TomSwede

That is really a cool cue case John! Those large scales makes a very different feel to it it. Tom

Oh yeah that's the spirit! I felt like giving it a try so I hope I remeber it when the activity is lower later on in the winter season. Oh and remember to duck if the bibleswinging ladies hear you Good luck! Tom

Really neat little fella'! Nice job and should be able to sell, perhaps. I don't know how common zippo lighters are there. Never see anyone using it here but they're available everywhere. Tom

Best is to place the pouch underneath the bottom so the rain won't run down and soak into bottom. Downside with this on my bag is that the bottom is not very flat so I can't set my bag upright down. It falls over but with shapeable leather this can be worked around. Let us now bout the result if you get to it. Never seen it around here before. Tom

Yeah tell me bout those filters..I can't even see leatherworker from our work computers... Great if you find any later on, people often ask about the braiding ones. Tom

Good to know your here with us! Sorry 'bout your dad! Tom

Very nice awl sheath that I found when surfing around: http://outdoors-magazine.com/spip.php?article330 Tom

Thank you Ian! I drew it myself for once so I'm proud of it but wanna thank Schno because I'd never thunk of it if it wasn't for his DaVinci inspired Artisan Skincraft logo though I didn't have his logo at hand so it's not copied straight off. I can add also that I used the back of an toothbrush with a taped piece of thin sponge and cloth and blockdyed over the red cuts. I cannot emphasis the importance of smoothing around the lines before doing this. I did that to the point of perfection...I thought.... but had to use dried out childrens felt tip pen to do some touch ups anyway. I think customer likes it too 'cuz he's allready planning for the next one in same fashion but with viking runes from their biker club logo but so far He has only seen it online, same pics as here but smaller. Tom

Happy birthday ArtS!!! Hope you have good one and get lots of new toys...eh tools I mean! I'm sick and booked for another (40 year old) party Friday night so if your throwing a party in the backroom that day I'm gonna miss it. It feels though as if I might be at home recovering tomorrow aswell..cough cough! Just in case I've put a bottle of whisky in there tonite for your birthday so feel free to drink from it! Tom

Thanks for your input DC! Never struck me you could just use the antiquing to create the body patterns. Just gotta keep that KISS method in the head and not overthink it. Your imitation looks great and I'm gonna have a lookse at the albumconvolute I'm using. I think it might be more erratic on the snakes head, forgot to write I'm looking to do a constrictors head and tail and nothing in between. I wanna take the opportunity to thank you DC for the simple roundbraid tut you had posted before the big -08. I had practised some with it from kingsmere's online tut but reading your post just made the puzzlepieces come together and I've been on it ever since. Tom

Ehum...the stitching?.................... Sorry couldn't resist. I'm sure you had your reason for making a clock out of it! Tom

Very good looking Frog! The tooling and colouring looks great so he's gonna be a happy captain. It's a very generous gift! But it makes me feel bad since I wanted to do a toolbagstyle carrier for the president of our whisky society who's turning 40 tomorrow and I just have to finish off the queline I have, being sick and all. Feel so much like doing it! Tom

On my camerabackpack there is an pocket underneath it and it is held together with velcro and inside there is a raincover that just pulls outand I pull it over the bag and there is a string sewn into the raincove so I can tighten it around the bag. It'd be lots of extra work but I was thinking more for your own personal use like with Bree it might be a good option. If you find a customer willing to pay for it..fine, you now have the experience with it. I just love my camerabackpack for this. Really rain proof ones costs three times the price of my bag and so it might be if you're gonna find a solution to actually seal the leather like discussed, maybe?? I've been thinking if I one day make seats for Swedish people I'd have the raincoat as an option maybe. People here is a little scared with leather seats and rottingproblems so probably a good marketing gimmick for me, IF it is possible to make the cover invisible when not used. Tom

Very good looking Singteck,fantastic pieces! While we're at it, has anyone ever tried constrictor type patterns. I have a model for a guitarstrap drawn up and I'm thinking perhaps use the stylus and texture them from transfer film and antique it since they're more irregular in shape but would be awesome to find out if anyone tried constrictor.

If it looks like water stains it suggests that something has been spilled onto it so maybe the good useful pointers I've gotten here is worth considering. My splotches is not any way near looking like something that was spilled on. Tom

This is also interesting, YES I'm working my way down towards the belly now and it's not the same leather as I got off from the back. Less density and perhaps a wee bit thinner too . Just hope it harden allright when I wetform it. I usually get nice bracers with theese pieces too but I did get this problem on the black and orange fishingrod tube wich was taken about 16" down from the back (cut neck to butt) so I saddletanned it all and got a very nice and smooth black there. I know I got this problem also with red oil dye on the same hide, either it was the first tube or Lailas purse. Those luckily enough had that fat mahogany treatment that I did a tutorial with. Thank you for the input Russ! You have all come up with fine and interesting results and I'm gonna print and hang this one over my workingtable in the future! Tom

As stated before I did not clean it. It's ineteresting that you mention oily hands 'cuz when I think about it might be so I putting my thumbs or fingers down on the side because it's a natural thing for me to avoid hands on the main tooling area as much as possible. In the beginning I did scratch the leather alot with my nails so I developed techniques to avoid touching it too much but I mostly put my fingers on the edges as far as I know but could be I unintentionally put my fingers on the sides since I started with backing using packing tape and got a marble table top wich causes the leather to slide easily. Still, I need an explanation for some small spots that are the same prob as on the sides. They are small and doesn't look like coming from the fingers. Thanks for you input Bill. I keep an eye on where my fingers are when I'm tooling later today. Tom

