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Lot of toolwork and sewing there. Must have taken awhile. I like the Lion. I can't tell just what you did from the picture, but You shouldn't have that much trouble sewing through that leather and the pig... If you used a stitching awl from Tandy or some such, You should consider sharpening it, having the holes made proper for the needles is important. If you just made holes in the cow, and pushed the needle through the pig, you should get a stitch awl to make the holes.

As a Irish Boston Boy, I think it's a thing of Beauty... I always liked that type of saddle, with the sides...What flaws! Picky Picky...lol

This part of the forum used to be bigger, but, it may be a start for you.... http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showforum=96

I've never seen one of those before, but looking at the picture, it's an adjustable width french skiver. Looks like you can skive any width you want within the tools limit.

I've not seen that design before, pretty damn clever bottom closure.

I agree, that one looks great in black. Those mirrored dragons work perfectly. Another job, well done.

Looks rich! Should be a good seller. I've got an old Family Bible, that has a middle section to fill in all the names and dates...births, baptisms, deaths, etc. An idea for you maybe to add a flip up section on one of the inside flaps to add a pad of paper, or something like that, so people can add their Family stuff there.

The best thing would be to break them up into groups right away...e.g. 9 groups of 5. Pick a leader for each group..give them some responsibilities, and You leaders do introductory then have the team leaders kinda watchover things, while you float from group to group. Standard crowd control...lol..good luck, it really does sound like fun.

Three Nuns and a dog couldn't control that crowd..... So..just dive in and have fun.

Thanx Beaverslayer...for nuttin...LOL. At the price of harps, I'm sure that would have beeen a steal. Thanx Kate for the info. Yep, that's the kind this is. You r a geenyus.

Eventually, I want to build a series of molds for harmonicas, and shape the case to fit them. That will entail slitting the bottoms of the slots, etc., but for now, I just wanted to put one together. I still made the slots pretty tight, and the harps slide in and out with a good secure feeling. The leather is a nice piece of 5oz. chrome tan Pull up I found rummaging through Zack White's (don't ask me what the "pull up" means, I don't have a clue...maybe some tannery talk thing). The leather feels great..soft but rugged...I think it's gonna make a sharp Messenger Bag later. Hardware = Gunmetal brass snaps, copper rivets, and a ss plated concho. If anyone else has made these, feel free to throw your pix in here too.

I have a lot of those old 60s/70s books. They're good, but most don't have a step by step photo set. Your idea might just work with an ebook style. Be careful in your bare feet stepping on the barb wire!

I'm glad to hear you're up and running. I've got an old toshiba tecra 8000 in the shop, been running ubuntu for a long time, a tad slow cause it only has 128 memory, but for email, and internet, it's fine. I upgraded this morning, knowing I'ld be sorry, and I am..Heron has much more than previous versions, and well, it's just too much for my old clunker. So either, I downgrade, or buy more memory...sheesh. I even read the recommended memory for install, but did it anyways..guess what, they were right...lol I love it on my desktop. Jason was referring to the windows program Wubi, I believe. You can do an install from within windows. It actually leaves windows in complete control, even to the point of add/remove linux, but basically it's running linux in a virtual environment. That's okay for someone wanting to try out linux, but a pure install or a pure dual boot is better in my opinion, which we all know ain't worth diddly...

For forty years I have cut my belts that 1/16 - 1/8" less, because when you bend the leather over the buckle bar, it gets wider from compression and such. The buckle swivels better, not that pinched feeling. The mfgs all say they cut a bit shy for just that reason. If they didn't, they get nasty letters from everyone trying to fit a 1" strip into a 1" buckle, and having nothing but problems. Not everyone owns a skiver. Even if the 1" strip fits around certain buckle bars, it still looks better if it isn't cramped in there. Skiving the belt ends reduces the thickness in total, and reduces the width a little, but not by very much. I don't know where you bought those blanks 1/8 bigger, but if I bought a dozen of those for my buckles, and had to strip them down to fit, I'ld be madder than you...lol. Tandy and others have been doing the same thing since forever...

That looks to be bridle side leather, probably split down to that 4/5 oz weight. I believe our own essantoro uses someting other than bridle, but he plans on moving to bridle. Check his posts.

Sorry for your problem. Sometimes new leatherworkers get confused on this issue. All belt strip mfgs do the same thing. It's standard operating procedure. It's not because of money, but, when you fold the leather over in a buckle, it gets fatter, and bunches up in the buckle, unless you have taken that into consideration, and made the belt strip that little bit narrower.

Looks like they both put in a lot of work for you shirleyz! Pretty lucky, You are. Nice jobs Ferret, and ClayB. This reminds me..better get on the stick, myself...

Anyone would be proud to have that set!. Scrollwork looks perfect

NICE job on those grips...good and tight, and they look comfortable.

If I don't look busy, my wife will hang me by my toes...lol (I think!) The economy might be great in Calgary, or NY, down South here, the people are in shock...helluva time to start up my business... I used to follow the money, but there's not many places left in North America..might have to think Europe....

sorry sonotube! They'r ecardboard tubes for concrete. you find them at home depot and lowe's etc. They're heavy duty and 12" round in many lengths....Just tape the ends off, and the worst movers in the world wont hurt the leather.

Sauna Tubes...best way to move leathers

That sounds like a good day Beaverslayer.. That area around you seems to be a jumpin place.. between the rodeos, and bike shows..You have a happening place for leatherworkers there.

Not much going on here. Word of mouth business has dried up, so it looks like I'll have to do something different. It was nice for awhile, telephone calls, some Etsy sales, the bike shop sent some referals, but zippo now. I'll have to build up some inventory in this down time, and see if I can do a fair. I've added some cheap bling to that mix, just small stuff, nothing to call artworthy, but reasonable priced for fairs, etc...maybe $25-$30 range. No sense in ordering up any handcrafted silverwork, people around here ain't like out West. Standard run of the mill silverplated conchos, and rhinestones, but they pop a little. Playing around with some stone insets on keyrings... My photos are below. Feel free to throw yours up too...after all, it's an OPEN THREAD. Some new links I found for your perusal: http://www.amazingmagnets.com/index.asp?Pa...;Category=25595 http://www.craftsfaironline.com/Supplies.html http://www.papermart.com/templates/41-0-80.htm http://www.blueridgerags.com/index.php?cPath=41 http://www.indiana.edu/~libpres/manual/tre...bind/index.html http://www.texasknife.com/vcom/index.php?T...ngEq1.htm~smain So.......whatsgoinon?

324.4, and I curse you for this link....lol