TwinOaks

Very nice, Uwe!! Thank you for making this instructional vid.

If you can't find them locally, you might check with some of the sponsors of the site. There are ad banners at the top of the page.

A convex edge is most easily attained through "slack belt" sharpening. Or, having enough give in the belt that the pressure from the blade creates the radius (I know.... it's a complex radius). Though, I must admit.....it's just easier to buy once, cry once. One of the makers listed above was misspelled- it's Knipschield (knipknives.com)

In your analyses, I hope that you don't overlook the pH of leather as a contributing factor. Most veg tanned leathers will have a slightly acidic pH. That acidity may have a prohibitive effect on the oxidation. You might look into how the collagen in the leather fibers interacts with the oil, too.

It is a very basic sheath style holster, often comprised of a single piece of leather that's folded around the gun. Depending on the size of the gun, you may opt to do all the molding on only one side of the holster so that only a flat panel is facing "out". That's to minimize "gun shaped printing" through clothes. The same criteria as other holsters applies: The user can get a full grip while the gun is in the holster. The holster fully covers the trigger, but not the mag release. The holster needs to keep the gun in the same position, all the time- no wiggling around. The holster needs to cleanly release the gun when drawn to a certain point. You can play with the shape and/or texture of the exterior to give it more "stays in the pocket" when the gun is drawn. Rough out is a good way to start...and you don't need to line the holster.

Yeah, that's a LOT deeper set than most of the common awl blades (Tandy sized). Thanks for the update on what it took.

There's several things you can do to the flesh side to make it smoother. The simplest way is to simply slick down the flesh side using a combination of coating, pressure, and friction. Apply something like gum trag, and rub with a burnishing stick until it's smooth. You could also sand it first, depending on whether or not the back is stringy or if it's kinda soft like suede. In severe cases of the flesh side being really stringy, you may be better off by slicing the majority of the stringy leather off with a skiver. If the back is kinda smooth, but is really hard (the 'crackly' description) it is likely a pasted back. That will benefit from sanding before slicking. You can use a variety of tools to do this, but I've found that an electric random orbital sander really speeds things up. Remember to step through the grits, ending at 400 or 600.

You can use veg tan and make a dress belt. If you decide to line it, simply bond and stitch two thinner straps together so that you have the grain side out for both sides of the belt. Then bevel, slick, dye, and seal the edges. You can take a look on this site at "gun belts" and see the process...you'd just be using thinner leather. Bob Park (Hidepounder) has a tutorial for finishing edges that's pinned in the 'how do I do that?' section. There are multiple belt tutorials that describe correct measuring.

Fantastic piece of history!

If you're going into production, then yes you can get the things to make a pair of sneakers....but to only make one pair? The anecdote about free milk from a cow comes to mind. I'm not saying it can't be done, mind you, but I think you'll have significantly more time and materials involved than you may expect. Would you be able to take them to a shoe repair store and have them resoled?

Thank you for the introduction, and welcome to the best site on the internet!

I think it was put on by roller, dry brush accents, and then the black dye/paint was added to the background.

Location of the machine?

For peening the rivet posts, you need to have a REALLY solid surface to hammer against...an anvil or similar surface with a lot of mass is recommended. Start the rounding with the hammer to get it mashed down, then switch to the domed portion of the setting tool to finish smoothing it out.

Just make sure you strip the core out of the paracord so that it lays flat. Of course, you CAN braid it with the core, but it'll lay and pull a bit differently than flat 'lace'.

There are several tutorials at http://myriam.dakotabraiding.com As far as the tassel, I think you could end the plaiting with a crown knot, Then, if needed, cover that with a turkshead or pineapple. If you want the knot to stay flat, check out the gaucho knots.

Motor oil is NOT for leather....unless you built a leather engine. The leather will certainly soak it up, but it will wick through the leather until a uniform distribution of the oil is achieved...unfortunately, it'll also uniformly leech OUT of the leather. Good luck with the experiment.

You first need to know HOW it was tanned. If it's a 'raw white leather', that gets really stiff when dry, you've likely got a deer rawhide.....which is one of the steps to getting the hide to leather, but it isn't done yet. check into that, and let us know

all around best grease, dirt, stain, dye, and gunk remover for hands.......french fries.

It could make a pretty nice burnisher motor, too.

Cut strip of each type of leather, apply contact cement, bond layers together. Stitch for reinforcement. Paint edges, punch holes, attach buckle. Granted that's a bit OVER simplified, but it does cover all the bases. You might try searching for variations on "lining a belt with chrome tanned leather". I know it's been done by multiple people, and by specifying "chrome tanned" you'll remove a lot of the search results that would pop up with double layer belts (like gun belts)

I used to have that problem too. Then I re-read the glue instructions for the cement (Weldwood) and it specified a thin layer on both pieces, which should be dry but tacky before bringing together. I started spreading the glue on with a pallette knife (or putty knife) and letting it dry out a bit more, and now when I put the pieces together, there is no squeeze out. Perhaps that might work with your cement, perhaps not, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

ONE "I have _____ for sale" topic per item is enough, and it should be posted in the appropriate location. Two in one location, and a third in a completely different 'for sale' section is too confusing, especially for the same thing. So, I decided to be helpful and have moved all of them into one neat and tidy location! Now, anyone who's looking to buy some can find all the posts on this in one place. If you have updates on your inventory, you can post them in this thread, and if you simply need to 'refresh' it after a week or 5, then a simple "bump" post will bring it back to the top of the "new content" feature.

Here's the reason for my suggestion to be certain of which metal(s) are in the mix: I was using a dauber to apply one of my batches, and left the dauber in the jar. The next time I used it, the brew produced a green-ish black. I checked the dauber and the galvanized wire was showing signs of corrosion. Prior to the dauber being in the mix, it only produced black. The results were the same on additional pieces from the same double shoulder, as well as completely different pieces of leather.