BillB

I received my Artisan Toro 3000 last week. I did not buy any extra feet and have since ordered the. The standard machine comes with the "Left Side" foot. You can get: Center Groover ($95); Right Side ($85); Double Toe ($90); Blanket Outside ($69); Blanket Inside ($55). The standard needle plat is curved with an open slot for the bottom smooth surface drive to work through. You can get Slotted ($85); Stirrup ($157); Holster ($154); Blanket ($70). Mine also came with the Swing out roller edge guide as part of the package. I also bought the optional Work Platform to give me the option of having a flat work surface. It is easy to attach and easy to remove.

Rick, Glad I could help. I also use Tandy Cova Dye as well as their new Eco-Flow Hi-Lite stains. I use them for different effects I am trying to accomplish. For example, when I did the Air Force Medal and Air Man insignia I needed something that looked like enamel finish so I used the Cova Dye. For the Native American Totems where I am trying to get the weathered natural look of the art form, I will use the Hi-Lite since it is more of a "wash" appearance. It will also make a good background color where I want to color the background but not the carving so that the carving standout and is not over shadowed by the coloring.

RG, I forgot to mention that Fiebing's offers three classes of dyes: Leather Dye, Professional Oil Dye, and Institutional Leather Dye. I have used all three, all on the same project. Just have to be careful of the alcohol drying the leather out too much.

If you contact Fiebing at www.fiebing.com and click on Leathercraft then scroll down to Leather Dye. This is an achohol based dye but offers more color selection than the oil based Pro Dye. You can get their catalog and oder directly from them. Location is Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. I spent my summers in International Falls, Minnesota at a boys camp (Camp Kooch-i-ching) that my parents worked at (1950-2000) and where I learned to appreciate the Native American Culture (Yes I danced and play the flute) and my winters in Cincy. I married my High School Sweet Heart in 1970 and we are still happily married (38 Years in June). I spent 9 years in the Army Security Agency as a Cryptographer (I broke the bad guys cypher). It was while I was in the Army that I picked up leather carving from my Grandfather. After the Army, I worked in private industry (TRW, HRB SINGER) for 10 years, then was asked to come back into Government Service as a Computer Scientist at the Naval Research Lab. I worked for them for 15 years and now I am a Senior Scientist for the US Air Force. I work at the National Reconnaissance Office building "Spy Satellites". I will retire in 35 months and move to Mid-Western Minnesota (Underwood, just east of Fergus Falls, 1 hour Southeast of Fargo, North Dakota). We have 1 acre on Norway Lake and plan to build a rancher with full basement (shop will go there). We have two children and 5 grandkids, the youngest live in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul Minnesota) with our Son and his wife. Our Daughter, husband and three grandkids are in the process of moving to Orange, Massachusetts. In addition to leather work, I have in the past done woodworking (repairing antiques), wood turning (I have an old cast iron, leather belt drive lathe), clock repair and antique car restoration (1959 Triumph TR3A). After retirement, I plan to get as far away from my current occupation as I can and go back to leather working and other Indian Crafts. PS. I have been a Motorcycle Rider since 1972 and currently ride an HD Road Glide fixed up as an Ultra. To all those Police Officers and Firemen as well as Teachers, Nurses, etc. I take my hat off to you. You are what make this country great.

The Northern Minnesota Camp my parents worked at and I got to attend had on old Singer Sewing Treadle Machine was used to sew leather straps and canvas together, e.g. Duluth Pack repair. The one modification they had made was to put a very hefty electric motor on it since the treadle did not develop enough force on the needle to get through the leather strap. You might want to contact Camp Kooch-i-ching at Kooch-i-ching.org to see if they still have that machine. I know they have been upgrading the facility and the more modern packs no longer use leather straps.

DJole, Here is how I made a cylindrical bag. I used the two needle method and went over each seam twice, once in each direction, to get the stitching affect you see. I also formed the bottom out of the sides. The final bag was formed by pulling it over the appropriately sized spray can.

Russ, I just went through the same decision process. I finally went with the Artisan 3000 with the stand and the added table. When I measured the thickness of the things I worked on I was just inside the limits of the next size down. Having bought power tools that were "just enough" for todays job, then getting into a bigger job latter on and needed an upgrade, I decided to go up a level. It might be over kill right now, but I would rather have the margin than be constantly pushing a machine to its limits. I am also looking at the wear factor. The other factor was that I had the funds on hand to go either way. Good luck with your decision.

Have you considered The Art of Making Leather Cases (Volumes one, two and three) by Al Stohlman. I have all three and there is a wealth of information in these three volumes. Tandy is the publisher and I bought mine through them.

