Duke

ok well I posted pics of my bench on another thread.if youre interested in seeing it, here ya go: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?s...pic=826&hl=

ok well here are some pics of my shop. this comment kind of flows over into another thread that I had commented on yesterday, about my version of the al stohlman bench. like I said in that thread, the general construction of that bench is complete, the only thing left to do is build the cabinet doors. my co-worker is going to come over and freehand draw the pictorials that were on al stohlmans bench, and then I will paint it on. not into doing carved veneer like al did.takes too much time.something that is short for me.I also would like to thank jsutterby for the drawing on the al stohlman tooling desk. thats another project I will be tackling soon.thanks agian jsutterby! PS~ dont be too critical, I didnt clean up at all. just walked out in the garage an started snapping pics.

the general construction of the bench is finished, but the finish work on it still has to be done. basically, I have the cabinet doors left to do. my co-worker is an artist/ leather worker/graphic design artist/blacksmith and he said he would come over and draw out the pictoral scenes on the door fronts once I have them finished. gonna take a while, since I got slammed with a bunch of orders and all.if you still want pics, no prob. I use the bench as is,without the doorfronts, but its not very pretty,yet.at this time, I am looking for someone who has a past issue of the leather workers & saddlers journal, so I can get the diagram out of one of those isues for the small tooling desk that al stohlman built also. want to build it too.if anyone reading this has such diagram, please email me an let me know. it would be greatly appreciated.

you are far too critical of your work. try not to look for the flaws or mistakes in everything you do.I know its hard.I do it myself. but you have to move past that point...and concentrate on learning from the issues that came up so as not to encounter them next time.needless to say,if you have a scrap crap bin with this kind of mistakes in them, I'll gladly take them! looks great,keep up the good work, and do us and the clock a favor and spend the 15 bucks to get it a decent frame.sheesh.*L*

I would like to see a line-up of everything you sell. a website would be cool, but I would settle for a .pdf catalog maybe? or do you have a mailing list type catalog I can get sent to me? I have no problem ordering quantity, if I find something I know I ca use alot of. I do a bunch of spur straps and belts and holsters. figured a nice concho, maybe along the lines of the starberry or close to it, would work for me, but im interested in seeing whatelse you got.

good lookin concho. what else ya got?

you can download the DVD on thier website. of course theyre trying to target leather workers directly, they lost business when Tandy decided not to carry the boss anymore. Tandy was supposed to have a pro-stitcher out by the first of the year that was supposed to be comparable to the boss.now we are being told that we will not be selling the pro-stitcher at all. who knows,maybe we will go back to the boss. only time will tell.

holy smokes! looks good clay!!!!

one would think that the tensile strength of rawhide would win over the line-x. line-x is simply a coating, whereas the rawhide,when wrapped around the tree when wet, will actually shrink and when dry, maintain its shape for years to come.the line-x is simply a rubberized coating that is made to take the shape of whatever it is sprayed onto. there is no strength there.granted, it turns hard, but is still rubbery.take a strip of rawhide, wet it and shape it into a triangle, and let it dry. then take line-x and form it into a triangle. let both dry and then see which one you can shape by hand. my bet is that the rubberized coating will be alot more pliabe than the rawhide. this is my train of thought on this, and in no shape or for is contrued as the only true answer. thanks for the time.

I got a boss 1 1/2 months ago from my work.it was the store demo, and sold as damaged. it still needs timed, and I havent had the time to sit down and play with it. got it for a heck of a deal tho, so I cant complain. 500 bucks seems decent to me. I figure im gonna spend bout 50 bucks in long distance phone calls with tippmann techs before its all over.I like it tho, cuz I built a replica of the stohlman workbench an have the boss mounted to a 2x6 so it can mount to the bench or be removed when tooling. the same slot that the boss slides into, also can hold my splitter, also mounted to a 2x6

I agree with drac. a tutorial would be awesome! do you soap your strings first? how do you prep them before you braid? some clues to a newb please.

nice! looks pretty dang good. only thing I would have done different is used a saddle makers groover and recessed the stitching so that a few months down the road,you dont have stiches that are busting loose from having rubbed away. other than that, it looks dang good.

