billybopp

There are a number of good videos on youtube for carving and tooling. Search for Bruce Cheaney and Keith Valley - Cowboy Saddlery .. And there are others as well. Hope that helps Bill

The Dixon / Blanchard (and others) type pricking irons are designed mostly to mark the location and orientation of the holes for you to open up with an awl, however they can be used to go all the way through. The type shown above are probably more properly known as strap punches, and are designed to put a hole all the way through, however with a lighter tap they can be used just to mark location and orientation for your awl to pierce. Hope that helps more than confuses Bill

What Dwight was talking about in point 4 is a good principal to know all around in leather work and other design as well. When you have a "valley" in a piece of relatively thin material, any pulling apart of the two "legs" will put ALL of the stress right at the very point of the "V". If that is re-designed as a "U" that same stress will be spread over a much wider area so that it is less likely to tear. It's exactly the same principal that is in action when you make credit card slits in a wallet and place a round punch at the ends. The very same principal is used in sheet metal work and any number of other disciplines. Hope that helps Bill

It's so darned convenient having our own resident anthropologist/archaeologist. The things you learn! Bill

A nice smooth flat concrete surface might work. It wouldn't be terribly expensive to find out! However, a granite or marble piece from a countertop place, or from a grave marker place might be cheaper ( if not free ), and would certainly work. Once in awhile grave marker makers mess up a headstone and can't make other use of the thing and just want rid of it. I got my marble from a kitchen that was being remodeled and it works great. Bill

OMG. You're right, that's hysterically funny! Clearly the software is NOT geared up for a UK accent. LOL!!

Hmmm... Just a thought, but why not make the pouch as a totally separate piece (you can sew it inside out then) and attach it to the bigger bag with heavy snaps, or some other secure means that will leave it removable. That way when the user wants to carry just the clutch, they can just take it off. Bill

I paint a lot of letters for the mug wraps that I make. It's not all that hard to do, but does take some practice and a moderately steady hand (don't be well caffeinated when doing fine paintwork). You can use leather dyes or acrylic paint. Limit the amount of paint or dye on your brush by wiping it on a piece of paper or better a piece of scrap leather. This will help to avoid dyes spreading too much to areas where you don't want it, and in the case of paint keeps the coat relatively thin with less spillover to where you don't want paint. Paint will give you more vibrant colors than dyes will, and in the case of white and gray the dyes are about useless. Some paint colors will look better if you first put on a ground coat of white paint, others not so much. I like to use a #3 filbert style brush for 3/4" letters, with a #00 round brush for those really tight corners. Leather acrylics work best. I've used Tandy Cova Color, but others swear by Angelus paint. I have also used Liquitex art acrylics, but they are a bit trickier. For my stuff, after I've painted and allowed stuff to dry well, I then paint a couple of layers of dye resist on the paintwork, and allow that to thoroughly dry. Over all dye is applied at this point if desired, trying to avoid painted areas as much as possible. Then a coat of finish such as resolene or leather sheen over the entire piece and allow that to dry. Then, an antique paste is worked in well so that it settles down into the impressions in the letters, etc. Excess antique is removed, and allowed to dry, then a couple of coats of finish. As an aside, another interesting option for letters and other impressions is gilding. It's not easy, but the result can be really cool! Here are a few pieces that I've made recently. This one has silver gilded letters and tree, with green dye amongst the celtic knots top and bottom, and acrylic paint on the beard pullers. In this case, I didn't protect the gilding well enough and some rubbed off when I applied the antique, but I decided that I like the worn look and kept it! Hope that helps! Bill

Really nice work! And certainly nicer than the piece of cardboard that I taped to my arm when Mom wouldn't pay $10.00 for a proper arm-guard when I was a kid! Bill

T-bones on the grill?? I'll be right over!

Thanks for posting both videos! I love seeing "pure" mechanical things at work, so I'm a big fan of steam engines, big round aircraft engines and such, particularly when they have style and grace that modern machinery lacks. I have a 1940's or 1950's vintage Singer 221- that belonged to my mom and grandmother. It's a tiny little machine, but it still works and I still use it from time to time despite having a recent machine. There's just something cool about that old machine. I'm still willing to bet the Campbell legal department makes them include a legal disclaimer sheet the size of a book .. And after watching the video I'm wiling to bet that one of the items in it is "Hearing protection MUST be worn". LOL Bill

LOL. Croc or gator, it looks great either way. Bill

It's always amazing to see how sturdy-made and beautifully decorated some of these old machines are. And also how dangersous! LOL. Can you imagine any manufacturer today building a machine with so many exposed moving parts? Somebody would find a way to put a hand where it didn't belong and sue within a week of the first machine being installed. I guess the world changes. Bill

I use line 20 on 3-4 oz veg tan all the time for the mug wraps that I make. They are not really stressed in that application, tho. And they are considerably "tighter" than glove snaps. I think that if I were to use them on something that takes more stress, I'd back the area with a leather washer to help protect the project from the sharpish edges on the snap. Hope that helps Bill

Really nice!

It's all wrinkly! Almost like it's made of aligator or somethin'.

Awl blades very in width, length, and profile, and can affect stitching. Awl handle sizes can vary significantly, which is mostly important for how it fits your hand. Awl blade length, width and profile also vary greatly. The left is a Tandy 4 in 1, the right a Tandy 1 1/4" awl, and the middle three are three sizes of Seiwa awl. You can clearly see that the left awl .. sometimes referred to a saddler's awl or a wing awl has a significant taper to the blade and will make a larger hole on the entry side of the leather than on the exit side. It also requires precise depth control to maintain the same hole size on the entry side. The right awl is also tapered, but not nearly so much as the first. The middle three are straight sided and will make the same size hole through both sides of the leather, and are the ones I prefer to use. Also of note, the Seiwa awls arrived in a nearly usable state and required very little work to make very sharp. The other two required quite a lot of work to make usable. Hope that helps Bill

http://springfieldleather.com/40707/Calfskin%2CTooling%2CNatural%2C2-3oz/

I believe the Springfield leather will sell in small amounts. Check their website.

She will love it.

LOL. There are 1001 file extensions out there(and then a bunch more for good measure). And even us pros don't know what ALL of them are. If you don't know, don't delete it! Bill

It looks like skiving did the trick on the corners. The edges don't look bad either. If you wanted to finish them a little more thoroughly, you could experiment with edge coats. Fiebings makes a clear edge coat to which you can add dyes to get just the color that you want. Others have added dye to Tan Kote, I believe with good results. Those may be worth a try, although I have not tried them. I'd certainly experiment on a scrap piece first, tho. Bill

Very nice indeed!