billybopp

Looks good! I'm glad it worked for you. - Bill

that would be Rampart tools. I don't know much about them, tho. - Bill

Your front side stitching looks really good. It is quite common for the back side or your stitch to look straighter than the front. It tends to be more pronounced in thinner leather than in thick. Threads need some space to cross one another in the leather, which is easier with thicker leather (or thinner thread). Casting your stitch (pulling the thread back over) can help, but also tends to reduce the slant on the front side in a sort of compromise. Another non-traditional way to deal with this is to use your pricking iron to mark front and back separately so that they slant in opposite directions, and pre-make the slits with an awl (or if it's thin enough, just make the slit with the pricking iron). This will help thread back and front to more easily slant the right direction. Hope that helps - Bill

I like it! I like that you did a nice floral carving, and it's not Sheridan! Don't get me wrong, Sheridan can be nice but it's nice to see something else at times. I think the only thing I might change would have been to put a small patch pocket on the gusset where the stitching for the inside one shows through to sort of disguise it. I have no doubt tho that the recipient will love it! - Bill

Congratulations! That is awesome. - Bill

I doubt we'll see TOO much high tech on heavy duty machines that are affordable. They're really built for industrial use where they will have specialized machines for each purpose, rather than multi-purpose machines as home light machines are. Industrial leather machines have really beefy components, and to make those parts move back and forth the way a light duty home machine with fancy stitch patterns does would require super-beefy and really expensive parts and engineering. Not to say it's impossible, but probably prohibitively expensive. - Bill

Thanks @johanna! It probably doesn't get said enough, but your efforts here are appreciated. For those that are confused by the "your clock is wrong" message - the reason for that is that it is the most common cause of certificate errors when the certificate is in fact valid. Just something to keep in the back of your mind to check if that ever happens with other sites. - Bill

Oh yeah. Dropped cards were the stuff of nightmares. One day, the boss brought in his daughter who was 4 or 5 or so at the time decided that it might be fun to pull out the drawers and use them like stairs to climb. Thankfully she was uninjured when the whole cabinet tipped over spilling most of its contents on the computer room floor. We were also fortunate that that particular cabinet had mostly end-of-month/year programs in it and not the daily processing! Sometimes you get lucky. - Bill

That makes a great wall piece. Willow and lace really works for that! - Bill

Scrap bags are great, and usually far less expensive than Tandy's sheepskin pads by a long shot. If you live anywhere near a saddle-maker, hit them up. They tend to have a ton of sheepskin scrap they're willing to either give you or sell very cheap. It's mostly garbage to them! - Bill

I remember when I was a kid, we used to get really cheap little wind-up toys labelled "Made in USA" - made from recycled beer and soda cans (when they were steel rather than aluminum). It turns out that Japan had a city named USA, so they could get away with it! Misleading labeling isn't new! Even now, we don't think much of stuff that's made in China - but what few know is that a lot of clothing labelled "Made in China" is actually made in North Korea - where labor is even cheaper still! It's a crazy world. - Bill

I bought my red Tandy hand-press several years ago when it was on sale, and haven't looked back. It's AWESOME. It cut the number of messed up rivets to nearly zero. The throat depth means that I still have to set one by hand now and then, but that's pretty rare. It was money well spent. - Bill

I'm not a big fan of punching holes, but it can be part of the aesthetic for a project. Punching holes removes a bit of leather and at least in theory weakens it more than would a stitching iron or an awl does - that may not be a factor for a lot of things, tho. Holes also pretty much force you into a thicker thread - which may be fine if that's the look you want. Holes generally make it harder to get a good looking line of stitches, particularly if you are looking for that slanted stitch look. Most kits come with pre-punched holes to make the assembly process easier for their target audience - the beginner. That is probably part of the reason why patterns go that route too - it's easier to put in an exact number of holes to get parts to line up. While there's nothing you can do with a kit unless you want to re-cut all parts, there is nothing with a pattern to prevent you from using whatever method you like to sew (as pointed out above). - Bill

By all accounts, better than the ones you're likely to get today! It's my understanding that the best ones are from the 50's and 60's but quality didn't begin serious decline until the 80s and 90s. Break 'em out and use 'em! They aren't doing any good in storage. - Bill

LOL! @Dangerous Beans Thanks for chiming in, for your humo(u)r and all that you do. It's appreciated. - Bill

I don't know anything about this technique - never heard of it before, but dang that's a fascinating look! Thanks for posting with links. Given that some of the examples are dated at over 200 years ago, there is clearly SOME way to use it without deteriorating the leather. I'll be watching with great interest. - Bill

I'd say you got a great deal there! As above, I've seen these called a French Leather Knife, and recently saw a Don Carlos brand up on ebay. I have a cheap knock-off version from China. It can be used in most of the same ways that a round knife is at the long outside curve for push cuts and rolling cuts. The pointy part can be used to cut tight curves with a pushing motion the same way you would with a round knife. Additionally, the point is sharpened on the inside curve so that you can use it much as you would with a clicker knife in a pull cut. The downfall of these seems to be that pointy part - sharpened on both sides there isn't much metal to support that point and they are susceptible to breakage - so keep that in mind when in use! - Bill

Happy wife, happy life! Lamb skin should work very nicely for a hood that can be worn comfortably, and will probably drape nicely. Hoods are generally pretty simple until you get into something that fits tightly around the head, and even then not terribly difficult. I haven't made one in leather, but have made some in fabric - albeit a LONG time ago. You probably will not find a pattern that is exactly what you want, but getting one that is similar will give you a jumping off point. Good luck - be sure to post pics!! - Bill

Not to mention ... Another factor is that some of us are decidedly rounder than others. - Bill

I'd think you'd probably want to use a stiffener of some sort. The sheath might curve around your waist with your belt while the knife is out, making it harder to re-sheath it. - Bill

A quick online search for bag stiffened should turn up some options. Brand names include Bontex, Tax on, and others. - Bill

For my part, I have been pleased by the leather that I received from SLC. However, I've only ordered a few sq. ft at a time, and I have called them on the phone to order and specified exactly what i wanted. I don't care if the leather that I received came from a hide that was C grade(or whatever) - as long as the portion that I received was clear and clean - essentially A grade. My last order I needed about 2 sq.ft. for an item I was making, and needed a couple more sq.ft. for practice(it had been awhile since I had tooled anything), and utility use - and told them so. What I received was very good, and all but one corner was nice and clean. It was better than I asked for or expected. For that, I do not mind paying premium prices. - Bill

That sux. I know how you feel. This might be a situation to lay it flat and awl into a cork board. - Bill

I have a friend that is a little freaked out by the corona virus thing -- so I did a little looking around and found a report by a doctor that said that this, and other similar viruses survive one or two days outside the body at the very most. Given that, a flu virus from your local postal workers is a bigger concern. As of right now, there are literally thousands of flu deaths this year, and only a small handful of corona virus deaths. I'm with you @chuck123wapati! I carry a small squeeze bottle of hand sanitizer in my jacket pocket for those trips to the store - especially the drug store. Watch sometime and you'll see people cough or sneeze into their hand and then within a short time pick up that pen to sign for their prescription, or use the touchscreen to enter info, or just touch the counter. That's an invitation to get yourself sick if you touch that stuff after them! I never really thought about the grocery store ... But I will from now on! - Bill

To a LOT of folks on eBay, Craigslist, etc - if it's painted black, that means it's industrial. We know better! - Bill