can really work the leather texture wise... check out the back of that wallet - thats a bunch of tools and techniques at work there the chain comes form a guy who inquired about leather work from me, he was a re-enactor or something like that as i recall and i made him a fandangler for his get-up and he traded me for a few chains, in brass and stainless, you know how those medieval guys are, always short on cake...ha.... - I could never in a million years do anything nearly as detailed as that chin, shit makes me dizzy - no way - i will leave that to the rocket scientists... that crossed mallets stamp is mine, all mine!! - and as of last Oct, I had it trademarked... so if you ever see it on a piece that didn't come from yours truly - let me know please! thanks all of you for the kind words, persnoally i am getting to the point where i need to cut some time out of my workflow and craft a few new designs - I have been so busy with simply keeping up, I am missing the innovation part of this craft... i need like 2mos to simply design a few new [pieces, and i dont see that happening... its a blessing and a curse being busy with paying work I need a 29hr day!! steveb

I always use dye, never paint.. and usually try and build a complex border when the overall design allows...

Some folks are just Psycho.....this is the second attempt at this job, first one was kind of a crash and burn used three diff. background textures... some fun colors....some airbrushy stuff on the inside.. ....a neat stainless chain mail chain... steveb