Your welcome Kate! His like the father of viking metal and also another genre. Always when Manowar comes to Sweden and are being interviewed they are almost blushing about this Italian origin and almost appologize for their existence, lol. It's very fun to watch on TV. Funny you mention spaghetti western because they look like comic book vikings, at least in the 80's. For all I know, there were alot of viking drop off's in Italy during this era. Tom

The problem is that it doesn't resist colour it just absorbs it lika sponge. Perhaps you mean that it sinks in and kinda goes around the top surface leaving it like a spot? Could be so. Not sure I dare do anything more to it now. The edges will be cut down so part of the problem area disappears and the rest will be cluttered with eyelets and string but there are a few tiny spots left on the main motif that I maybe try to clean and touch up. I sleep on it to tomorrow, better get a look at it in daylight aswell. I post two more pics now. One is the revealing one and the other shows the dyejob more like it is in reality. Thanks for you input guys, it's worth so much! Tom

Black over red doesn't give true black ( in my experience, perhaps more layers of black would do the trick. I'll test that) but cool effect for sure. http://www.1eye1.se/armband/Batbracer%20AP%20gold01.jpg I actually thought an airbrush would be the only good tool for this. What do you clean with? alcohol? I've buffed of the residue now but the matted areas still look more matted. I have the feeling somehow that the areas that keeps the residue looks more black and buff better. The areas on the sides of the red can't keep the residue on top, it just soaks in. I'd expect the opposite if it was a problem from not cleaning up wich I admit I didn't do. I'm going to use acrylic sealer and I'm always scared that itwill not bond correctly if I use stuff like neatsfoot, lexol, oliveoil or whatever event though I have tried oliveoil for a leather that simply wouldn't soak up any dyes. Cleaned that with alcohol and oiled the whole pice. This is an important customer so don't want to have the acrylics sealer flaking off! Thank you for your help Roger!

1).This is getting to my nerves now. I get this problem alot. There are certain areas that simply wont take the dye like the rest. It seems like it soaks right up leving no residue left on surface and looks like crap. With black I have just put saddletan on top and problem solved and luckily enough I have only had this with reds that are about to be antiqued. I apply with a sponge with a cloth over and just dauber it on. I have less problem with this when I dye everything black but with stuff where I have to really be careful where I put the sponge seem to be more prone to the problem. I applied black about 5 times on the showing pic. The problem is also visible in small spots in the center motif. Could the sponging on be the problem and if so..why? I never had this with the Danish spirit dye I used earlier with the same applying technique. 2). How would you put the red dye to the tooled centermotif. It needs to be depressed for the motif to work. It looks kinda cool I think but wasn't really supposed to be that uneven in colour. I used a diluted red that sometimes isn't red enough for me so figured I could brush it on carefully with good result HA! NOT! Colouring before tooling? Problem seem to be that different areas have a tad different compression allow lesser compressed areas to soak up more dye making it dark red (it is harder tooled at the edges than in center). Thanks in advance Tom

That's news! I've done some digging in the vikingage but never heard of this, at least not that I can remember. Just know about the usual ones hanging on the back from the belt. I'm thinking about Scottish sporrans perhaps they're related too. Tom

That's a cool purse Tracker! Never heards of the Tarsoly before so I'm glad you showed us your piece. I also managed to found some info on Kiev vikings at Tarsolybearers. Highly appreciated. Even tough lacking metal skills it'll be very nice when finished. Are you pursuing the skills to do the metal work later on? Welcome to the board and hope we see more like this from you! Tom

Looks like a fun and exciting project. Not sure if this is your first project with something like this but if so you learn a ton out of it. Looking forward to see it completed so thanks for sharing and gooooooooooooood luck with it!!!!!!!! Oh, trimming nails is very good before doing leatherwork. I admire some of the ladies here when I see long nails in their pics!! Tom

My experience is that they shrink a little without proper backing. Never tried it with backing. With backing I mean glued to a cardboard, x-ray film or whatever is the preferred choice. I use packing tape on the backside to keep the shape when the cased leather dries up. I used this tecnique to shrink the holes on my whiskyflask since my smallest punch was not small enough. Without backing. I had to use a plier to pass the needle through on the second pass with that basketweave wich normally can be done by hand with same punch, same lace. Take two test pieces from the same leather that you're gonna use and comparison. Leather with different density and/or different grain directions might shrink differently. Plz post your results I've always wondered bout that last question ..naaah just pulling your leg here bout posting results, I'll do it when I have a need for it, still think leather is kind of strange to work with and not very predictable so that's why I think it might be good to test on the actual leather if you need the best results. I took a test strip for the flask and noticed shrinkage so punched holes prior to casing. I recently made a special item not shown here and didn't use my regular revolver punch. Instead I used some regular ones (that I never used much)and as I've punched the first hole and take out the punch I get a shock..BIG HOLE... and I'm thinking :wtf: ??? they are marked with the same size as the revolver for crying out loud!!! Turns out that my revolver punch has a narrower cylindrical cone shape than the regular one wich of course opens up the hole on the top more. phew..tough one... so John, now you know why my heart have those big holes when or if it arrives. Welcome to the board! Tom here just typing frantically in the usual manner! (actually I've caught on a cold and feeling beat but restless because I feel beat causing me brain to go ..eh uhm don't know where it is at the moment, probably stuck in US customs. I like that place he he) Good luck with the punching! Tom