Duke

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)

and just how much is he asking for a string stick?

hi, I asked a question about this before, and felt kind of brushed off, but since I was taught that there is no such thing as a dumb question, I will ask agian. can anyone explain to me( and paybe provide pictures) of stirrup leather wraps made from latigo. I am under the impression that they are used to help hold the stirrup leathers once they have been turned. I would very much so like to learn how to do this, as I could see myself making a saddle within the next 6 to 10 months and want to incorporate this into my saddle.any and all help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

not sure I want to know why your keyboard is wet.

I dont actually have an employee so take what I say with a grain of salt, but it seems to me that if I were going to have someone come help out, and that if I was to pay them wages, AND theywere doing it to learn thatI would stress to them that you have to take the good with the bad and do the mundane things like sweeping, and placing orders and such stuff before you get to do the fun stuff like stamping and tooling and assembly.once they have been around a while, and have shown themselves capable of handling the mundane stuff proficiently, then gradually allow them to do more and more.when the shop has spare downtime, take them and show them how to properly cut straps, and how to properly do a basket weave. but I would highly reccommend not allowing them through the front door an walk straight back to the tooling table to bang out a few items.anyone that wants to properly learn will understand this and be willing to put the time in to learn all the aspects without moaning and complaining. this person will eventually grow on you, and you will appreciate having them around to do the other things like dying, or punching holes and what not that eat up precious hours in the day. good luck

we have a copy of that book in the storehere in portland and I have flipped through it a few times. it is relatively new to the market, since pet gorrell gave us the copy of it hot from the press in october of last year, while we were at the pendleton trade show here in oregon. it is a good book, but you still have to have some artistic talent to grasp the concept of what he is trying to get across to you. I agree, there needs to be more books out on the market like this

welcome redwinger. good to have you here. nice maul, and very comfortable looking seat. keep posting pictures of your work, nice to see someone off to a good start

I just paid for a 2 yr subscroption to the leather crafters and saddlers journal. every issue has a pull out pattern section. very informative. also a good source for finding suppliers for saddle trees, leather, conchos, and other such things. check them out.

welcome to the board phlegmaticdog, good to have you here. make yourself comfortable an havea look around. maybe you will be inspired to post a few pics.

I agree, western is better, since my butt looks too girly and out of place in an english saddle. that an I dont like wearing the breechs that they wear. spandex is not a good idea, an the guy that invented it needs to be shot.j/k

being dragged by your horse has always been a fear for alot of people.that is why an invention that recently came out on the market eases some of that fear. they are breakaway stirrups, so if you do get hung up, the stirrup comes off the saddle.whoever invented that gets a blue ribbon

I agree with ABN, wetmold first then dye after its dry. then use a finish to waterproof it. neat-lac or saddle-lac if it needs to be flexable. better yet, use the vinagar and rust trick that was posted on here a few weeks ago. from what I understand, that doesnt bleed.

I WOULD BE INTERESTED IN SEEING THOSE. MAYBE IN A .PDF FORMAT? FEEL FREE TO EMAIL THEM TO THIS SCREENNAME. THANKS

oh heck yea, that would be an awesome cigar case. mark it up as a job well done.

I ride horses and that is the reason I dont use nylon webbing as a latigo strap. what I have done in the past is use a nail that I have heated up to burn through and cotterize the the hole.but the webbing when it is melted gets hard, and will crack and split over time. just let your customer know that this is is the issues with it, and if they still decide to go with the nylon, so be it. at least you warned them.

ok so tazzman and myself and electrathon met this morning for breakfast and had a very nice discussion about the direction of things to come. I guess we can call this the first meeting of POLAC (portland oregon leather artisans co-op) after breakfast, we all headed over to the Tandy leather factory for a little shopping and found ourselves in a discussion about all sorts of things including the quality of leather, and lacing, and quality of products from companies, and even a little bit about hidecrafters. it was good to get together in an informal kind of way, since usually when i see either of these 2 guys, its from behind the register.I hope this is a sign of things to come, and look forward to getting together agian, maybe in a few weeks, and start planning on things to do for workshops and how to promote the guild to entice new members. if anyone else from LW.net is in the portland oregon area, we extend an offer to you to join us next time, for some good times, great conversation, and chances to learn from each other.

make sure that you have a line 24 setter, and anvil, not just a peener. I have never had the problem you speak of, and that makes me think either you are going through too thin of leather, or not using the right tool. you dont need a fancy setter like the one justis shows, justmake sure it is for the right snap.

I too am interested in seeing thatold posting about how to fit your swivel knife to your hand.if we cant find it, can we get the gentleman that posted it the first time to repost? thx

hey, good lookin case. I see that you are having the same problems as I am about dying the background. I hate when dye gets on parts you dont want it to. I have found a solution that I would like to share with you. what I do is dye the entire piece one color(brown) and then I go back with a brush and apply a resist to the areas that I dont want black on. then with another brush I go through an add my black dye to the background. this helps to keep the dye off the areas I dont want them on.anyone else got input on this, please chime in an tell me if i'm off base. like I said, this is just my experience.

the color is saddle tan, and nothere is no loop on the back, just basket weave. I had 2 other pics to load that would have shown that, but the file is too big, an i cant figure out how to resize it.

ok so here is my version of an eyeglass case. I am not happy with the way the braiding meets up in the corner, and will end up pulling it apart an re-doing it. other than that, I love it. the interior is lined with deerskin, which holds really well. for the most part, I use it to carry my barry king tools in, since I take them with me to work alot. so what does everyone think?

it seems that you will be swamped with work. hope that it doesnt interfere with the school aspect of it all. when you end up getting a little downtime, in say a few months, keep me in mind, an we will figure out what Id like to have done

old gringo, if you have yet to find a pattern for your taps, please let me know and I will see what I can dig up out of my leather crafters and saddlers journals. I know there is a pattern in there somewhere for that set. just keep in mind that you need to weight the tips on these otherwise the leather will curl up at the tips.

clean and simple, I like it. especially like the fact that there isnt alot to trip over