howardb

For those of you who don't know, Boomer is a real cowboy, not just a wanna be. Older than dirt too. And Bruce's moustache is for real folks. No fuzzy caterpillar running around his lip. Nice guy too! I normally have my eyes open, but Johanna managed to get me in mid-blink. I was smiling so big cuz the wife had just joined me after a long week of tooling. I was glad to see her. While all of the folks at a show are very nice and cool to meet, Paul and Rosa are genuinely nice folks. I'm poorer of pocket, but much richer of knowledge of the craft. These things are so worth the effort to come to! Brent

Ray, Minwax (not sure of UK brand) makes pre-colored urethane finishes. That would be perfect and should be relatively quicky drying if you did a quick wipe on & set it on a cookie rack to dry. i would suggest getting your own cookie racks so the cook doesn't take a rolling pin to your noggin. Brent

I'm going. Tuesday night through Sunday! There has GOT to be time to squeeze in a breakfast... Brent PS: You can still register and get hotel rooms for a while yet. Not sure what the new cutoff is, but they did extend it. Competition - you had to be registered in a guild by about mid August so the registration could be sent in to IFOLG. Otherwise all are welcome to classes, banquet, vendors, etc.

marlon - thanks for the cleanup. I knew parts of it...

Russ, this has been in the cards for a while I think. George did start Hidecrafters, and several years ago, turned over the company to others, but stayed on as an employee. I don't want to talk out of school on the details, and I'm not 100% sure if all of my hear-say is accurate. But he has been out of the ownership for a while now. And I'd like to echo the "big plus" for Tandy. A great opportunity for both! Brent

Update - CIL's website has been updated to include all the forms & such. Have at 'em. Brent

I seem to be the IFOLG boy around here. Anyway, the Central Indiana Leathercarvers are hosting this fall's IFOLG show. Competition, banquets, raffles, friends, vendors, workshops... It's a FULL weekend+ of leatherfun. Workshops are STILL not up at this time, but the preliminary list is below. http://centralindianaleathercrafters.org/SHOW.HTM for registration forms, etc. If you want to attend, but don't have all your cash available right now, PLEASE go ahead and send in your registration forms. Edd Lucas is looking for a head count. He has stated publicly, multiple times, that he will wait for payments, but needs people to register as soon as they can. Workshops too. The form is on the above linked page, but see below for the list. Note that some of these start as early as Wednesday. Also note our own Johanna is doing seminars! Note they have some "big hitters" doing workshops at this show, similar to the 3-day classes that are held around the country during the year. This should make for a very interesting show this year! Preliminary list from Gene Cooper, CIL: Roz Kaohn Wed 8 to 5 $110.00 How to Carve Dragons Thu 8 to 12 $45.00 How to Carve Feathers Thu 1 to 5 $45.00 Leather Rose Pins Chan Geer Wed, Thu & Fri 2 1/2 days $195.00 Check book 3X carving Jim Linnell Wed, Thur & Fri 2 1/2 days $55.00 Buffalo on Tandy Cover Sat 9 to 12 $0.00 Begin to Carve Kathy Flanagan Wed & Thu $95.00 Leather Box Bob Beard Wed 8 to 5 $90.00 Landscape - Book Cover Jeff Mosby Thu 8 to 5 $125.00 Guitar Strap George Hurst Fri 8 to 5 $70.00 Leather Plate Sat 8:30 to 11:30 $25.00 Set & Stamp Basket Weave Bob Klenda Wed 8 to 12 $45.00 Lecture/Demo Wed 1 to 5 $45.00 Lecture/Demo Thur Fri 2 Days $250.00 Photo Album Sat 9 to 11 $35.00 Lecture/Demo Sat 1 to 3 $27.00 Lecture/Demo Charles Crenshaw Thur 8 to 5 $70.00 Leather Basket Randy & Riley Cornelius Fri 9 to 11:30 $25.00 Making Cases Fri 1 to 4 $25.00 Making Cases Sat 9 11:30 $25.00 Making Cases Allan Scheiderer Sat 9 to 11:30 $25.00 Stamping Designs Johanna Schroer Fri 9 to 11:30 $50.00 Marketing Your Leather Fri 1 to 3:30 $50.00 Web Site Development Sat 9 to 11:30 FREE How to use Leatherworker.net Kim Soladine Fri 8 to 12 $25.00 Make a Scissor Case Fri 1 to 4 $25.00 Make a Scissor Case Sat 8 to 12 $25.00 Make a Scissor Case Bob Tippman Sat 9 to 9:45, 10 to 10:45 & 11 to 11:45 $0.00 Sewing with the Boss (Hands On) Bill Gomer thurs/Fri, 1.5 days $90.00 Embossed Elk's Head (leather & backboard furnished

Here's slightly bigger photo I took: (never did see the finger carvings! Found out about them well after I was taking pictures, and then never made it back to look.) Brent

Hilly - If you go to columbus, they will look at you funny. That was last year's show. 2009's IFOLG show will be in Indianapolis IN. 2010 is in St. Louis, MO. It wanders around! I'd hate for you to miss the fun! Regards, Brent

So... tell us which models and what accessories need to go in the bags... I can make ya a li'l something for your small camera. Who knows what some of these generous souls would send you. Leatherworker is one of the most important resources in leathework right now (IMHO).

