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It was only a matter of time. I can't wait for the Cover Pic.

Not being a flower guy myself, I had to look that one up. I saw lots of photos under google images. Im pretty sure someone will come along with some help for that one...in the meantime check through the Floral carving/Sheridan posts, and read as much as you can that's posted here and there. There's lots of info about how to do carving layouts and patterns. Some really good ones can be found.

Hey, Welcome, Welcome! Im sure you'll find all the information and help you could possibly need right here. Some of the finest and most knowledged from all over the world hang here, along with us regular folk...lol. You'll fit right in quick. Please remember to take lots of pix as you work through your projects.

Geez, that looks great!. Nice work, and welcome to the Forum. Stay away from the donuts, and the backroom. There's plenty of people here to study off of, especially some fine braiders. Make sure you post lots of pix.

You should be rightly proud of that! Sheesh, only the second saddle? I sure do have a lot to learn yet. I can't tell on my little laptop in the shop, cause the graphics arent great, could you post a pic of the border close up? It looks great from here, but it also looks different, sure would like to see.

I'm looking for a source for light weight leather to make linings, etc. I have a source for the good liner kits( http://chaylor.com/new_calf_veg-tan_liners.htm ) , but i prefer to make my own. I have also found a Canadian source, but at around $6 Americano : ( http://www.leathersmithdesigns.com/leather...-hides-lace.htm ), it appears to be a good source, but to me it seems steep. Anyone?

`Great idea for scrap. Simple and practical. I guess the Pig won't see you this week at the meat counter....

That skull just fascinates the hell out of me.

here ya go....

I can't tell the cause of this from the picture, but probably a little bit of the shaping of the leather, a little bit of different tensions on the lace. It's far more complicated than a motorcycle seat cover, but a similar process. The Seat guys may have some good advice. My first thought would be to cut out two pieces of 1/4" plywood to the shape of the guitar top. Take the cover off the guitar. Wet the leather top, insert the plywood, then put the other on top, keeping even weighting on the top with either clamps, or weights. I'll be interested in other peoples suggestions.

Geez, you did a great job! Somebody's ride just improved in looks. Now they'll have to get bags to match!

Nice job! I like the way you cut out the thunderbird (?). And real nice colors

Looks like a nice bag. Did you come up with the pattern yourself? Should make someone very happy.

Thats about the worst thing to happen to a craftsman. We all hope you get functional quicker than you think. It reminds me of a Mash episode where a pianist lost the use of one of his hands. Winchester gave him some sheet music for the left hand only. And he told him to not give up his passion, but to re utilize it by teaching, or unusual one hand pieces. Now hopefully this is only temporary for you, but you might take this opportunity to explore some things. Maybe you can't pound with a hammer, but if your fingers can move, possibly learn how to braid out some things. Or Track down the local Boy/Girl Scouts, and teach a few kids. Let them do the work. Everyone else will jump in with hopes and suggestions for you I'm sure. Maybe someone close to you can pick up some slack to handle your customers for a bit. In the meantime, do what the doc says, and get better quick!

