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When hand stitching you can hide your last stitch inside the leather and cut the ends off below the leather with a sharp knife. Most saddle makers will use the last stitch to make a lock stitch by doing a half hitch around the bottom thread some use two or three half hitch's around the bottom thread and then pull the knot into the middle of the pieces of leather you are stitching together. thus the last stitch is locked by half hitches and then when the threads are cut you make sure you cut the thread below the sureface of the flesh or finished side of the leather. I hope this will help it makes a very clean end to a stitching line.

I like it! looks clean and makes a good impresson in the leather. are you going to market it or just keep it for yourself? did you do the work on a laithe or Mill? are you in the habit of making all of your own tools? Keep up the great work!

nice work! I have a question where did you get your fid? that is a very nice looking fid. just curious

I have used some eighty grit sand paper to rough up a couple saddle seats after they have become smoothe and have had very good luck with it since it is a hands on approach, you can actually see and feel how much leather you are removing. hope this helps.

I am really confused why or what paticurly are you riviting? if you are putting in a buckle why not just use chicago screws? they are crome plated, or come in brass. now if you are doing special belts and are looking for somthing different to put on the belts perhaps Ohio Travel bag would have something that you would like. if you use steel if they get wet they will turn the leather black. and aluminium flakes off so it looks like the leather has a lot of grey junk on it. still wondering what you are actually using the rivets for?

you should enter that one in the brownwood boot and saddle roundup in texas in October. very nice looking great lines.

Looking forward to your post on Monday, wish I knew about it sooner. thanks for the information ahead of time.

Most of my craftools are from the 60's and 70's and have never had a problem with them, but I had some hidcrafters that I received about ten years ago and when stamping saddles they tend to bend a lot. Hide crafters was kind enough to replace them a couple times but since they kept bending I just ordered from Barry king and basically have the same tool in Stainless steel and have not had any bending problems. Thanks Barry! and I did appreciate Hidecrafters for working with me on the bent ones.

Josh those look great! I do have one suggestion though and that is when doing cuffs they usually are not the same for the left wrist as for the right wrist it looks as though you have cut out both cuffs for the same wrist. one shoud go the opposite direction than the other one. so when you cut them out you need to flip your pattern over to have it correct for the opposite wrist. not trying to disrespect your work as I think you did a great job with your layout and tooling. thanks for sharing them.

What I like to do is cover the cap with leather as well the looks are amazingly better and it matches the rest of the canteen. cheers Mate. good luck you canteen is great! I like the braiding it adds a nice flair to your borders.

I agree! it is better to put it down in black and white for everyone to see. it also allows you to blow off steam so you don't use your anger on anyone. I am clinging to my guns and Bible as well. don't be ashamed of your feelings as there are thousands of others who would and do agree with you! I know this isn't the forum for this kind of thing but sometimes you just have to blow your own horn.

Thanks Slick Fork those pictures were just the ticket for me to understand what i need to do to make my own little table. it's a great tool. thanks again

Hey Slikfork could you show a picture without the leather so we could see how you mounted the board? I have to get a better look so I can make the board myself. I too have the Hansen String Cutter but would be nice to see how others use it as I am still learning to use it for making my strings.

so what kind of money do you get for a headstall like that. very nice work. there are so many headstalls like that with rawhide buttons that sale very cheeply that is why I am asking. keep up the nice work. btw what is the base/core of your reins? did you braid around a rope core? thanks for posting

that is some beautiful work!

I got some from Weaver leather a while ago and bought them in a bag of a 1000 if I am not mistaken they were not that expensive. I have had a problem with setting them though as it chews up the tandy punch tool I had as well as the C S Osborne one I have. I am actually goint to end up getting one made of Stainless steel so it wont get messed up. good luck

Nice work your flowers look great. I would however laid them down a little more so that the higest flower would not have been on the bend of the checkbook. then if you wanted to you could have put another set on the back. just a thought I still think it looks great!

I like that too. I was stitching the other day and wished my jaws rotated like the one you bought. good find I am sure you will get years of pleasure and use out of it

I would have to say that I have been really appreciative of all those who run small leather operations. Sherry in the Salt Lake City Leather Factory, Lee and Bob Douglass of Douglas tools, Berry King, Steven Siegel of Siegel Leather of California. just about everyone I have come in contact with in the leather trades has been genually gracious and helpful. thanks goes out to them all!!!!

Very cool thanks for sharing repost when your done so we can see the new scabberd

very interesting hearing from everyone. I have been doing leather work since I was about eight, although it wasn't until 1994 when I got the bug again and my wife and I bought our first horse. I kept seeing all the tack and thought to myself I can do that and started building her tack and finally found someone who would teach me to make saddles. I have been doing that part time for the last 13 years. I have worked as a gas jocky, car detailer, donut baker, Psych tech at the State mental hospital, Water well rig worker, half way house parent, auto mecanic, autobody and car painter, then finally a X-ray/MRI tech. I currently am a supervisor of a small clinic AT Brigham Young University in Utah. That pays the bills but what I am planning on is retiring to my leather shop which I hope will happen before I end up to medically impaired to do the work.

I think that adding a section about stolen saddles or leather tools would help everybody in the long run, however I believe that it should be left up to the leaders who put so much time and effort into to this sight. thanks Johanna and all the others. I live in Utah and have connections with the sherrifs dept so I personally will keep an eye out for the saddles posted in the pictures above. most of the people who are stealing these days are those who are seeking a quick buck to purchase drugs. well keep us posted if they are found

It's really funny to see these posts and see the incredible work that all of you do especially with the pebblers they look great, I think it's funny because I was watching a Hide crafters pebbler on eBay this last week and when it finally went off today it sold for $51.00 bucks I could hardly contain myself LOL why on earth would someone pay that much for a pebbler? when they could purchase one from Hide Crafters for about $7.00 I like the fact that someone can make a profit off of stuff but that is just wrong. again I really appreciate the artistic talent of thos posting and the information that is here on the board. just couldn't resist telling you about the pebbler on eBay.

Check with a Physical therapist to see if they have any formable plastic on hand that they don't use any longer. some of the physical therapists that I know use to hand form plastic for splinting patients after they had therapy and needed to have support to their injuries. I don't remember what it is called but all you have to do is put it into some warm water and form it with your hands. I just got off the phone with a therapist that I know and he said they called it orthoplast. there is a chance that some physical therapists might still have some of this stuff hanging around because it isn't used anymore. if you don't know any therapists then check with your local medical supply stores and check if they still carry it. I have no idea of the cost but it is pretty slick stuff to use and when it sets up it is pretty strong stuff. Good luck and I hope this may help someone.

Thanks for posting your new site now we can send all those who would like nicer tools directly to your site to pick out what they need and want. For those of us who want more of your great quality tools we can just go to the site and order more. thanks again