mikeymoto

Sadly no, so my method is not perfectly scientific. Not the same hide, nor the same thickness. The two darkest test pieces got a baking soda and water wash, but not the earlier ones.

Only the top-most sample in that photo was oiled with neatsfoot, then sealed with carnauba cream. I'm using a gallon of distilled white vinegar and 6 pieces of new, fine steel wool. To make the samples above I held in the vinegaroon for at least 60 seconds, then swished around in a baking soda and water mix, then rinsed and let dry. EDIT: Oh yeah, at first I was keeping it in my garage which is not heated. After the 3rd day I brought it inside and set it near a heater vent and I think that helped a good bit. It's mostly sitting inside now except when I take it out for testing.

I'm mixing up my first batch of vinegaroon and have been making samples on successive days to see how the process is coming along. I'm past 10 days now and the surface of the leather is still not turning very black but I will continue waiting and testing. Once it seems like it's not getting any darker then I'll try using it on a project. Here are the first 9 days of samples. I sure like the blue-gray from day 6. The day 9 sample was oiled and sealed.

I'm a sucker for celtic patterns. Great work!

That looks really very nice. Can I presume you applied a resist to the raised portions of the carving, but not down in the depressions? Or did you resist all of the non-background areas and the antique pooled up a bit in the low areas? I think it looks great.

I've used the Goldnrod available at Tandy and it's ok. I like the silver myself; I've used it on black with positive results.

I got Quickbooks when I started my business, but I have yet to figure out how to efficiently enter my receipts for supplies, or how to configure the tax portions so I know how much I owe and to whom! (since I pay city and state tax) I also found something worrisome last night when I was looking at how to enter my receipts for expenses - it seems like my local Tandy is charging .2% less tax than the state things they should be, so it's not clear if I technically still owe the state money (use tax) on portions of those purchases.

Yes. I have the hand press Tandy sells and I use the line 24 dies for pull-the-dots.

This cross-draw knife sheath is a recent example where I used pull-the-dot snaps in conjunction with line 24 snaps. The line 24 is on "top" and the pull-the-dot is on "bottom": My design calls for the top snap to unbutton easily, so the "pin lock" can slide out and rotate away on the second snap. The pull-the-dot snap does not accidentally pull off when you're pulling on the upper snap, since the pull-the-dot only comes off if you pull "up" on it (in the opposite direction). The strap can still be removed if desired for retention-free carry, and is easily replaced. Here you see that the pull-the-dot snap does not sit flush and so it "jiggles" a bit when fastened: Lastly here is the difference in the look of the studs: I stitched around the line 24 stud since it requires some force to unfasten, and I don't want the layers of leather to start pulling apart. Since the pull-the-dot fastener comes undone easily when pulled in the right direction, it does not require the same reinforcement, IMO.

I use pull-the-dot fasteners on 8/9 oz. leather. The diameter of the snaps is for all intents and purposes the same. A line 24 snap can be opened from any direction and snaps firmly in place. A pull-the-dot snap can only be opened when pulled in one direction (so be thoughtful when you set them) and can only be fastened in the opposite direction, and the "standard" pull-the-dot has a lighter snap action than a line 24. I have noticed that they sell a version that is a harder snap, but I have not tried those. When fastened, the pull-the-dot snaps are more loose/jiggly than line 24 snaps. Be careful of the eyelet post length when you buy pull-the-dot fasteners because my experience is that most online places sell short posts for work with linens. The design of the pull-the-dot stud requires a longer post! I recommend the .370" eyelet. Also of note - when setting pull-the-dot fasteners on leather the "dot" does not get stamped into the button. You'll see what I mean about this when you get some. Not a big deal in my opinion as the direction of pull for snaps on a sheath should be self-explanatory. I have bought happily from dotfastenersdirect.com.

My work bench is in my garage and the overhead lighting does not cut it for carving at any time of day. I have a small halogen desk lamp I use when carving, to the front right of the work and pointed in at an angle. This helps me very much!

Up until a couple weeks ago I had used only leather purchased from Tandy. I bought a side of tooling leather from W&C and when I got it I wasn't exactly overjoyed. It looked ok, it wasn't sunburned, it still had some minor defects, but it was not a magical amazing piece. BUT I have to say my first time carving it was last week and the difference there was night and day. Cased the same as other leather I've used, it cut like butter and took impressions really easily. For carving, I'm impressed!

Hehe, been there and done that!

Lots of people like PDF because it is common, and perhaps more importantly because it's an easy way to distribute "read only" copies of documents. It helps prevent other people from making changes to your document and redistributing it. To take full advantage of PDF you need Adobe Acrobat. If you want to read PDFs you can use Adobe Acrobat Reader, or one of many other applications. Some applications let you "save as" PDF format. Others don't. If you want to save as a simple PDF you can get free things to do it, like CutePDF which I have used and it is relatively simple.

I got around to checking the page source and saw it was made using MS Office. The page does not load using Firefox on Linux or Windows. You apparently must use Internet Explorer. Boo on that, but I finally got it opened, so yay on that.