ChuckBurrows

Here's some brass and copper patina formulas........ http://www.sciencecompany.com/patinas/patinaformulas.htm You can also use "home" chemicals such as onion juice and vinegar to dunk them in. Warming the metal first can help speed things up....Or fume with ammonia. Take a look at my site - www.wrtcleather.com and you can see some of the various looks you get........ Hope this helps.......

If you want your W & C firmer just ask them to double or triple plate it - it firms up nicely. Also the 8/10 oz tooling is firmer than the 8/10 oz skirting.....

The main body of these was stained with coffee - extra dark roast instant - one jar of crystals boiled in two jars of distilled water......they've been aged but the color is pretty close to what they started out as......

And another article not just crafters but all kinds of businesses.......http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-thri...0,2083247.story "do gooders" making the laws with a lack of common sense - also another way to make money for the guv'mint........this new bunch are REAL good at that.....

Howdy Jonny - You might also check with the leather crafters on http://www.britishblades.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=5 They often list suppliers in England, FRance, etc. hope this helps.......

rub it on then use a hairdryer to get it to "soak" in........

Thanks all - I've got a gent who bought my DVD and was wondering where to get one. Actually I've built a couple using the replacement heads, iron pipe, with large washers and nuts and used some lead to get the weight what I wanted. I then covered the pipe handle with leather......it's still one of my favorites......I've tried the poly/nylon heads, but just don;t care for them......too old and set in my ways I reckon...

Too much snow and too much work to get done kept me from getting back soonly - glad ya'll enjoyed the looks see and the very kind words - this type of work is my real "passion" these days........... Howdy - yep that one and a couple of others are quilled. If you're interested in quilling I'd start with the www.nativetech.org site - they have the basic info and several good books are listed as well - William Orchard's is pretty much a must have and I like Jean Heinbuch's too. There are some fairly significant tribal/are style and color differences so if you really want to get into you'll need to do some research - there are several good on line sites that can help and a bunch of books. To do quill or beadwork for that matter, you're going to need some braintan, which is expensive, or a good and less expensive alternative is the German Tan from www.crazycrow.com. If you decide to go the braintan route let me know and I can recommend some folks who do it "right". For quills I recommend to start with the pre-dyed quills from Crazy Crow or Moscow Hide and Fur www.hideandfur.com - you'll still have to separate the quills and clip the barbs, but it gets you started right off - I recommend just doing a bunch of practice pieces using the various stitches - spend a good deal of time on the basic stitches first to get the feel of working with the little buggers........good luck and if I can help just give a shout out to me here........

Any retail suppliers out there for rawhide mauls especially the handles? Tandy/LF has the the Al Stohlman brand but at a pretty hefty retail price........ Any help is most appreciated...

Glad ya'll enjoyed the look see.... Drum roll.......ta da - leather dye - I use Fiebings Spirit dyes in various mixes to get what colors I want - this was IIRC thinned dark brown, followed by rubbing down with 4/0 steel wool, and then a coat of my own home made violin varnish - a pretty good substitute is Tried & True's Oil Varnish.....

I've still got a few of my late compadre, Gib Guignard's hand forged blades so I handled up this 4 1/2" dag style using a pair of coyote jawbones with buffalo rawhide wrap. The neck sheath is braintan over a bark tan liner and the neck piece is braintan with red trade wool liner. The sheath is decorated with denatalium shells, glass, copper, and brass beads, fringe, tin cone and buffalo hair dangles. anyway a little Christmas eye candy - may you all have a VERY Happy Holidays.................

Rhome - beautiful work! A note - if you're not getting real good black add some tannins - brew up some real strong black tea and either apply first and then immediatley add apply the vinegaroon or mix the two....... I don't think I ever left.......

Is there an on-line link?

Glad ya'll enjoyed the look see - as an added bonus to buying my DVD or DVD's you can contact me directly if you have any other questions - being a "one" man shop I can't always answer immediately but be patient and I will.......also I visit here almost daily so......

yep - my main reason to do the baking soda "neutralizing" step - while it may not be necessary I find that it helps set the color to black and does the oiling....... It can also depend on the tannins in the leather since the color in this case is a reaction between the iron and the tannins - if need be give it a good soak in strong black tea to add tannins.........

Well FWIW - I don't - for things like walnut hulls, juniper, berries, logwood, etc. I just boil in water.....and yes I've experimented with it and in some cases it may act as a mordant though - look up natural dyes - most info is for cloth but there's some good ideas that can be adapted to leather.... The reason for the vinegar when mixing with iron is to "free up" the iron which is what is the actual "colorant" - actually you can do the same thing by soaling iron in plain water - it just takes much longer.....

Glad ya'll enjoyed the look see....... regarding the stitching...... It's an old leather crafter's technique called hidden stitching. You very, very CAREFULLY cut a 45° angled slot along the edge and separate the two pieces. They used to make a specialized knife to do do it with (maybe still do?), but I just do it by hand and eye. Then using a curved awl and needle you sew it all up along the bottom of the slot. After it's sewn you glue things back together and voila! Much easier said than done though. In this case it's a variation on the original technique wherein BOTH sides of the thread are hidden - I developed this variant style and call it half hidden. When I used to do shows it would really get the folks to scratching their heads! Lots of double takes.... For those who would like to see the original technique illustrated I HIGHLY recommend the book "Art of Handsewing Leather" by Al Stohlman. A must for anyone interested in leather craft....

