Johanna

I've still got the machine, and the manuals & parts list. Quite a few people have asked about it, but not one person has made me an offer- they keep asking me what I want for it! I need to get rid of it before my husband becomes too attached to it (or attaches his hand to something!) Someone make me an offer: johanna@leatherworker.net Johanna

I use Leather Balm with Atom Wax or water and a rub, as suggested above. If I were going to dye it, I would choose oil dye because it seems to penetrate better. On the top side of the leather (grain side) maybe use a cut up sponge or scrap sheepswool to apply the dye. Better two light coats than one heavy one. As one of the masters once said, "You can always make something darker and shorter, but never lighter and longer." No hide will ever absorb dye evenly; the best you can hope for is streak free. Well, I take that back. The fancy English tanned zillion dollar a square foot and blemish free (but small hides) leather will take dye evenly most of the time. K-Man- how do you finish the insides of your holsters? Johanna

bruceThe way I've seen it done is on an angle like you describe, and the cut is made halfway into the leather. I suppose 8/9 oz would be the "thinnest" leather I would attempt to stitch like that. The work I saw was done on skirting leather- 10/14 oz. weights. You can either wet the leather after stitching and pound it, or use cement. When pounding, insert a scrap piece in between the work and the hammer (a cobblers hammer is wonderful for job like this, and lacing, too) so you don't accidentally mar the leather near the seam. I have also seen this technique used in SCA armor (to be period authentic maybe?) and now I'm going to have to look it up and find out the historical significance because I'm curious. Johanna

Well, of course they liked it! You are doing some great work, and anyone who gets to plop their derrière onto one of your works of art should be delighted. In fact, if they rebuild the bike next year, they'll likely keep the seat. Duh. I suspect that if I asked around privately, I'd find out you're not getting paid as well as you should be, either. Leatherworkers with your talent shouldn't have to have day jobs, unless they want them. Johanna

I was taught to pound stitches (and lacing) to "set" them in veggie tanned leather. If you ask 50 leatherworkers how to do something, you will get 51 different answers, so I want to know if you folks pound your stitches in, too? If you do, why? If you don't, why not? I'm curious to hear the reasoning behind the methods, and what works best for you. Johanna

Bruce, I've seen that trick to hide the stitch line, and it's not only functional, but it can be attractively "invisible". I've heard both sides of the stitching groover debate, and the protection from abrasion on the stitches makes sense to me, as long as the leather is thick enough. A groover should make more of a "scratch" than a "channel", anyway. Anytime you sew (punch holes in leather), you have a weak spot. The trick is to spread the tension over a big enough area, and to teach the consumer to properly care for the item to avoid dry rot and have it come apart no matter how it's been sewn. (I always felt bad for people who brought us old neglected things for repair/restoration and were disappointed that we couldn't "save" the original leather because it wasn't in good enough condition to hold a stitch.) I was also taught to pound stitches into the leather. If you can run a fingernail down your stitch line and the thread catches, there is a potential problem, and you should probably pull the thread out and start over. Johanna

Jim, that tip about the black is one of the most well kept secrets in leatherland, and you just told the world! Hey, it would look nice any color. Cheers from Ohio! Johanna

Link to Us I'm working on updates right now. Thank you everybody who took the time to send a message with new, updated or other relevant info. You folks are great! Johanna

Myriam, those are GREAT! Can I post them on the other side of the site? I will make every page link back to your site. Welcome to leatherworker.net! Johanna

Clay, the DOG has been licking the doughnuts? I was blaming the time difference, and you are feeding our breakfast to the dog?? You're fired. Anyone live near a Krispy Kreme? (Oh, how I miss them!) Thanks everyone for the positive feedback on the site changes. We are growing, and we are lucky to have dedicated people like Bruce who are willing to put the time and effort into making this site tick. The forum software allows us to tweak for clarity and convenience, so keep the suggestions and ideas for improvement coming! You folks are wonderful. Johanna

I'm not a leather carver by any stretch of the imagination, but I never held a more perfectly balanced knife than the ones Bob Beard makes. If you get a chance to go to a trade show the vendors will let you try out the different knives. Swivel knives are definitely one tool where one size/style isn't going to fit all. The right knife for you is going to be the one that suits your style and fits your hand the best, and that's hard to tell from a catalog. Johanna

Beeze...you're talking that kind of money and spending it on tools?? I would be ordering a new fancy-shmancy computer..Oh, wait, that's a tool, too, isn't it? One thing Beeze and David do that I really admire is the initial design work. Lettering like that is one of the hardest things to do (everyone is glancing at the scrap box and nodding!) and so is "pulling it all together" which both of you do well. David incorporated everything they wanted into the seat without making it look messy or silly. Not an easy job! (Ask any tattoo artist!) I hope to see it finished, too- don't forget a picture or 10, David! Nice! Johanna

Correction: I didn't ask Bruce to oversee this area, I begged him. When he agreed, I did a happy dance. Like Bruce, I'm interested in learning all I can. Lucky for us, Bruce knows waaaay more than I do about saddle and horse topics. Thank you, Bruce, for all your help! If there is anything we can do to make the saddle & tack area more convenient or useful, please PM Bruce or me and give us your suggestions. Welcome to leatherworker.net, and please make yourselves comfortable. Please add your links to your profile and/or signature to help get more traffic to your site. Leatherworker.net is public, and the search engines love us. Remember that a post you make today could help someone, or some horse, down the line. Thanks for being here, and complain to ClayB about the doughnuts. He's always late with them, and half are gone when he gets here. Johanna

