Meleck

These things are works of art. The art of looking good while working. Love them.

Could you please let me peek as well? I want in.

Very stable lathe and very sharp tools. I wouldn't dream of turning this thin. The thing would blow up on me and pieces would be flying with a plethora of religious words. Even if I am a wood turner, I'm not trying to match your tool. It's easier and quicker for me to just buy them. Order was placed yesterday.

As hobbies, I am a woodturner as well as a leatherworker and the Salad Bowl finish would be available anywhere wood turning tools are sold. The ones that I know who carry it would be Lee Valley in Canada and Penn State Industries (well) in the States. The Lee Valley is just a wax so may not be what you are looking for. The Penn State does cure so I figure it would be more adequate as a hot liquid finish. Another thing that I have learned is that an epoxy finish (such as Envirotex) can be victim to a very powerful solvent which is phenol. Phenol is present in wines that are less than a year to a year and a half old. If you drink wine in a epoxy finished glass, it will have a very strong taste of epoxy. That was reported to me by a professional wood turner with numerous wooden wine glasses sold all over the world. He has never had any problems with his glasses except when used with "new" wines. I thought I would share that with you.

I still have boxes but I started using tubes stacked one on top of another. In there I roll my scraps so that at a glance I can tell what is the color and type of leather sticking out. There is some loss in between the tubes but if I have a thin leather, I try to roll it and stick it in these little interstice (it's English, I checked). I can then cover them with a curtain. To make a very bad pun. I roll it tight and stick it where the sun don't shine. And it's a good thing.

Is that for LARP or for SCA type arrows? I thought it was big for a hunting or even a 3D-competition quiver. Is the other "pouch" for the boffer weapon?

What do you mean your style? Hell, this is top notch work. Not surprised you won. I haven`t seen good looking frog like that often. They remind me of frogs by Peter Main. And I`m not making the comparison lightly.

The question might have seemed a little bit weird but there are sharpening helpers that you place between the blade and the sharpening surface (such as those for plane irons or the one for swivel blades). I just wanted to make sure that I understood exactly what you meant. As a wood turner, I might try that.

Is that tool used above the blade? Or, does it go between the blade and the sander? I'm not sure I understand how to use it.

They look great. If you came up with the scroll work, then congratulation on these designs. Anyway, your tooling is great. My favorite is the board pouch.

These books are a set that does come on special regularly. And when on special, they sometimes have a bundle price if you do buy all three. I already have the first two and I agree that they do have a lot of information on how to do stuff that isn't related to cases. These books are some of the best leatherworking books around. The one that I find is a must for every starting leatherworker is The Leathercrafts Tools book. You just can't do without this one. Both as a book on techniques, what tools to buy and how to use them. The other one that I really like is the Art of Hand Sewing. Just my 2 cents.

Dude, with the quality and beauty of this armor. Why would you want it to be the last one and deprive people of owning such a work of art? Aside from the fact that there seems to be a lot of tooling on this thing. Just the background is extensive work...

I'm always in awe at what Mr Main can come up with. By Jove, I think the inside of his belts surpass by a strong margin the outside of 80% of the belts out there. I'm always impressed by the attention to detail and the artistry of these projects. I always think that the projects are great but then I'll catch a little detail that will just blow me away. Thanks a lot for keeping the bar to such an awesome level.

WOW. My son who collects dragons would LOVE that belt. I like the touch where the dragon claws are "over" the stiching.

I do have the pack and I've never actually opened it. Guess I'll have to do that this week-end. Have you ever had a Period Pattern? If you are interested in that period, the patterns actually come with a lot of historical information to document their choice in patterns. So you don`t just have the pattern but the source and date of that particular pattern. For some people, that's very important. If you're the type that likes to tinker by making their own pattern, I'm not sure the pattern is worth it. If you're not the type to make patterns or want to have something that is historically accurate (or at least properly researched), I think the package is worth it. There are other patterns on the net for pouches for free and you can easily "inspire" yourself by looking at other pouches on the net. Here is a tutorial with pictures (it`s in French) about making an "aumoniere" (or large pouch) if you want a free pouch pattern that looks medieval Trollcalibur: Aumoniere tutorial. It`s from a LARP site but I've worn by pouch in a number of medieval events with compliments on my pouch.

Sweat wallet. I like the matching style for the inside. Very good work.

It's THE sickest tool box I've ever seen. It's GEORGEOUS. I do have a question, what is the glass plate on the left of the first and last pictures? Is that the 4" slicker?

It`s a rather special looking blade. I say the scabbard fits perfectly in terms of look. Has a slightly "Tron" look.

That`s a nice looking damascus blade. I like the guard. And it`s a nice sheath design. I like the fact that you can take the knife off the belt without needing to get it out of the sheath.

What are the two crescent shape knives in the bottom left corner? These look like a good alternative to a round knife.

If you have to press hard on the blade to cut through leather, I figure it's because your knife isn't sharp enough. I've cut through 10oz vegetable tanned leather with an exacto knife with no problem. It was strooped before hand and I'll stroop as soon as the knife doesn't cut clean. A strooping board here is your best friend. They are easy to make and are worth 10 times their cost.

My sister-in-law is looking for a leathercrafting "bible" to offer as a christmas gift for my brother. A book that covers the basic techniques without necessarily covering projects. Right now, my brother isn't much into leather carving. I recommended the Leathercraft Tools Book from Al Stolhman as I think it covers a lot of techniques for quite a lot of tools. I was wondering about the Leatherwork Manual because I have never looked at this manual so I can't comment on it. Are there any other suggestions on a very good basic leathercrafting manual?

Bearman, I got your PM and thanks a lot for the information. I would have sent a PM myself but your inbox is full. No wonder with work like that you probably do get a lot of emails. I agree that the acorn nut at the end doesn't look that great but it's probably easier to tighten. I looked for that integral captured nut and I couldn't find anything under that. The reference for the bolt size is worth a lot. It's great info. It would be interesting to see a maul before it's assembled. That would give me (and probably others) a lot of information on its fabrication. I love what you did to embellished up the washers and the bolt head. All that pounding is that little something that looks easy but isn't really and makes one hell of a difference. Again thanks a lot for the info. Now I have to gather the ingredients and set myself to work on the lathe.

Truly nice mallets. And the stand is great. As a woodturner myself, I love to do mallets. It's sorta my kicks these days. Where do you get your hardware. I can see the washers at the top and the bottom of the "vinyl" part but I'd be hard pressed to figure out what you used at the top and bottom of the actual mallet. And what do you use for the striking part and where do you get it? Thanks a lot. Even for just doing them as they are great inspiration pieces.

After testing the link, I went to see if the site had anything new. They do have an article on crafting a leather mallet. It's basicaly the same technique that I used with the cutting board but they are using vegetable tanned leather instead. Here is the link: Small Mallet Tutorial Page 1.