SCOUTER

NICE JOB! Love the dual color lacing! Awesome!

Very nice design on both the kife and sheath, I like the one handed sheath release- sweet!

Beautiful work and GREAT lacing!

Bruce, Beautiful job all around! Amazing stitching! I too have had blotching problems, in fact my last gun rig came out so un-even that I re-dyed the entire project BLACK. Now that seems to cover ok!

As always Don beautiful work! Looks soft and comfortable! Thanks for posting!

Bravo Marlon! Great Work as always!!!!!!!!!!

OUTSTANDING!

Welcome! Believe it or not this dilemma is more common then you think! The more you work with Leather the more you will want to try new projects and eventually you will want some nice stitiching to finish off a proiject. Hand stitching is by far the best way to assemble projects, however it is an art. Those that can do it well deserve praise because it takes time, effort and skill to make good looking stitches. Machine stitching is the next best choice but many machines are costly and do involve a bit of a learning curve. If you are doing small projects like a Knife sheath or small case you can get by with hand stitching, but if you plan to do belts or bigger projects a machine can be a blessing. Here is what i found to be the basics; Hand Stitching- A good awl, needles, good thread, bees wax, Al Stolhmans book on Hand Stitching, Stitching horse cost to start about $60- Tipmann Boss- An entry level machine that you can learn on is easy to operate and when you are ready to move up to a better machine you can sell for very close to what you paid for it! Cost $1400- Artisan Leather StitcherToro 3000- The "Cat's Pajamas" for crafters. The machine that everyone loves! Will do everything you need and more Cost- $2200- Whatever you choose good luck and remember to have fun!

A very nice "clean" design! Nice stitching!

WOW! Nice work! Mules rule!

Chuck should know, he has been kicking out awesome stuff for years! Great topic!

JBIRD, Nice work... Question- Do you use any backing when tooling? (Backing like tape, rubber-cemented cardboard, plexiglass...) Are you tooling the belt as it is?

Timbo! Awesome rig! Great stitching, tooling and COLOR! Very nice work! I also noticed a sweet canteen on that pretty Paint. Did you make that also? Where was that pic taken? In CO or MO? Great work and thanks for posting!

Kevin, It's always so nice to see your stuff! What an inspiration!

Hans- Great item to fool with! I have that same twisted DNA strand- Over-do-it! We are not alone! It's funny because I had just about all i could handle after Years of collecting and then, like you, people pass away and you aquire their stuff! I have a tough time throwing good stuff away but now I am tripping over it! My good friend told me a saying that stayed with me forever. "It's easier to buy then to sell" I should tattoo that on my arm! Good Luck! P.S. It's always a few months after you get rid of someting that you NEED it.