StrigaMort

I'm glad you mentioned the heat. I keep meaning to change the speed on my press. I was surprised to find that my needle was hot enough to burn me a couple of weeks ago.

Thank you! I'm going to try exactly that. I'll let you know how it turns out. The leather is 8/9oz. I have no idea how I screwed up so badly. I'm usually very good about that. It's well done (not light), so I think I must have done it on purpose thinking it was correct. Tunnel vision and all that.

Since you may live there when you want to use tooling stamps and will need to use a maul/mallet anyway, what are you using to strike with, and strike on? I'm using marble and a Harbor Freight 1.5lb dead blow mallet. The mallet may not be the best, but it's fairly quiet. If I isolated the marble with a thin piece of foam, it would be even quieter. Just thinking out loud.

I use an overstitcher and a bench top drill press with a doll making needle chucked up. I love the setup. One person I know uses the drill press without running it, but I've found that method to be too sticky. Maybe wax on the needle would help. If you have a groover but no overstitcher, I've heard of people using a fork of all things. Good luck, be sure and update with whatever you do. I'll be buying a HF arbor press soon, but for other work.

Hi guys, I was just using my overstitcher to mark my stitch holes and I accidentally ran over one extra impression. Is there any way to fix this outside of totally modifying the design? I was so careful, I guess these things just happen sometimes.

... a small spray bottle? You know,the kind we use to spray water. I was messing with my bottle the other day and noticed that it can spray a very fine mist when adjusted correctly. Anyone ever try this? Also,anyone ever try those disposable pre-vail (think that's what they are called) where the power unit is thrown away, but you keep the glass reservoir? How well do they work?

Well it's a good thing I'm strong like bull. Seriously though, when I picked up the 1.5lb dead blow it felt heavy enough that I was surprised that anyone used this weight, or even heavier. Now that I've used it, I can see why. I tried a little back to back with the poly mallet. The Tandy whacker felt terrible after using the DB. It felt really bouncy and way waaay too light. I was using the basket stamp. I guess I could see using it with a seeder or something else that cuts deep, but for heavier stamping I think the 1.5lb will be the minimum. Even if I never use the DB again after buying the BK maul, it'll have been worth the $5 just for the experience in weight.

Anyone bought their veg tanned? I'm putting together an order and I'm probably going to buy a double shoulder. Btw, I don't think they are going out of business. I emailed the other day and they got back to me quickly enough. Didn't answer a few of my questions, but they were professional at least.

This is probably completely useless, but figured I'd throw it out there. I bought this little iron yesterday at HF. I think it was like $5 on sale and figured I could use it on wood, or just as a soldering iron if nothing else. The box does say that it can be used with leather, but they'd probably tell you that you could eat it if it would sell more of them. I'll let you know how it works. http://m.harborfreight.com/5-in-1-hobby-woodburner-38593.html

Guys, seriously? St8,it would have been more complete if you had mentioned that you had tried modifying a mallet in your first post, but it doesn't really matter to me that you didn't. For the record, everyone's comments, recommendations, opinions and experiences are welcome in my threads regardless of whether or not others find them beneficial. I've never understood why people get upset about another person's post in a DISCUSSION forum. Say what you please, or don't. WS, I appreciate your input. Really,I can clearly see that you are helpful in a lot of threads that I've looked at. I cannot imagine, however,how you get by if a post like the above bothers you. Golden rule and all that. I also tend to try and think of how I'd say something were the other person standing in front of me. It's worked pretty well for more years than I care to admit. Again,thanks for all comments in any of my threads. I picked up a 1.5lb dead blow yesterday from Harbor Freight Obviously it won't be optimal (otherwise everyone would be using them), but it feels pretty good. Certainly better than the small poly. I nearly bought a kit of wheel weights, but I think it would have been a waste of time. I hate not knowing what I'm missing, but in this case, I guess I'm happy because I'm not seeing an eminent downside to this $6 pig. Guess I'll have to shell out a few bucks one day to find out, but for now I'm happy. I think.

So I plan to start selling knife sheaths soon. I've never been in the business of selling anything other than goods on ebay and a few transactions elsewhere. I'm curious about guarantees and warranties on hand made goods. From my time in watching how knifemakers do it, the general standard is to offer a short money back guarantee, followed with a lifetime guarantee against defects, sometimes extras like free lifetime sharpening and maintenance (often referred to as a "spa" treatment which includes refinishing of steel and/or handle materials). User error and abuse is excluded in nearly every case, although there are exceptions. So what is a good balanced policy for the consumer, and also for me? I'd hate to instate a policy only to realize that I overextended myself in some unforseen way. All opinions are welcome. Bonus points for examples or stories.

You explained it well with words, but I appreciate the diagram.

I'll have to take another browse at the Stohlman books. Thanks for your explanation.

