TomSwede

Ditto Keith and Ben!! I switched to leather sheen also from Fiebings wich I apply with dauber and cloth but gotta be more careful and watch out for lift. Leathersheen takes buffing nicely too wich I felt was harder with saddle lac AND being oversensitive to allergic with strong odours I'm happy without the saddle lac. My nose can't take it. Tom

I would not recommend heat on leather but I never applied heat anyways, all I know really is that if you dry it in heat it will curl up against the top grain. Two reasons to dilute the white acrylic (with water) 1) it will soak into the leather wich will preserve the leather look (it will not lay on top of leather completely). 2) it will soak into leather wich makes it sit better (more bonding into the fibers). I can't say that it wont rub off with time and from usage in pockets but I don't have a better option for white either but I definetly recommend an acrylic sealer on top of the white. When I have used this method I have applied extra layer of sealer with a brush on top of the white. Hope this helps a bit. White for me is the type where I just give in to the idea that there is no super solution like for example vinegaroon/rust mix to dye leather black wich seem to be a bombproof solution. Tom

Neat dragon!!! I sure like the gold you got with that pen, I want one too;-) That backgrounder is my favourite to work with, it does the job fast and is easy to use and looks good. Tom

Exactly what I was thinking of. With letters you often get carving lines very close to each other and that twisting will distort letters easily. For really small stuff I don't carve very deep but I bevel the letters with the same depth anyways after carving. If you look under my topics you may find 2 black and white bracer for REV 16:8 wich have some really tiny letters. A shortcut to avoid starts and stops showing is to not carve all the way to the point where carving lines meet. A corner for example when you return to the starting point after carving all the corners you can stop right before the cutting lines meet and just bevel the corner and it will look smooth and natural. For the three foregoing corners I will just twist the knife and not lift it from the leather to make the corner nice. There's alot of small tricks to carving I think and this how I believe I do this;-) I never think about it when I do it and was never taught carving so my techniques for carving is in my backbone and as with everything else there is always room for improvement. Tom

Thank you Bearman and Jim!!! He is a very passionate man for leather and the art of crafting! He spoke about you Jim and told me you've met each other. I showed him the board and he was glad to see you were active here aswell!! Tom

Black border, all the background and webs dyed black THEN diluted white acrylic on the web to achieve a greyish/white tone by applying layer by layer of the white acrylic. For the spider I'd look up a similar type in a book about those and give it a typical paintscheme. acrylics and/or spirit dyes. Just what I felt like doing if it was in front of me now. Looking forward to see where you take it! Tom

Amazing looks Kevin!!!! Love those colours and the snap is indeed very nice, any skullfreak would give in to that one!!! Tom

Nice butt!!! Tom

Great looking hatband Alan!! I think Mike is right, i really like to see this one "live"!! Tom

Good topic Clay!! I tried this a little with masking tape and spirit dye but got problems with bleeding at the edges and have since ignored the idea. Tom

Thanks alot all you guys!!!! I'm working hard on the quirks around here to be able to fully focus on leatherwork soon again. BTW, I've started working with next rod tube again and it has a few qurks in itself so let's hope we can do that one succesfully. Working with client this time to make sure I have full feedback on things and a helping hand. It is a big one. I'll make sure to let you see a translation. As far as my "day job" (I work shifts) goes, leave for abscence is an unknown term today when all is about cutting down on personal and trying to compete with the rising Chinese dragon. The papermaking business is tough today...strangely enough the stockholders demands for profit seem to rise every year..hm maybe they havent heard of the worldmarket situation and rising dragons... Sorry for straying off subject, just a sincere reflection about how hard it is to take a day off from work Tom