Whatsis update: I showed them to Jim Linnell, and he knew what they were and most of the history. Jim's opinion is that these are extraordinarily rare, and all their value is in their rareness. Not much value as carving tools. We went through and got numbers off everything and there are only a few duplicates in this batch. Jim had not seen this many tools in one place before. He has no idea what constitutes a complete set, but thought this was pretty close. These are just his opinions, so don't write anything into Wikipedia or anything. So, unfortunately, these won't be inexpensive tools that I'm dumping. I doubt anyone wants them for their collector value, but if you are seriously interested, PM me. I think for now, they will just stay in their box, though I'll probaby get some metal protectant on them and pack them a tad better. Sorry for getting anyone's hopes up, that's what I get for opening my mouth wide enough for my size 12's. Brent

Marcel, let her know its very nice. I've been hacking leather for two years and I can't get it that clean and smooth! Brent

Oh MAN those eyes poking out are wicked! Cool sign! Brent

It's a gorgeous piece of work! I have no idea what kind of case it is, but it's a beaut! Brent

anester05 - It's called by many "the pebble backgrounder". It's from Hidecrafters and it's way cool. They have two sizes that I know of, SST construction & all that. I think they are around 10 to 15 bucks. I have PA004 and PA005. There is a smaller PA003, but the catalog image is fuzzy so I'm not sure it matches, though it probably does. Kevin - thanks for the tip. I will keep that in mind. It certainly makes sense! All - thanks for the nice words! Brent

Stunning as always! Brent

Thanks Kate & Crystal! Here is the address book cover we did last weekend in Indy with Linnell. I had to finish the texturing around the hosss'ss and the dreaded knife cuts. I'm not gong to be winning any Billy Wootres shootouts in the near future... I will git-r finished next week or two. I'm saving myself for the show this weekend! Woohoo! Brent

Following is a note from someone connected with the PSLG spring show this weekend. Hi, would you please pass this on to those attending the show. Please note: Silva Fox will be attending the show this weekend- she will not be doing a demo but will be doing critiques for those that would like. Please bring whatever you would like her to critique. Attached is a price list (in excel) for Cowan's Sharp Shop- if you would like your tools sharpened bring them. He'll be sharpening on the premises, no shipping them back and forth. As some of you will be coming through on 80/94, please beaware that there is construction work already going on this route. Brent Pricelist712007.xls.txt Remove the .txt after saving it... Pricelist712007.xls.txt

OK, my swivel knife work usually bites dirt. I had a class with Jim Linnell this weekend (Indy Tandy store), and he showed me a few things. I mentioned I was doing some bookmarks, and he whipped one out & encouraged me to use it. So I did. I tried doing a tapoff, but it was light. It got me started though. The bottom one is my attempt to recreate his design from the tapoff (reversed). The top two were attempts to freehand what he had done. The other one was just me getting weird. Fun though! I think I have the concept figured out, but it seems to be an extension of Sheridan style, which is my weakest skill. Now I just have to practice for 30 years so I can be as good as Jim! {Jim, if you see this, PM me so I can find you in the dark! Otherwise, see you next week at the spring show.} Brent

Ed, Try 800 or 1000 grit. I've got some glued to the back of posterboard and it is great for a quick re-edging if I don't want to fire up the wheels. Brent

Wow! Brilliant design work, Kate! And then to make it a functioning piece of art as well. I can't even trace designs well let alone pull off somethign like that. And it's carved oh so well! It's a keeper for sure Tom! Brent

See? I knew I'd forget... A worthy entry for sure though. Johanna, you want to run another one? Even a just-for-fun one? I REALLY did want to do something, but life prevented me. Brent

Hints to all: Pack the lead shot tight or use a brass slug. You do NOT want a dead-blow type maul. I experimented with a DBH and it was an unmitigated disaster. You need a nice sharp impact to dent the leather, not a softened one! Trust me on that... If you work in a manufacturing environment, get friendly with a local plastics distributor (or find someone who is). Sometimes you can get samples for FREE! And a sample to those guys would make you a handful of mauls! doesn't have to be UHMW. Try Delrin (acetal / POM) for a harder, longer lasting surface. Nylon would work too. Now all I need is a lathe... Brent

Geez, it's almost a fetish. More of them!! OK, so these are for sale at our Guild booth at the PSLG show. We are doing it as a Fundraiser because we are hosting it next year. Brent

Charley, http://www.ifolg.org/ Contact Edd Lucas. He can put you in touch with the historian. I'm not sure if it's still John Vanzandt, but someone there has the whole history. I know John and my mother in law have only missed one show EVER. Carol probably has, in bits and pieces, and mostly in storage, all the show info, but it would take months to compile it. John may have it handy as I think he was the historian. Shoot, Edd may have it handy too. He loves data! Brent