Thanks! That all makes sense. One correction, and an additional thought... Thinking back, it wasn't when I folded the leather over, but when I wet molded the leather to the handle, that the definition started to fade. I think pressing on the leather and using the bone folder were what created the problem. You mentioned the legs on the bw stamp. Looking at the sheath, it seems that the legs make a pretty deep impression when compared to the rest of the stamp. The impressions that you see in the pic nearer the bottom (where there was no wet forming, that is, the blade area) are pretty much how they looked pre-dye/forming. Is this because the stamp legs effectively get hit twice by overlapping, or because I'm using a less than good stamp? Maybe it's my technique? Would it be advisable to try and grind the legs back a hair? I'm pretty comfortable with the idea, but I don't want to ruin the stamp.

May as well sign me up too.

On my second sheath my stamping got kinda washed out when I was folded over (pouch style sheath). I guess the fix is just to hit harder to get a deeper impression? Does heavy handed stamping weaken the leather? I'm using a junk Tandy basket stamp and poly mallet. 8/9oz Hermann Oak leather. Thanks!

Seems like that would get dinged up pretty quickly. Wood chisels don't have the tiny surface area of a leather stamp, and I don't think you usually hit as hard. If I didn't need a bunch of other stuff I'd just buy the $50 BK. Rats.

Wow, that is some really awesome dyeing! I'm going to have to re-read your method a few times to fully understand, but it certainly looks to be worth the effort. Thanks for the explanation, and the pic.

Thanks guys, I'll let you know how it works out.

Oh, I should point out that if you need to ht a larger portion of steel than what you can keep at a constant heat using a torch (a head knife, or most any aside from a very small blade falls into this catagory), you'll need a way to evenly heat it. This can be done many ways, but one of the easiest is to build a small forge. I can help with that if need be. Otherwise, if you don't mind (this hasn't been mentioned), you can always send the blade out for professional ht. Going this route, you can use super high end steels and not have to deal with ht at all. Arguably, the best, most practical way to go about it.

A household kitchen oven can indeed temper 1080, or most any steel. That, however, leaves the hardening step out. 1084, 1080, 1075, 1070 etc... steels are usually worked in an annealed state, that is, soft. After grinding away whatever is not what you want to keep (in this case, a head knife) the steel needs to be hardened. The above mentioned steels are great for the home enthusiast because they are easily heat treated. It's worth mentioning that "10xx" series steels numerically higher than 1084 become more difficult to heat treat (ht) without specialized equipment. With eutectoid steels like 1084, the requirement is fairly straight forward for ht. With a very small blade you can use a torch to get the steel hot enough to become non-magnetic (actually using a magnet to check for when this occurs, it'll be bright red hot), then allow the steel to get about two shades of red past non-mag. This is all that is required to get the carbon into solution. Immediately quench in "medium fast" oil, or canola oil is fine. At this point a new file should skate on the freshly hardened steel. If it doesn't most likely you didn't get it hot enough. You can try a few times without damaging the steel. That hard steel now has all kinds of stress in it. The hardening process is not kind! So! It must be tempered. Tempering cuts back on the hardness, increases toughness and relieves some of that pent up stress. It should be done right after the oil quench. THIS is where your oven can come in handy. I'm greatly simplifying all of this, but you aren't creating a super high end custom knife... 400° (f) for two 1 hour cycles in the kitchen oven is fine for tempering. Hope I haven't been too technical. Heat treating is a bunch of processes, for stainless, it gets very technical. But ultimately ht is: Annealing Normalizing (if you hammer forge, if you just use belt grinders or files to remove steel you can skip this) Hardening Quenching Tempering If that doesn't answer your question, or adds more, I'll do my best to explain further.

So I have a nice Karung (water snake) hide, but it's the slightly boring natural light brown color. I'm thinking about changing it to something else. Anyone ever dye this? Also,is there a resist technique for dyeing the skin, but leaving the scales natural (or two different colors for that matter)? If you aren't familiar with the look of Karung, it looks very much like lizard, but feels like shark to me. Very uniform, and tiny pebble like scales. Pretty nice really, just kinda bleh being light brown.

Hold the work near where the grinding is taking place. When it gets too warm to hold comfortably, dip in water. If you see colors form, you've altered the temper. Always use sharp (new) belts. Zirconia belts can usually be found easily. They are the blue ones. Much better for steel grinding than aluminum oxide (wood) belts. If you need to remove a lot of hardened steel,use a low grit (36, 40 are good). Higher grits, and worn belts produce more heat. I'd do the final sharpening by hand, on stones or SiC paper. If you really want to make a better blade, start with good annealed high carbon steel. A 4' stick of 1084 is very inexpensive from Aldo (newjerseysteelbaron.com) and is eutectoid steel. Heat with a torch just past non-magnetic and quench in canola oil. Throw it in the oven for two one hourtempering cycles at 400° and you'll have a world class blade. Sounds harder than it is. If you have a belt sander and the ability to craft leather, you can grind out a fantastic blade. Let me know if I can help in any way.

Hi everyone, first post. Very happy to be here. So I have a basic set of tools. I am starting out making knife sheaths and am really enjoying it. My problem is that for basket stamping, my small poly mallet is sorely lacking. I don't have the funds at the moment to buy the BK maul that I really want, but like the idea of adding some weight. I'm pretty handy, and think I might get away with simply drilling some holes and adding steel shot (or similar),just wondering if anyone has done anything like this. Does it upset what little balance there is in this puny whacker? Thanks for any insight.