It's made out of molded leather. It's easier to do the molding with something underneath to brace it. Experiment with a garden statue or something until you have the feel for the leather, and how wet it needs to be. Without a form to follow, you must pay attention to the details, and a good set of modeling spoons/tools will help. The masks and roses molding tutorial under "Tips & Tricks" on the main page goes over all the basics. The rest is left up to the imagination. You can finish that kind of wall hanging art with a thick Neat Lac spray for a high gloss finish, because it isn't subject to stress. What exactly do you want to know from Cheryl? I can contact her easily, but I don't think she's going to tell you anything differently than what we can. I moved this into the adult section because the art is a nude female form. I find this kind of art beautiful, but search engines for AOL, Yahoo, MSN & Google etc and the new anti spyware/parental controls all have "family friendly" rules, and a violation could get the whole forum blacklisted. Because of the risk, if I'm going to err, it will be on the side of caution, not common sense. Johanna

The Straight Dope

Ha ha...you folks are all showing your age! Tandy has spent a lot of money since the Sixties to get people to call it "carving", (Which I suppose justifies prices!) not "stamping" (stamping tools are for Boy Scouts). And here come a few "new" old-timers, who have admired and looked up to the famous names mentioned above, and you all call it "stamping", just like they did. So much for Tandy and their effort to change the vocabulary! Seriously, welcome to all of you! We are very glad you are here! Would any of you be willing to share pics from your personal collections of the masters? I've heard the names, but never seen their work. If you folks consider them to be the very best, I'm curious to see why, and want to see examples of their styles. Here in Ohio "stamped" saddles just aren't common. Most of the horses belong to the Amish, and they aren't big on decoration, of course. I'm sure I'm not the only person wondering what the "standard" for stamping really is? I'm just as interested the history of leatherwork as I am in current events, and I would love to see the work mentioned and read your comments, so that I can learn something. If you don't mind sharing, I'd love to look. Johanna

Hope all is well with you and yours! Johanna

Please send additions, corrections, updates and so forth to admin@leatherworker.net Suppliers Johanna

Did you see the pics Clay took at Sheridan this year (Rocky Mountain Leather TradeShow sponsored by the Leathercrafters & Saddlers Journal)? http://www.leatherworker.net/sheridan07/index.htm The quality of the displayed work impressed me, just like Chester Hape's work. Johanna

In XP, the Character Chart is kinda hidden. Start> All Programs> Accessories> System Tools> Character Map. I right clicked on it and sent it to "shortcut on my desktop", then dragged it to my Quick Launch for convenience a long time ago. Since the Char Map does give you the alt codes, it's easy to memorize the ones you use the most frequently. For example, Alt and 0169 make a copyright symbol: © If I had to constantly switch between languages I think I would buy specific language keyboards and just swap them as needed. I know I can type anything on this standard American keyboard, but remembering all the tricks, codes and key combinations for the different characters in different languages is more clutter than my brain can absorb. Characters is a list of the alt codes. WebSlang is a list of acronyms, chat slang, txt msg abbreviations & emoticons. After the leather related pages on my website, they are the two most visited pages on my site. The hits come from all over the world via search engines, and people obviously bookmark the page. So I figured that if the pages were going to be looked at that much, might as well put some advertising on it. (It's the American way!) Leatherworker.net hasn't gotten any hits from these pages. Go figure. Some of you may have noticed that I'm a compulsive list maker by now. If you have suggestions, corrections, updates etc, please let me know so I can fix my lists. If anyone wants to share a list, leatherwise or otherwise, I'd be tickled. I love lists, don't you? Johanna

These just in from Rachel Hill, Lonestar Leathercrafters Guild, Ft. Worth, TX., hosts of the 2007 IFoLG Show. (If anyone had trouble with the pdf format, let me know and I'll convert them to Word or something friendlier.) If you have been procrastinating on your competition entries, get in gear! October will be here quickly! Johanna 2007_IFoLG_Show__Workshops___Classes_.pdf 2007_IFoLG_Show_Packet_for_Guilds.pdf 2007_IFoLG_Show__Workshops___Classes_.pdf 2007_IFoLG_Show_Packet_for_Guilds.pdf

Ralide makes one-piece polyethylene saddle trees in Tennessee. They claim on their site that more than half the trees and stirrups made in the USA are done on their products. Link for small trees. Johanna

Duh, and there is Indy and Pieter, too. What I need help with is when the person on the other end doesn't understand English very well and I need to write to them in their language. Don, it's good to know I have you and Xavier and a couple others who can bounce back and forth between languages comfortably. We truly have an international forum here, and you guys can be a big help when there are language barriers. Thank you! Johanna

Wow. I just sent him an invitation to the board, too. Good find, Don! Johanna Gesa, where are you? I could use some help with the German!

I've had good luck getting manuals and parts lists from Proleptic, but I don't see your model number listed here: http://secure.nccoastcommunications.com/pr...ory.asp?catid=9 I would give Dan Preston a call just in case he has one and doesn't have it listed for some reason. Or, he may know where to find one. Anyone else have any good ideas? I did a couple of internet searches and came up with blanks. Johanna