Duke

it could very well be that you have hard water, probably due to oxidization in the plumbing pipes in your house. thatwill cause water stains for sure. look at the quality of your water. and if anything, try distilled, or bottled water. I also would try to use a spirit dye, and dark to boot.good luck

sounds like you know what youre doing. im glad to hear you will be recessing your stitches as it gives it a more professional look and really saves your bacon. I hate having to re-sew something.I will post a pic with this to give you an idea of something I did for a breast collar. its still in the making, and wont be finished for a while as I am waiting on my tippman boss to come back from being repaired.

randy, how the heck ya doin? this is Aaron from Tandy in portland. look forward to seeing you this year at the trade show in pendleton.beautiful work on the sheath, and I love the scroll work on the belt. very nice. got a chance a while back to go visit the cowboy ranch out there in that neck of the woods and took a few pics of all the minuture saddles that guy has in his basement of all you an your brothers work. I am thoroughly impressed, and was even before I got into leather work. in fact, thatwas the number 1 reason I got into it, was because of those saddles. my buddy did the hardwood floors in that place, and had to show them off when we were up there for the hermiston auction one month. I have been looking around for my disk full of those pictures and cannot for the life of me find them, but when I do, you betterd believe I will post them. keep up the excellent work, and see ya soon

first thing that comes to mind is ohio travel bag. sorry, wish I could be of more help

you can also do a web search for hoch & selby. sorry, dont have the information on them, as it it taped to the wall at the store

hey mike, good to hear youre doing ok. youre in the same boat with me, I finally figured out the 4 strand round braid, after 3 days of getting frustrated with it and putting it down and coming back to it.I have a few braiding books, so let me know if ya need any help, an we can try to figure it out together.ttyl

congrats wolfie!

many thanks to you myriam! I was having issues following along with other tutorials on the net about doing a 4 strand round braid, but your tutorial helped a bunch!

no beeter item to use to mold a holster(in my humble opinion) than the item itself. oil your gun up, and place it in a plastic bag.then you can mold your holster and it will be fine. if you are still worried, then you can always clean and reoil afterwards too. I too am a bit on the cheap side, and cant afford the cost of a blue gun, or an aluminum one.

I second what storm said, you did one heck of a job. your carving is what I aim for when I practice. wtg

as much as I promote the stohlman encyclopedia, I need to re-emphasize whatbruce has said before. al stohlman is A saddle maker, not THE saddle maker. there are lots of other resources out there. another resource for you is dusty johnsons saddle school. good luck getting into it though, as he is always booked full. I do reccommend that you buy his series of books/ dvd's though. he even has full sized patterns that you can buy. check it out.and good luck

wtg scott, those look awesome!

ok, that was FREAKing hilarious. *mass applause*

zman, chinks are a shortened version of chaps, most come with fringe,some dont. they protect your legs when riding from underbrush and other stuff.

if I get a chance to this weekend, I will try to scan the picture from the stohlman book into the puter and send it to you. message me with an email addy

there is a set of measured drawings in the first book of the al stohlman encyclopedia.

true genius. although I would do something different with the gloves. thank you for sharing this, I always admire your work. especially loved the lion set. keep up the hard work, you have set the bar high

I envy you, luke seems like a heck of a guy, who definitely knows his stuff. thank you luke, for taking the time to do such a thing. not too many people out there go that far out of thier way.wtg!

the top design seems to me to have been done with an embossing roll that is sold at tandy, that can be used in the handle for the overstitcher item # 8091-00 (omg, did I just do that?! I have to get away from work more often) the rest of the design is done with a large veiner. doesnt seem to bee anything too hard to do.the bottom design is done with a craftool border tool and a craftool veiner,both are also sold at tandy. hope this helps.

wow,ok. that is a huge help. thank you bruce.

good topic! and I am also amazed that the 8 track player still works. what i listen to usually depends on my mood. some nights,after too many customers at work, I like to sit in silence and hear myself think and pound.other nights, I plug into the ipod and jam away. either that or the local radio station has john tesh the former host from entertainment tonight! as a host and he does a really good broadcast. country, rock, R&B, metal, soft rock, jazz.....80's rock, they are all on my playlist.

thank you timjtodd, I sure do appreciate this, and for the advice on installing the blevins backwards. probably would have been trial and error had you not said something. is there a specific number of wraps that you do, and how do you keep it tight without loose ends hanging out?

I agree, I like barrys swivel knifes. btw, hey barry an welcome to lw.net good to see ya finally made it. sorry for sending you so much work.lol

I was very fortunate and had a swivel knife custom made for me by one of my customers at the tandy store. and the best part about it all was the price.free! take a look an tell me what ya think. I think he outdid himself. the only other swivel knife in the world I am longing for is the one that same customer made for my boss. hers was solid brass with an walrus tooth ivory handle, and a ruby blade. and what they say about ruby blades is true, they are awesome! (for some reason the settings on my digital camera got screwed up, sorry if the pic is blurry)