I am 29 yrs old, and live in vancouver washington. done construction for a vast majority of my professional career. ran a pole building crew for 3 1/2 yrs. done cell tower intigration and optimization for a few years.I also run a horse rescue operation. got into doin leathercraft when I was at a tack auction and a saddle shop tool lot came up on the block. needless to say,the old man died and the kids didnt know what they had. paid about 250 for 1800 worth of leather craft goods. didnt quite know what I had either, but sat on it for 2 yrs, and played around with it a bit. while doing cell tower intigration boise idaho.....I found a tandy store. went in and found out that there was a tandy leather factory in portland oregon.job contract ended and I was on the hunt for a job. needless to say, I was perusing the net one night when I came across a job listing for the tandy in portland. went in,filled out an app and got hired that day. my boss gave me a basic tooling class, and was VERY impressed with my tooling. she told me that it seemed that I had a natural ability and an eye for detail and depth. I was even told that my first practice piece would be hung up on the wall and if I tried to remove it, I would get a stern reprimand. Ive come a long ways in the 6 months since I started, and have even taught a class or two.I have 2 kids, my boy is 6 and girl is 4. they both do leathercraft with me, and are always watching and learning. my son is in cub scouts and is irritated that you have to be a webelos scout before you get a leather craft badge.in my spare time(yea right) I ride horses, play on my jetski during the summer, and 4wheel my truck and ride my quad.I also fish for steelhead and practice close quarters combat with and without small arms. took 2 1/2 years in karate, an 1 year in martial arts. as I sit here, I read what I am typing and ask myself where I find time for all this!

looks good! nice skull.is that a pot leaf behind it?lol. braiding really gives the sides a finished look. definitely needs some stiffener. otherwise,wow.nice.

well its appreciated none the less. I took the time to copy and paste your tutorial to my desktop so I can sit and play with it and see if I can make myself one during a slow time in tandy land.yes,I work at tandy. needless to say, I wish there was more people out there willing to pass on thier knowledge. yours has been a needed blessing. I am going to have a blast making this flogger. and if it goes together as decently as yours(or somewhat close) it will go on display at my store with a web address to this site.I cant get over how helpful this site has been to me. THANK YOU!

wowza! I started playing with braiding today, so I got a newfound respect for people that braid. much thanks to you for this very broken down, and illistated tutorial. this type of content is exactly what this website is all about. keep up the good work. of you get a chance or a wild hair, maybe another? hopefully you will inspire others to do tutorials on stuff that they do. this kind of stuff is what keeps the leathercraft alive and growing. good job!

I am interested in having a few dies made. mostly for spur straps and holsters. do you have a set price or what? how do you figure the price?

THANK YOU BILL!!!!! you hit the nail on the head. everyone wants top quality, but dont want to pay for it.in order to keep a business running, and inventory in the store, so that people will still have merchandise to buy,tandy has been forced to go overseas for alot of thier stuff. I work for tandy, and have only been there for a little over 6 months but I am proud to say I work there. yes, I am guilty of apoligizing for working there, but that is only because I am not proud of the way that business is being ran. for the merchandise that we sell, and the availability that he have of it, and the fact that our customer service is a standard to be kept(at least in my store), I have alot of pride in the company that I work for. I wish the pay was better, but hey, it keeps me indoors out of the weather during the winter, and the hot sun off my back during the summer.we can all take the stick to the bull :deadhorse: and say that tandy has gone down the drain, but if we think back we will realize that at some point in time, we have all had dealings with tandy. and 98% of you will say that that experience was good to great.

I looked through the issues that I have and didnt find those. sorry,I tried. if you have, or know of anyone that has, the issue where they covered the small tooling desk that al stohlman made, let me know. maybe scan and email it to me? already built the famous workbench, now I want the tooling desk. I will keep my eyes and ears open for you.thanks

if could be so nice as to break this up into steps, and if we ar so lucky as for you to provide pics, I think it would help a bunch of people.I myself am also a visual learner and try to be very methodical when I do stuff. if things were broken down into easy to follow steps, it would help to get alot more people on thier way to at least modifying thier tools.dont let my boss hear this , but I would like to buy some of the crappy 5th or 6th generation tools that we sell from craftool and clean them up a bit so that they would work decently.if you had the time and resources, you could even write a small phamplet on how to modify or make your own tools.im sure quite a few people would be more than willing to spend some money purchasing it.

we have received a newsflash at my work about it and from what I am told,it was supposed to be out in time for christmas but that they found a few glitches with it and are working to take care of them before they release it to the public.the direct quote is " we only get one chance at releasing a a good machine so we have erred on the side of quality and have not released it til these glitches are fixed." so what we are figuring is first of the year, or mid january.not only does this machine have a deeper throat it also is supposed to solve alot of the finicky problems that the boss tippmann had.

what we do at my work when we teach classes is we tell people to get some blue painters tape and tape the back(rough) side of the leather before casing it. why blue painters tape? it has less adhesive on it an therefore comes off easier.faster to do an less messy than rubber cement too.

looks good! make sure that you are stropping your swivel knife, and that when you start tooling, you "case" your leather and let it return to the original color before you start. also, instead of a smooth faced beveler, try a checkered face beveler. it leaves less of a walking impression. also, bear in mind that you can only bevel as deep as you swivel knife.