The Major

:beer:

Yuppers, exact same. :ranting: And now I am kicking myself in the ass, because I usually check Amazon before ordering books, but alas I did not this time.

That is really nice looking.

Welcome aboard.

Welcome Mark! Been down in your neck of the desert a few times. Love it down there. Saw my first live scorpion when I was in Tombstone, too bad it was attached to my leg.

Those are really nice looking chaps. What type of metallic leathers do you find work the best for chaps?

Wrapped handles work, but unless you can really secure the ends they come apart fairly easily. I would try a pineapple knot. If they are done correctly the tension of the knot keeps it secure. Just my $0.02

:beer: Happy Day Dave!

That is exactly the case. When I plait a whip, I will do do the long method of any plait for the length of the handle, and then switch to the quicker methods after that. You can hide the transition with the upper handle knot. Otherwise if you do the long method, by the time you get to the end of a 10 or 12 footer, you are ready to throw it out the window. But there is nothing wrong with it, it does look really nice. Ron Edwards does mention this method in his Whips and Whip Making book.

See this is the beautiful part about our craft/trade. There really are no right and wrong methods for doing most things. Just personal experiences and what works for you. As far as casing goes, another thing to consider in your casing method is the quality of leather you are using. This plays a big bearing on how well it will take the casing solution.

No problem. Plastic wrap. The stuff you use for wrapping up food dishes. Also called Saran wrap.

Ahhh the old Boy Scout methodology of immersing the leather. I remember those days. Since finding out too much moisture is bad for tooling, I have been using a spray bottle with dawn in it. Now when I tool something to a certain depth I know it will stay that way.

Constant wetting and drying the leather does make it hard as you are experiencing. A couple things to consider. 1. when you are going to pack it in for the night, rewet the project and put it in a ziploc bag, or for bigger projects use cling wrap. This will keep the moisture in for at least a day. If it is going to sit longer, wrap it up and put it in the refridgerator. 2. I am assuming you are using water to case your leather. Put a couple drops of dawn dish soap in the water. It will keep the pores lubricated. I have had projects sit out for days uncovered and not had a problem with hardening.

Doug, Welcome to the board. Nice work on the portfolio. That being said, grab a coup of coffee, sit back, relax and enjoy!

Welcome!

Happy Happy! :beer:

Cool. Do the 2 pieces actually fasten together, or do the shoulders "free float"

Ed, Great job on the briefcase. Really love the design. I wanted to make one suggestion though. On your liners. When you secure them down to the panels prior to sewing. Skive the edges down about 3/32" from your stitch line to the edge. This way when you glue the seams down and sew it up the liner won't show through the edge. Then when you slick it it, it will look like one piece. But excellent work.

Hi all, I saw some new items in the last Tandy flyer that peeked my interest, so I picked them up. They are offering some new pattern books that are awesome. I picked up their Dragon Patterns and Tattoo pattern books, and they are loaded. Honestly I was expecting a smaller 20 page book like they normally carry, however these books are packed. The Tattoo book has almost 500 pages of usable pattens, from fantasy, to wildlife, celtic knots, celtic crosses, etc. The dragon book is great as well. Just thought you would like to know.

Those are really nice looking.

I think you salvaged it nicely.

For the most part they are all the same, however Lennox/American saw have started making a TiN coated blade, which does last longer. They are about $0.15 more than the standard razor blades. I am not entirely sold on them yet.

Welcome aboard!

For patterns, you might want to look at your local fabric store. They have many patterns which can easily be adapted for use with leather.