Bob, Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, I was busy doing projects around the house (new flooring). I have a collection of pictures from Camp Kooch-i-ching in International Falls Minnesota. The camp is based on Indian Culture and Tradition. This pictures are of totems, totem poles and shield designs. In addition I use the following books as reference material: Native American Art, David W Penny and George C Longfish, Hugh Lauter Leven Associates, Inc. ISBN 0-88363-479-1 American Indian Design and Decoration, Le Roy H. Appleton, Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN: 0-486-22704-9 North American Indian Designs for Artist and Craftspeople, Eva Wilson, Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN: 0-486-25341-4 Traditional Indian Bead & Leather Crafts, Monte Smith & Michele VanSickle, Eagle's View Publishing, ISBN: 0-943604-14-1 Ojibwa Crafts, Carrie A Lyford, R Schneider Publisher, ISBN:0-936984-01-5 Craft Manual of Northwest Indian Beading, George M White, ISBN: 1-884693-01-6 Northwest Coast Indian Art, An Analysis of Form, Bill Holm, University of Washington Press, ISBN:0-295-95102-8 Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Coast, Hilary Stewart, University of Washington Press, ISBN: 0-295-95645-3 Looking at Totem Poles, Hilary Stewart, University of Washington Press, ISBN: 0-295-97259-9 Totem Poles - An Illustrated Guide, Marjorie M. Halpin, UBC Press, ISBN: 0-7748-0141-7 Robes of Power - Totem Poles on Cloth, Doreen Jensen and Polly Sargent, UBC Press. ISBN: 0-7748-0264-2 Totem Poles of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Edward Malin, Timber Press, ISBN: 0-88192-295-1 Seattles's Totem Poles, Viola Garfield, Thristle Press, ISBN: 0-9621935-4-2 I hope this helps.

John, Welcome to the leatherworker forums. I really like your Kokopelli. On occasion, I play the native american flute.

I don't know if this helps with the history, but wanted to provide the information. As I mentioned in another thread, my Uncle sent me all of his leather craft tools and books. One of those books is: Soldier Handicrafts TM28-325 War Department Technical Manual, June 1945. It turns out that the War Department was teaching arts and crafts as part o the Special Services Program to give soldiers something constructive to do during their off times. The book covers 18 different arts and crafts (in order as presented in the book): Leathercraft, Woodcarving and Whittling, Woodworking, Metal Work, Plastics, Clay modeling, Puppets, Braiding and Knotting, Celluloid Etching, Block Printing, Silk Screen Printing, Poster Design and Lettering, Cartooning, Drawing, Oil Painting, Tempera, Water Color, Mural Painting. It is very interesting reading. For example, did you know that a "Skiver is sheepskin split by a machine into very thin sheets". I always thought it was the tool. This also helps me understand where all the art work came from that is found on the nose of aircraft from WWII. This must have had great influence on these people as they returned to civilian life, yet maintained their hobbies and passed them on to their children. I still remember sitting with my dad (Army Air Corps) and building a plastic model of a B-17 where we had to build the electric motors that would spin the propellers from basic components, including wrapping the wire around the armatures. This then created a whole generation or two of hobbiest that fueled the industry up through the 80's. No wonder we are seeing a decline, there is no similar program today that would yield a similar population of hobbiest.

Just wanted to give you some interesting information on a copy write issue that came up a few years ago dealing with Harley Davidson. HD wanted to take someone to court over their use of the Bar and Shield commonly used by HD. Turns out the Bar and Shield design (not the lettering inside) is actually owned by Pennsylvania Railroad and HD has license to use it. So Penn Railroad told HD they could not take the culprit to court but Penn RR would. So the lesson to be learned is that although you might take the HD Bar and Shield and replace the Harley Davidson with something else, it is the Bar and Shield, itself that is protected. As previously noted about personal use and not resale, I have yet to hear of anyone who does it for personal use only being taken to court.

GH, At my age I have to look down my nose a everyone since that is where my glasses have come to rest. LOL 8-)

Scouter, I agree with Indy, Clay and the others. In the end we are all expressing our artistic expression. Find the style that fits you.

I would like to add a different point of view and that is the decline in any and all Hand Craft Hobbies whether it be leather craft, wood burning, plastic or metal model building or electronics for that matter. If you look at what happened to Tandy, and I remember the store in Baltimore, Md in the 1970s and all the supplies, kits, tools, etc. they had compared to what they have now and look at the other "hobby" industries over the last 30 years in the US and you will find that they have all declined. Since I work in the electronics industry I look around and wonder what happened to Heath Kit, or the Radio Shack kits where you could build your own radio, then later you own computer from the basic components, e.g. chips, resistors, capacitors. Go to a Radio Shack store today and almost all of their piece parts are gone and will never come back. We have grown into a "must have it now, it must be cheap, I will throw it away in less than a year because there is a new model" society. Quality is an interesting issue when you are trying to stay in business in a very small niche market. I recently received my Uncles tools set from the 1940s and 1950s. There is one crafttool that I now have three versions of the same bevel. You can see how the tool head has grown in size over the years. I will keep three because of that size variation. Other than size, the only real difference is in the quality of the chrome plating with the 2000 version being the worst. I don't blame Tandy for that since I also ran into the same problem in restoring my wife's 1959 Triumph TR3A Roadster. To find good chrome plating today means first finding a company that still does chrome plating on metal and not on plastic. Very similar to the problem we now have with finding a tanning company in the US. I better stop my rambling now but want to sum this all up, in MY OPINION and it is CLOUDED with my experience, If you look at what is happening to basic manufacturing industries in the US, and how we have devalued people that work with their hands (except sports figures) we are slowly losing them to foreign countries and what is left are the assembly plants, and service jobs. Time to climb down from the soap box. Thank all of you for letting me ramble on.