Awsome gunrig!!! Love the rich lustrous look you got on the leather. Tom

So today I got a visit from Alf Björnar Luneborg who runs a leatherpublication called lär, sko og skinn (leather, shoes and skin but hide maybe is a better translation rather than skin?). The magazine has about 60 subscribers today. He is a member of Lonestar leathercrafters and has taken wins in IFoLG shows too. He saw my name on the results lists and figured I've gotta be a Swedish bloke so after some research he got hold of my e-mail address and today he stopped by and we had a nice long talk. As usual I kept ranting about things ha ha so I hope he was able to pull something that makes sense out of my mouth. I brought home the two rod tubes I made and two rifleslings to have a little someting to show off besides some bracers and a flask. I showed him some of the techniques and stuff that I get questions about here and explained my work to him. I also introduced him to this wonderful place so I hope he will join in someday. That was my day today and kinda strange having somebody coming over from Norway to make an article about my work but very nice to be in the spotlight a bit. Now I feel the demand to work harder and pursue more skill he he darn, the timing is not right for that, thousands of distractions at the moment but that is another story! Just felt like venting my experience today a little, I'm sure something good will come out of this!! Tom

Yeah I definetly need to try and probably get another MUST HAVE on my allready long list of MUST HAVES ha ha It'll be great to just sit down for the first time in my life with another leathercrafter and make some small works or sumting. Good night BigSis!!

Hi and welcome to the board Shavonne!!! Seem like you have just the spirit to get going. Leather can humbling to work with but nevermind that and just enjoy a really lovely material to work with. Depending on what you want to do with your purses/bags you may need some tools expecially if you want to make relief style patterns to them so be prepared for investing a little bit in the beginning. There are plenty of helpful people here and some that are very much in the know how so don't be shy about picking peoples brains here. We are all here to learn more and what a great place this is for that! Good luck with your purses!!! Tom

Oh yes BigSis, that is a maul to fall in löööööööööve with ha ha!!! It is beautiful! I have never understood why it is common practice to have the tooling maul in a cylindrical shape. I've never tried one but it seem a bit awkward for me because I'm so used to my old regular woodenclub. LilBro

Hello and welcome to the board!!!! Like cuda said, we love pics so post as you like and don't worry about critics, people around here seem to never be rude on anything (almost) and don't be shy to ask questions about anything. People is most helpful and willing to share. New yorkers..hmm..Scouter is from NY but I haven't seen him around much lately and whatsabout SteveB, think he is NY:er too. ME?? I'm from Gävle, Sweden Tom

Jordan, have you been picking my brain or what?? The only difference from what I am doing now is that I need to empty and sell me other house to solve my finances but the rest is spot on (ok, I've only got rubbish from twelve years back). To accomodate stuff from the other house I am cleaning out old rubbish. Tons of shoes, how may darn books can a person collect without ever reading them?? I'm hoping to get to the storage room before the summer...sigh!!! I'm turning minimalistic now!!!! Think I'm gonna check with my ISP if I can get a cheap internet connection with access only to LW, e-mail and my homepage;-) Keep it up Jordan, I'm on it until I have only things I REALLY need and also hope for a quick sell for both of us!!! Tom

Ha ha I know two of those. Social skill=non-existent, other skills=unbelievable but what does that matter when all you do is sit home alone and watch telly all days long and can barely keep your job because of the first one. Not saying all are like that but two out of two I know is f** up. They don't know each other either but that could never happen anyway. They're just too incompetent at making friends;-) Tom

I use the angled ceramic blade. Leather should be very dry when carving and I avoid to use too much pressure on the blade and go slow when carving. Good lighting, small lamps from different angles so I can see the tracing line at all times. Lettering on big leathers that I can't twist and turn as I carve is one of the hardest things i now. After tooling I will go over the letters thoroughly with the modelling spoon again with very dry leather. Tom

Cool bracer and innovative design!! You did good for your first piece. Skill will come naturally with practice and it is good to hear that you attack and study on multiple fronts. Slicking edges is very good to know about when dealing with bracers I think, off course for most other things too but bracers is a thing wich people tend to study a bit closer IMHO so I focus alot on getting good edges. Most times I use an edge beveler to make the edges nice and rounded too. Tom

Neat and clean looking collar!! Brass looks soooo good on black leather. Tom

Good looking collar!!! Just love the second pic...sooo disappointed about missing that walk;-) Tom

Thank you very much 97Stallion!!! Welcome to the board and the welth of leatherworking shared here!!! Learning leatherwork sure will help you reduce the amount of sparetime;-) Tom

That is a beautiful canteen Timbo!!! Thanks for putting a great tut together and sharing some tricks and tips!!! Tom