If you haven't got any answers by Im yet, I'll throw these clues out for you to work with. I've never tanned anything other than snake, but I did find these links while doing a little research on your question: This site has a lot of info on rawhide, and mentions the French technique of "babiche" for bleaching/whitening the hide. I'm not sure any of us would go this far... "Some tribes cured rawhide with an application of urine. It is said that a washing in urine before drying creates a bleached white color. This has been called by the French, babiche , when it is cut into lacing. In most journals, babiche and lace are terms used interchangeably with no reference to the urine treatment. I used a gallon of urine on a half cowhide recently, but with no noticeable results. The ammonia in the urine should act as a bleach, but in my experiment, it only made a smell. " http://home.acceleration.net/clark/PaperVu/rawhide.html Then on this site, in addition to the lime, there is an additional soak in Tartar and Baking soda which they say gives a good white translucency. "Rinse the hide under the running faucet until all traces of hair are gone and wring it gently several times to flush out the lime residue. Fill the tub again, adding a small can of cream of tarter and about half a box of baking soda. Let the hide soak a couple more hours in this solution, then rinse thoroughly again several more times. This will give the hide a white almost translucent color and finish removing all traces of the lime, which can break down the cells of the hide." http://www.aaanativearts.com/article379.html On this tanning chemistry site the commenter says. "The traditonal white leather is alum tanned. Formaldehyde can also give a rather white leather (other aldehydes tend to give a yellow cast to the leather). Personally, I prefer alum fixed with citric acid (1/3 stoicimetric quantity that would be necessary for Al citrate). Once a commercial product in Italy called Neoconc was actually marketed that was a "citrate masked" alum. Perhaps the most beautiful and perfect white material (notice I did not say leather) is rawhide dehydrated with acetone. Amazing stuff!" There are several other good comments in there too. THIS may be the place to ask a tanning question. Try joining and ask. http://www.leatherchemists.org/forum/forum...;PN=1&TPN=1 Hopefully, one of our in-house experts will chime in with specific answers from their own experience, at least I tried to get the ball rolling...lol

The Art Nouveau in this piece, and the other one you posted, are just wonderful. You use the old, and make it look new. Great job. Dont forget to show the finished pieces in the way you use them.

Welcome to the Board, Brad! That's a real nice job on your first piece. I like the little design element with the notch cut out to follow the blade notch. Keep lurking, and keep posting...

I haven't downloaded any of Big Daddy's patterns, but from what I can see, some look pretty good. The Leather Factory (Tandy) has some bike patterns, and has some instructions to go with 'em. A lot of suppliers sell those same patterns. Those will be basic patterns to get you started, then you can branch out on your own. Start surfing the internet, and look at all the different types of bags you see out there, and you'll be able to get a rough idea of what you might like to make. And of course, go over all the postings on this forum, and you'll find some mighty fine stuff, and Help.

That is one sleek looking holster. Nice molding job! I've always liked the scars, and oil splotches. To me it means genuine leather. I have found some limited success by using Feibing's Deglazer as a step before dyeing. In many cases, I have found a better dye job than from the same leather not being wiped with the deglazer. Wipe it off on a newspaper before you rub it on the leather. Full strength can leave more damage than a blotch. I have not tried spraying it on, but there might be some goodness in that idea.

I stand corrected, as usual. I just looked at the work. I don't necessarily care who the person is. If it's good, it's good. For every one person who is the stradavarius of leather, there are 4,000 giving it their best shot. Let's upgrade this topic a little. Maybe you could list a leather craftsman whose work you appreciate. Then maybe our fair maiden Johanna might send out an introductory email, and bring those people into the fold. With the wealth of information here, believe it or not, we haven't reached our potential. There's some amazing craftsman out there we have still to meet.

His stuff is nice. $450 for a keycase! Hell, Go for it. The work is truly an unappreciated labor. People are always trying to trade the price down. Someone should try bargaining from the high side. Interesting

That's really cool Crystal. The fish are awesome, and his Map of Africa, at the bottom of his gallery struck me as very nice.

Yeh, I know what you mean about, but you have to do something in between new posts!...lol I wouldn't have learned about this guy, if I didn't explore. http://www.bearsystems.com/OldLeatherMan/OldLeatherMan.htm

I use the Stumble button on my toolbar, way too much. Of course, my preferred search tag is some variation on Leather...how to, what's new, stuff like that. Tonight's came up with this link, which I thought was a pretty darn cool piece of leatherwork. http://community.livejournal.com/the_dragons/91201.html I come across a lot of weird stuff like this. How about you? What have you found out there recently?

A beautiful cat! IMHO From the pose, and turn of the head, it might be hard to capture that one without some kind of selective fill from the back, all the fur levels would be hard to differentiate. Looking at it, with those color lines, it might be a good candidate for part carving, part inverted. I'm sure there will be lots of real suggestions from the rest of the crew, I already can't wait to see the progress on this one.