billybopp

Mattsbagger is right in my experience. But if there IS some over-riding reason to put paint atop resolene, it works fine. Bill

Lets see if we can figure this out. Given the makers identity it's some sort of shoe machine, so most likely is for some sort of leather work. Looking at the picture, it's motor driven - there's a drive belt and pulley at the right and no handcrank in sight. The center post part tells us that it's meant to either operate inside something or with some bulk on either side, and the top is a 90deg. angle. The drive pulley on the right looks like it's in line with the back roller arm, and probably designed to pull something through. Just in from the main drive pulley there looks to be a transfer pulley or gear to what looks like an upper shaft. On the left side there looks to be a gearbox, I'd guess to transfer drive down to the front roller arm. The levers on the front look to control pressure or thickness for the two roller arms. The profile of the cams/levers at the top probably release tension on the roller arms to allow insertion/removal of material. The front roller looks to conform to the post / anvil, so probably meant to bend something at 90 deg. The back roller looks to be ridged as though meant to pull material through. It looks like the upper part of the post / anvil might be replaceable, as does the front roller at least. Wonder if there are other profiles available? So, in short - it's a motorized shoe machine that pulls material through (probably leather but maybe not!) with two types of tension-able rollers which might be used together or individually (we don't know for sure). The post/anvil may be changeable. Given that, it may be a single purpose machine or possibly multi-purpose. What other clues are we missing?? Constabulary's first stab at a folder/bender seems right, but I don't know enough about shoe making to have any idea where that would be needed. It's obviously a pretty expensive piece of equipment, so it would be needed for something that is either difficult or time consuming by hand in order to justify the price of a machine.

Dang! Wish I could've been there, but I think you're on the other end o' the state. Bill

I'm not sure what that is, but is that a flux capacitor on the right side? Maybe Doc Brown will chime in and help us identify it. Bill

Zip material is pretty sturdy. I use the awl. Bill

Take a look at this Video by ian Atkinson about putting in zips. bill

I'll second what alpha2 said - search motorcycle line art - stick with something simple and you don't really need to overdo the detail in something as small as a checkbook cover. But I've gotta chime in - it's an awesome gesture for you to do this! Gotta love a two wheelin' granny!!! That's awesome! Bill

Do they look like stretch marks, maybe? Bill

I'm experimenting with this lately. Once I get back to 8hour days and 5day weeks I'll be able to work with it some more. Bill

I may be interested in that rose knife....

Yes.

Some have suggested in the past, using kitty litter (fresh, not used) and bury the work in it ... It's pretty absorbant stuff and can draw out some of the oil.

Looks good and quite usable! Wonder if a side release buckle would be the way to go on the straps? It's too tight, tho - it's cutting off circulation to your fingers and turning them blue. Bill

Wickett and Craig have tooling leather in black. Most other black veg tan such as bridle, harness or latigo can take an impression but only barely and with varying degrees of success... You really have to work at it, and wouldn't want to try too much with it. Good looking bag and belt, bynelson!

Great work! Gotta love it when your friends and neighbors get to see and appreciate your work. Bill

Blue green center is usually a give away that it is chrome tanned.

I can't imagine that belt would be very effective in any case - it looks like the act of walking would quickly work the gun loose and drop it. Yup. That's exactly what happened. I'd assume he left the safety off, or tried to turn it off as he was drawing. He was a brilliant bowler, but apparently not so well trained in firearms. Not surprisingly he didn't talk about it as far as I know, but in a small town, things like that get out. He was the subject of jokes for quite a long time.

I dunno ... If it goes off there the damage is more or less superficial. In the town where I grew up, long ago and far away ... we had a former pro tour bowler who bought a bowling alley that kept getting broken into, and the police were at a loss to find out how or stop it. So the owner decided to spend his nights there for awhile and catch the burglars. One night he heard the burglars coming in through a ventilation shaft from the roof and went out to try to apprehend them - and in the process fired the pistol that he was keeping in the waistband of his slacks, removing parts of his anatomy. He never had kids thereafter, and interestingly enough seems to have lost some of his vanity along with body parts as he shortly thereafter stopped wearing the toupee he had always worn previously. Bill

Just my opinion, but I'd go a little cheaper on a coarse stones- You only use them occasionally to establish the initial edge, or to clean up dings from dropped/damaged edges. Something that you don't need to do often. Finer stones should be better quality - you'll use them for edge maintenance far more frequently. Stones all should be flat for a real precision edge. By the time you get to the strop, you're only removing a tiny amount of metal to produce a finely polished edge, so I wouldn't get overly concerned about flatness. The leather will have a little give anyway, and again, you're removing very little metal there - just enough to polish and knock off the burr from stones. The experts may have a different take on things, but that's how I see it! Bill

I have bought from goodsjapan a couple of times and have been pleased. I have not yet bought from leathercrafttools, but many here have and have had good things to say, so won't hesitate to buy from them. Where I would be careful, tho, would be in buying something that has to match, and leathercrafttools doesn't tell you what the brand name is. Stitching chisels would be an example - if you have a four tooth Seiwa 3mm stitching chisel and decide to get the two tooth and six tooth versions - you need to be sure that you are getting Seiwa and not some other brand in order to get a match. Leathercrafttools doesn't always tell you what brand you are getting. The two also have different items in some cases. Goodsjapan sells Tokonole which I have used and is an excellent edge burnishing agent, but not available from leathercrafttools. While many of the Japanese and some Chinese tools are excellent, to some extent, I agree with @WoodysWorkshop and really like the old American and European tools. You do have to be careful when buying these from eBay, tho. There is a LOT of useless rusty old junk out there marked as "Patina", "Primative", "Rustic"(more like rusty), "Antique" and "Vintage". You also can't always easily tell which of these have been modified from their original form from the pictures on eBay - sometimes a problem, sometimes not. Nearly none of these have any "Collector value" if they are not in usable condition. More often than not, you'd do better to buy from BruceJohnsonLeather(member and sponsor here) and know what you are getting. His website can also give you some idea of what prices you should be looking at MAX on eBay. Some of those old tools also do not have any modern equivalent available. So, there's a lot to consider! Bill

Welcome to the obsession. No doubt buying that seat would've been far less expensive, but then again, the pride of making is yourself is priceless as is working with your daughter! Bill

Once again, awesome and very original work! Bill

Looks pretty darn good to me! Worth the blood sacrifice! Bill

Lookin' good so far! Bill

I haven't tried Angelus, but do use Fiebings. Bill