Those who know my work, know I generally work in a western American Frontier style, either recreations of original pieces or more often than not these days work inspied by those originals - in this case I tried something completely different as Monty Python once said..... In this case a beautiful east meets west knife by ABS mastersmith Bill Burke gets an east meets west sheath by yours truly...... The lower section carving was inspired by the carving on an original Japanses sword - the upper section is a rayskin overlay wrapped with black silk cord ala a Katana. The belt loop has a rayskin inlay.......pictures aren't the best - there's a lot of texture and color nuances that just didn't captured i.e the lower leather is an oxblood wash over a black ground and the rayskin surrounding the natural white diamond is burgundy...... Anyone note the "hidden surprise".......

Advertsising hooey maybe? but a heat hardened leather aka cuir bouilli leather holster probably would hold up that way...a coat or two of oil generally won't soften cb to any real degree since properly made cb actually changes the leather at the molecular level...I've made recreations of original cb armour that will in fact stop a knife stab and even a sword stroke........ as to liking it or not - one man's meat and all that....on the other hand I can't see an overwhelming need for such a stiff holster and I've made a bunch of holsters for such "hard users" as LEO's, military, and pro hunting guides over the last 45+ years......

another suggestions from someone who has used a lot of elk and deer over the years: pre-stretch it before cutting - wet it, wring it out real well, and then either make a frame out of two by sizes and lace it on on what I do its naile it up to the side of my shed and let it set out for 72 hours weather permitting.. Two of the best sources I know of for deer and elk are: www.hideandfur.com of Colorado Leather goods - 719-633-8722 , they both offer elk and deer in many other colors bisdes the typical orange/yellow and at real good prices Here's pics of an 1870' style "scout" coat I built some while back out of elk....... A coat like this in elk (typically 5-6 oz) is heavy, deer (typically 2-3 oz) would have been a better choice in my opinion. The color is not a stock color - I started with a light tan then smoked and aged it to get this color. FWIW - it's hand sewn too - I don't own a machine...... Another alternative is the German Tan leather from Crazy Crow, a bit more expensive, but a great substitute for real brain tan........ Here's some britches made from it...

Not too shabby for a first attempt - nice over all job just need to tweak things a bit....... A how-to for a Mexican loop style which can be easily adapted to other types of loops.. http://www.wrtcleather.com/1-ckd/mexloop/_mexloop.html A pouch style sheath tutorial http://www.knivesby.com/dan-sheath-tutor-1.html The back side illustrating what Texas Jack a saying........fwiw - I much prefer (and so do my customers) an added loop rather than a one piece since I can get a much better fit on the blade, but the other option when making a one piece is is to turn the loop to the inside rather than to the back - skive heavily at the bottom edge on the flesh side for about one inch - to one and a half inch, glue so that 1-1.5" is down inside the sheath, then sew up the edges when you add the front piece (hope that makes sense - if you like at my Mex loop ho-to it sshows it sort of) Hope that helps........

Any vinegar will work.........

It's basically what Buffalo Brother's conchos are made from and they hold up quite well to normal wear and tear.........lso I cast pewter parts for knife handles (as has been done for a couple of hundred years at least) and when not abused they wear just fine.......

W & C also make light skirting in the 8/10 oz range which complicates things even more. According to W & C the difference is in how they are finished i.e the amount of oil/type of oil added during the currying process. Skirting in this case is a bit oilier than the Tooling/Holster which is a bit drier and therfore generally not quite as supple...........

A couple of notes: 1) Vinegaroon aka ferric acetate is not technically a dye - it is a chemcial reagent where in it reacts with the tannins in the leather in order to change the color at the molecular level. 2) Dyes and stains are different critters altogether - they are essentially pigments, generally mineral or vegeatble, in a carrier - the difference between the two is dyes are pigments mixed with a carrier and stains are the same but also include a binder/fixative. On the other hand some folks consider dyes as being generally based on ground up mineral pigments and stains being based on vegetable matter such as leaves, barks, berries, etc. Leather dyes are powdered pigments in a carrier - the pigment that doesn't penetrate or later leeches out is what causes ruboff. That's why you need to seal with a fixative. Cedar water becomes dark due to the leeching of it's vegeatble pigment into the water along with the tannins. Like tea, coffe, or walnut hulls the intensity will be based on teh concentration of those two items. Try boiling some of the cedar in the already stained water for a while, strain off the liquid, and then reduce it - you should get a stronger solution. Then try dipping into warm water mixed with baking soda for a moment or two - the baking soda acts like a fixative and helps bond the color to the leather and will also help darken the leather by reacting with the tannins in the same way as the vinegaroon. Start with a tablespoon or two to a quart of water. And as always experiment on scrap from the same hide...... hope this helps......