Dan28

The Navy used to have three locations for boot camp, that I know of. Great Lakes was always the largest I think. My dad went there in the 60s as well as a buddy of mine who joined at the same time as me. They also had one in San Diego and the one I went to in Orlando. San Diego had closed before I went in. I knew Nukes had the best reenlistment bonuses as well as the accelerated advancement when I was in, but things change so I wasn't sure if it was still that way. I still keep in touch with a few friends I meant who stayed in and know from them things change a lot. I didn't think boot camp was that hard. Thou I was in Orlando during their rainy season sucked. It might rain for a minute or two while we were out and we would have to put on our black raincoats, but then the sun would come out and bake us. Great Lakes in January won't be much fun either as it will be the opposite, extremely cold. Though I spent a few deployments in Bosnia winters living in a tent and a couple short times living in a tent in the Mississipi summer and I'll take the cold over the extreme heat, due to the fact I can layer up in the cold.

Thanks. The black dye is Fiebings Professional Oil Dye. The reddish dye is Fiebings Ox Blood (just regular, not "Professional Oil Dye") I ordered them from Springfield Leather who is a sponsor on this site, so you will probably see their banner ads at the top of the page pretty regularly. I'm guessing by the way you spell "colours" you may be outside of the US, so shipping costs may be prohibitive for you, (though Springfield does offer international shipping). I buy the dye I use a lot in larger quantities because it is much much cheaper that way, or instance a 32 oz. bottle vs a 4 oz bottle is probably only about four times the cost, but you get eight times the amount.

Forgot to add the picture I was talking about in the post above.

I tried painting and didn't prep it properly, ie good primer. So of course it flaked off. I since bought a powder coating gun from Eastwood and a small toaster oven and now I get just about any color hardware I want. Powder coat rapid and double cap rivets and then set them, no problem. Powder coating is super strong and isn't going to chip from a few hammer hits. Don't think I could do this with actual copper rivets, due to the way they work since you have to deform them in the setting, but I like the way they look as is. You can also do a search for a website, Strapworks. They sell some powder coated hardware you can use like d rings and slides. For reference, every piece of hardware on this was probably nichol plated, except for the little accent concho on the flap, think it was antique nichol. I powder coated it all, rivets, d rings, bag feet, buckles and the concho an antique copper.

I had this made in brass for $92 and probably $25 of that was for having it expedited. I think it was made in China from somebody's Etsy shop, I think it was "LW Leather Works." I had it in about a week and a half. I use an arbor press to stamp it in. The circle is 1" in diameter. I created the image in Photo Shop and sent it via email The ad said accurate up to half .5 mm but I think it is finer than that as the lines I sent seemed smaller.

I went to boot camp with many future "Nukes". I was one of the last to have boot camp in Orlando Florida before it closed (only 8 companies to go through after mine and they were only a week or two behind me). At the time the Nuke's A-school was located in Orlando too, don't know if that has changed or not. I ended up being a Builder (BU) in the Seabees so I was never on a ship. I was only in for 5 years and was a BU2 (E-5) when I got out. Really enjoyed my time in. Tend to remember the good times more than the bad. Though if I had stayed in, I would have had 20 years in during this past September. Hard to believe how slow I thought that 5 years was going at the time, and how fast the 15 since I got out have flown by.

The leather is 3 to 4 oz Herman Oak, though I'm thinking the parts used were probably closer to 3 than 4. Its the smallest weight I've used for a bag yet. The straps are laminates of 4 to 5 oz. I didn't have a long enough section left for the main strap, as I want to wear it cross body and have it come to my hip. I wanted to also use a strap slide. To get around not having a long enough piece of leather and without having to wait for more leather, I riveted and glued that joining piece to two straps (which are 2 inches). It doesn't have to hold a lot of weight so it should work. I did the piping around the edges in black pig skin, as well as the lining. Althiough I ran out of black pig skin, one section was dark brown pig skin that I dyed black. I tested a small piece and once it dried it looked the same as the rest of my black. Normally I had gotten away from using rapid and double cap rivets in favor of actual copper rivets, but I wanted all the hardware to match on this. I powder coated all my hardware with what was called "antique copper" powder. Besides the color, it also gives it a texture that doesn't really show in the pics. Used black and ox blood dye. Guess the ox blood is becoming my favorite dye. For the two tone straps, I marked a line with a groover and then used blue painters tape to mask off sections of the leather. I did the ox blood portion first thinking that if it bled through the black would cover it. I didn't really have much bleed through though. Once the painters tape is on, you want to keep the entire strap on a flat surface, as I noticed if it flexed the tape would lift slightly in spots when it was flattened again. When I did the black portions, I applied it in light strokes brushing from tape to leather so as not to "push" dye up under the tape.

Decided to make myself a laptop bag.

thanks Moni\ca. Its a Christmas gift so my neice doesn't even know about it yet. The Ox Blood one is for my little sister. I did a similar one for my nephew, but have gotten a little better and a few more tools since then. I'm making all my Christmas presents this year. Everything I make is for me or friends and family. Maybe some day I may sell some stuff, but no plans for that right now.

I think the small size makes it even more impressive. Definately recognizable.

I'm a Net Admin for a medium sized law firm (about 25 lawyers) One of our founders has a Saddleback briefcase that pretty much just sits in his office all the time. I've considered copying it myself as it is nice. I actually turned him on to Saddleback as I have one of their iPad cases and he liked mine. Saddleback was also a part of the reason why I finally decided to finally try leather work. Your briefcase is pretty nice. I think you will enjoy it more since you created it yourself and it will be a conversation started for people who ask you about it.

That is so clean looking. I take notice of the faint lines showing depth on the "edges" of the letters.

I like both items. I think the dye on the backpack came out good. I like the look. I use a lot of pigskin for lining and most of it comes from Springfield Leather, though all I have gotten from Springfield has been pre dyed and glazed. I use tan, dark brown, and black and they are all nice. I got some plain veg tan pig skin from my local Tandy, but I didn't like it as much as it was kind of rough and much thicker.

Here is the one I cut out along with the one above. This one is for my niece who loves pink. The dye is Angelus Light Rose which really comes out pink to me.