Kate, You are correct. It was designed to be used with the Tandy 3-D and Letter stamps and sets. When I bought mine, I also bought the Snap-in Ram foot (#32426-00) This allows one to snap on the Heavy Duty Ramfoot (#8198 it has the four prongs on it). The concept of it is to allow one to get a constant impression depth on large stamps along a large pattern, e.g. a name on a belt. The large center section is actually threaded at what looks like a hex nut just below the lowest pivot bolt. The two metal pieces at the back allows the user to set bottom one for the leather alignment and the upper for the stamp alignment. That way the letters in the name or a matched to the edge.

Paulette J. Thanks for the insight. I will have to give my power washer a try and see how it works out. Again, Thanks and welcome to the forum.

You might want to consider browsing the Free Pattern section of the Tandy Leather Factory Website. Although it may not be exactly what you are looking for, there are lots of free patterns in PDF format and one may have something that will fit the bill.

My recommendation is if at all possible go to where you can actually hold the knife and do some practice cuts. I have tried all of the Tandy knifes and I prefer my Al Stohlman one that I have because it fits my hand. However, I WOULD NOT recommend it to anyone because it fits my hand and I really don't think anyone else has my hands. Hand tools are exactly that, made for the hand that hold them. I have yet to find a hand tool that one size fits all except for when I was in the Army and they gave me an hand grenade, now that is a dangerous hand tool.

I am the one that did the Native American Bead Patterns. I had a tough time deciding what to do. My first project was for my wife and I did not color it. After looking at lots of photos of NA Beading, both current and some I took at the museum, I decided to recreate the colors that I found and thus the primary colors I used. On the NA Totems and Totems, I am still struggling with that decision. I have done some that I have colored and others I left natural to get the "carved" wood effect. I have recently bought the Eco-Flo Hi-Lite Stain Assortment Pack. When I did a test pallet on some scrap leather it looks like this will give me the ability to color the totem poles to look like they have aged or naturally weathered, which is the look I am trying to get. So like everyone else, it all depends on the look and feel you are trying to get. My only recommendation is that you take a piece of leather of the brand and quality and tanning method that you normally use and make some test pallets to see how the stains really behave before you put them on your project. The other thing you must take into account is any final finish or preservative you plan to use. Some oils will darken the leather and thus change the colors. Some finishes can dull the colors and not achieve the effects you want. Good luck in you decision.

Welcome to the forum, Paulette J. The skins and hides look nice. I have never tanned any thing before. I friend of mine that shots black powder saw a shot bag that was made from the skin off the legs/ankles of the deer and included the dew claw such that the bag sat upright on a circle of dew claws. He has asked me to replicate that bag. To start he provided the un-tanned skins from 10 deer legs that included the dew claw. Any suggestions on how to do the tanning would be appreciated. Bill B.

I had posted some of these right before the crash. This is a collection of my experimentation in doing Native American (Northwestern US and Western Canada) Totems and Totem Poles in leather. Carving leather is very similar to carving wood. While assisting on the totem pole in the color picture, I realized that this style of art would transfer over to leather carving. As always, comments and or suggestions are appreciated. Totem_Pole_pat.bmp Totem_Pole_pat.bmp

I've worked in the USG now 27 years, and most of in or around DC. I have yet to see an elevator operator in any of the buildings have been in. There are some interesting Urban Myths around. That's not to say that there aren't some cushy jobs or folks that will milk the system, but I also found that true in 10 years of private industry. The point that seems to be missed is that in "By the People, For the People", we have to take an active role in politics as well as government if we are going to take back this country from the Lawyers, Politicians and special interest groups. That is one of the obligations we have as being citizens in this fine country and I do mean fine country.

Ken, Yes, the Hiada provide most of the inspiration for both totems and totem polls, but the 'Ksan, Tlingit and Kwagiutl did totems as well that are also inspiring. My wife's maiden name is Haas, which is german for rabbit. She wants a rabbit totem on her day planner. Since I could not find one in any of the books or pictures I have started to draw a rabbit totem following the style rules that are captured in Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Coast by hilary Stewart and Northwest Coast Indian Art an Analysis of Form by Bill Holm. When I get it completed, I will post the original drawing as well as the leather carving.