tazzmann

First off, welcome to LW.net! Lots of great people on here! ASl Johanna about the "Secret" room for your more "personal" leather working. Second, do you have a picture of that ankle quiver? I do a lot of archery and would love to see one. It sounds fascinating and I have never even heard of one before. Thanks, and looking forward to seeing more of your work! Mike

Those look nice! Well done!

Most lined jewelry boxes and such don't have the lining attached directly to the sides. It is generally a stiff backing with the foam glued in place, then the lining glued around it and the backing to just over 1/2" on the back. Then this whole piece is then glued to the inside wall of the box. All four sides are done AFTER the flooring is done in the same way, if the flooring is done at all. Hope this makes sense.

Show off! Just kidding. Braiding is something I am just starting to get into and looking at all the intricate patterns you can achieve just braiding always amazes me. <sigh> I know.....keep practicing!

I think it turned out great as well. Very cool idea! and I agree with Freak...

Well, ok. I feel better now. Thanks guys, I was hoping I wasn't missing some secret important step. It seems I am not, so I guess I will continue on tonight!

That's kind of what I am doing right now, but I find that I have to take one hand off the braid completely to "pull" the string through and out of the way after a wrap around. This is where I get confused on how to keep the tension on the braids. If I don't "pull" the string out, then after a while everything gets tangled up and I have to then take BOTH hands off to get the knots out. I DO have one end of the core and braid attached to something (right now I am doing a dog leash, so it is a swivel snap attached to my bakers rack), but as stated above, I have to take one hand off the braid in order to "pull" the string out of the way, so not sure how to keep the proper tension... Maybe this is where Duke's idea of a video area or video tutorial area might come in handy. Pictures are great, but actually watching someone do something like this would be WAAAAAYYYY better!

Apparently all the cell phone use has pushed them to my neighborhood. I have seen more honey bees in my neck of the woods this year than any other year since living in the Northwest. They are almost a nuisance. There are several bee farms about five miles north of my house. In talking to them, they are mainly paid for their use in pollination for greenhouses and gardeners. The honey and beeswax are a natural bi-product, which they almost give away to those that know how to process it. One of these "Processors" is where I get my supply of beeswax, honey, bee pollen and any other "bee" made items. She is a very nice old lady that has her store on her property. She has everything from beeswax to honey to special honey marinades which range in flavor from "Sweet Teriyaki" to "Smokey Honey Habenero". If it can be made from bees, she probably has it.

OK. I am working on my 4 plait dog leash with a 72" boot lace as a core. Everything seems to be going well. However, The core is a pain in the neck to keep out of the way. Is there something you guys do to keep the core out of the way? Also, I keep reading about keeping tension on the strings. How do you do that when you are wrapping around the core pulling the string out & away from you after the wrap and when you have fingers the size of sausage links? Thanks!

What I use greatly depends on the leather. I use the Head knife almost exclusively on any tooling leather. I have two sizes of head knives (a larger CS Osborne and a medium Al Stohlman) and a third one on the way (small one from a custom knife maker). For upholstery leather I use either a roller cutter or scissors. On thin Vegetable tanned leather for small projects with longer straight cuts, I use a paper cutter. The kind with the handle on the side. As with any other job or craft, I think it boils down to the right tool for the right job.

Kewl. Thanks for the info. I may have to try and make one of these. I have a supplier of beeswax about a mile from my house and it is not really all that expensive for a three pound block from them, so I may have to play with this some. Looks fascinating!

I use a VERY small drill bit to get the holes lined up (even front to back) and then an awl to open them up for stitching. It gives you the best of both worlds. Even stitching holes and the look of the awl hole that everyone likes.

Wow! that is soooooooo cool! I take it the bottle can be scaled down somewhat? Maybe even do away with the handles and make it more the size of a beer bottle Also, when you put it in the beeswax, I take it you take the stopper out of it, so why do you need to re-put beeswax in it again? Shouldn't the inside already be sealed from the dip?

Not really sure as I don't use the Eco-flow stuff. Maybe someone else can chime in who uses it. Sorry.

Have you checked these out: http://www.eleatherworks.com/product.php?p...at=0&page=1 They are allowed in California and should be ok to fly air.

I was using 3/32" lace and the core I am not sure how big it was. The boot string seems to be the right size for a core with the 3/32" lace, though I only got a couple of braid rows done last night. I will snap some pics tonight or tomorrow and show what it looks like with the boot string core.

Mainly because when I tried it without a cord it looked really weird and I wasn't sure I was doing it right. With a core, it rounds it out more and I can see if I am making mistakes. No other reason at this moment.

Hey, thanks all for the comments, this is giving me something to look forward to. I want to practice the 4 tong round braid until I can do it in my sleep and then move to the next one. I think that If I practice it with a core, then doing it without a core should be easier.

No, sorry I didn't explain it better. His first initial is the 'C' and for some odd reason he doesn't like it to show, so I put it on the holster where the buckle and belt on the holster normall ride, this will cover up the 'C' but let the 'S' still show. I just moved the belt of the holster up so that you could see the initials better. If I would have had more time, I would have done something other than basket weave and I wouldd have burnished the edges better, but for a fast job I was pretty happy with it. On the positive note, we met up with him at about 3:30pm yesterday and he was thrilled with it. He immediately put it on his belt and showed it to everyone he could. We walked around the piers in Seattle until 12:00am then hit a billiard hall until they closed at 2:00am. We then drove back down to Vancouver parking in the driveway at 4:55am. I went to bed and got up at 6:15am with the kids and have been up ever since. We just had a water ballon fight and getting ready to have a BBQ, then time to hit the leather again. I have a show in June 7th and have nothing ready for it. I guess I will sleep enough when I am dead. LOL Thanks Tim. I appreciate it. These are fun little holsters and even taking your time don't take more that a couple of hours to do. There is not a lot of room on them for too fancy of tooling unless you want to get into the micro carving (ummmm...no thanks). I even have matching gun belt, but I haven't taken the time to finish it.

Made this real quick for a friend of mine. He is coming up from Texas to Seattle, so I am driving up today to meet with him. Started this at about 11:00pm last night and finished at 12:30am so it is a little rough. He doesn't like his first initial to show for some reason (even his wallet he has it scratched off. ), so I put it where the belt would normally ride.

Kewl! Thanks all! Another question... will boot laces work? They seem about the right diameter. Thanks again!

Thanks Myriam, that makes me feel better. So.......Where does everyone get their paracord and does it come in more than one diameter?

Beautiful seat! Well done! Love the colors!

Did you have to call Jeff? I tried sending a couple of messages through the system on his site and never received an reply. I have a design I want him to do, but don't know what size picture he needs or what format.

Fire, the few things that gtwister mentioned were what jumped out at me too. As for the floral on the front, I am NO judge! Overall it looks really good though! Great job and keep stamping!