bikermutt07

Very professional looking.

That is a nice effort. Glad she liked it.

Great looking belts, King.

Ooooooo and awwws here. They look great.

I use the Tandy set. But I found a cone wedge shaped tool from Osbourne. I use it to crown the snaps and then use the setting tools afterwards. It works really good for me. I'm not sure what the tool was really designed for. I have one that fits the line 20 and one that fits the 24s.

It's not as thick. It's more like a thin layer of contact cement on wax paper. There isn't actually tape or fibers in it. So, it's very thin when applied. I don't think it works as well as cement, but it will hold long enough to stitch a line.

There is a company out of Russia that makes and sells lasts on Etsy. I have been venturing into the shoe thing slowly. When you can actually find a pair of lasts in your size on eBay, there is very little in the way of measurements offered. Lasts are kind of hard for the end user to obtain. Maufacturers want to sell entire runs to companies. Not one pair to an individual. This is an aspect of leather work shrouded in mystey and expense. If you have unlimited funds you can fly around the world taking classes and work shops. But if not, you will just have to muddle they the best you can. HCC.com has a good bit of information available for free. That's Honourable Cordwainers Company, they are a group dedicated to preserving the history and art of shoemaking. I purchased a book yesterday from a shoemaker in Australia named Tim Skyrme. $140.00 U.S. shipped to the states. It appears to be one of the few all inclusive books for getting started. We shall see. I will post more on this site once I finally get my studio back up and get back to playing.

Yep, and I will say it again for this thread. Anyone in the arklatex area come see me. I got scraps in the yard.

@WilburLeather, the video worked for me (I also made the request). For someone at my skill level, which isn't very high, I found the video to be plenty informative. Thanks for taking the fear out of it for me, and thanks for the sissy juice contribution. Like the others mentioned, it could contain a bit more information for newer folks. @LatigoAmigo, double-sided leather tape is available at Tandy or online. It works pretty well.

Skin some roadkill couches. That'll save a buck. Look at Goodwill for old leather clothing or bags.

They both look really good.

Those look great. Welcome aboard.

Well, if leather working doesn't work out you could persue a career in tank treads.

From what I here they work pretty good. I have an 8" heritage splitter. It has a locking handle feature that I think is invaluable. The 6" ones do not have this feature. I believe all splitters have a depth stop. That's all I got, sorry.

@ljk, it has been touched upon several times around in the last few years. Many suppliers even big ones use the terms top and full grain interchangeably. I think anyone selling corrected grain should divulge such information, at least on the pieces that seem to appear natural. I wouldn't expect them to have to divulge that if we are talking about garment or printed leathers.

@YinTx, just remember why all those goofy infomercials are on all night. Millions upon millions of people purchase that crap.

Love it!

I love it. Great job.

This thread is turning into a great read. Thanks, Roland. @DarkGoku, I bet you think that 600 dollars is a steal now? The ongoing joke around here is... I can make that wallet, belt, holster, etc, it's just some leather and thread... $3,000.00 later we have a belt or wallet we are willing to live with.

I usually pull straight and with a firm pull. Not too firm, but don't limp wrist it either. I found when working with pull up leathers I had to back off of my tension some. Otherwise the thread would just sink down into the holes. On the tension topic, how hard do you guys pull against a stiff veg tan (for instance)? My tension level is maybe a tad more than I would pull my shoestrings. I guess that is how I would compare it....

I will take this to heart, Tuga. For now, (as in my current comfort\skill level) I will continue as I have been doing recently. It's not like I'm getting 200 a wallet and making my living. I'm just a hobbyist. When I feel really comfortable with my current process, I may try and expand.

I still don't know how vhs won that war? The beta had smaller tapes.

We had Purple Rain and All of Me on beta.

I was having the same problem for a long time. Then I watched Nigel's review of the Wuta irons. He stitches a lot of rows on this video without explaining in terms of right priority yada yada yada. I always found that terminology confusing. What I discovered in that video was that I was basically causing my stitches to be backwards. Let me explain. Earlier on I had watched Ian's video about casting a loop to make the back more slanted. Somewhere along the way I got confused with that technique. I was actually causing my front side of my stitch to the top of the hole after casting underneath it on the back. This caused a zig zag on the back and a straight line on the front. After watching Nigel's review of the Wuta irons, here is what I do. Pick the front. It doesn't matter which direction you are stitching. Make the front needle go to the bottom of the hole. Make the back needle go to the top of the hole. Simple. The front will zig zag and the back will be straight. But, as I see it, the back is the back.

Let me share, please. When my wife and I had our motorcycle magazine, I was talking to a big fan one day. She was in her early 50s. And she was going on and on about how great our magazine was. (I saw her at all the events, she always asked when was the next issue coming out, etc) As she was going on and on she suggested that maybe I should try and write an article for the magazine. I showed her 3 articles that were written by me, in every issue. Here's the audience we deal with. The general public pretty much run with scissors.