tazzmann

Nice job! I bet it IS tough to handstitch. Where did you get that fine looking embossed croc?

Very nice work! I agree with Tom, I like the ones with the eyelets the best, but all of them look superb!

Very nice mike! Floral and Sheridan patterns are something I am NOT good at and need to practice more. I think you did great!

You can also get silent compressors which is what a lot of air brush artists use at shows. Yeah, they run constantly but you would never know it.

Wife drooling on it while looking at Tina's work.

It might be cheaper than replacing all the wet keyboards! LOL

I guess I am the oddball once again as I don't ever use honing oil. I learned from a knife sharpener from a long time ago how to sharpen knives without honing oil and it has never failed me. His reason for not using honing oil? When sharpening knives on a stone, part of the stone comes off and gets suspended in the oil, this acts as an abrasive working against the knife edge. This puts small scratches in the cutting edge which works against giving the edge a nice smooth finish and thus a true razor's edge. If you keep your stone clean and clean it often with a brush while you are sharpening, you will never need oil. I can get knives to a razor sharp edge without ever touching a bottle of oil. Also check out the book The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening by John Juranitch for more on sharpening without oil. Here are some quotes from his book:

You know. Typing on a double covered Saran Wrap keyboard isn't as easy as one would think!

Congrats to all as well!

ooooooohhhhhhhh. Nice looking Quivers there roo.....!

<sigh> You know how I feel about your work Tina. You are first rate!

I contacted Zack White through their online contact system. Hopefully something can be worked out with the Iguana skin. For the rest, mistakes DO happen and I understand that which is why I usually give a company more than one chance. But it is still that first impression that can really bite ya. Luckily I wasn't in a rush, so it was no big deal or I probably would have been on the phone with them a lot sooner. Then the packaging. Sometimes you get this kind of packaging from folks one time and not the next, so it was disappointing to see. I made some suggestions to them about how to package things that could possibly leak so as to avoid that issue and what I do to package my leather and skins to protect them when I ship them out. So we will see. I am generally a really calm, tolerant guy but I also don't have a problem speaking up to let others know about MY particular experience with a company, so that THEY may not be too surprised if the same thing happens to them. Now back to the topic at hand... the Dye is excellent!

To be fair, I DO usually give a company more than one shot and I WILL be contacting Zack White about this shipment and the skin, and since they are the only ones I can find that carries this dye so far, I will probably give them another go round. But sometimes your first impression is your lasting impression, and they didn't impress me AT ALL on their first try.

I am going to be using one of them on a credit card case tonight or tomorrow. I will be sure to snap a few pics. I forgot to mention that these are the current available colors: Black, Light Brown, Medium Brown, Dark Brown, Chocolate, Saddle Tan, Cordovan, Mahogany, Red, Yellow, Green & Royal Blue.

I am not sure but that is why I wanted to try Fiebings new low VOC dye. It is money well spent. It is still some sort of spirit based, but because it is low VOC, it won't get axed with the rest of the spirit based dyes. It is much more "Environmentally" friendly.

Well, after waiting most of this month, I finally got my shipment in from Zack White. I took out everything and scattered it while looking for the new dye. While I am NOT at all impressed with Zack White on the time it took or the way they packaged the box for shipping, not a single drop of dye spilled or leaked. (The peanut brittle colored Iguana skin I got from them was disappointing as it had all kinds of marks and little holes in it making it almost worthless to use for anything. ) So, I took some scrap pieces of leather and threw some of the new dye on them. My first impression was that the dye smelled a little odd. Since I was so in a rush to try them out, I forgot to look at the label and assumed that they were some sort of water based dye... Nope. A big "Flammable" label was right there on the front, so they were obviously still some sort of spirit based dye. Once I had the scrap piece colored the way that I wanted, it was time to test. I soaked the leather under the faucet and as expected, it did not run at all. I then let that piece dry while I tested a few different finishes including Super Sheen, Leather Balm, Tan Kote and olive oil. While still getting a little rub off like most dyes, it was just like working with their regular line. AND being low VOC, it now means Californians have an option! My only suggestion is if you are in a rush and don't mind the possibility of getting dye on anything else in the box, DON'T order from Zack White. I am sure more companies will start carrying this dye and I personally will wait for someone else to carry it before I order more. But as I run out of my regular dye, I will be replacing with the Leather Colors.

Another score... I have a friend of mine who does a LOT of garage sale shopping and she called me up last night and said she found some "tools" for me and that I needed to come take a look at them. So I took a short trip to her house and started looking at a bunch of leather tools. Mostly craftool stamp of varying age. Some stamps LOOKED like crafttool stamps but was not stamped with "Craftool" or have any number OR letter designations. Some had white with oxidation on the handle but not on the business end. Then something really odd caught my eye... Down towards the bottom was a swivel knife with about a 1/4" barrel. What really struck me as odd was the long blade it had. When I picked it up, I noticed that the blade was non-removable. I then started looking at the saddle and saw that it was marked as CS Osborne. This is the first time I personally have seen a swivel knife with a non-removable blade. Does anyone have more information on this knife? There were also a few other cs osborne tools, some scraps of Bear hide with fur, latigo straps, some rulers and all. I asked her how much she wanted for everything and she said $50. I told her "sold" and I will pick them up tonight. Now I have no excuse not to get some projects done!

As an update, I found some wooden thread spindles at Michael's craft store. I took them home and put a bolt through the middle with a nut to hold the bolt in place. I chucked up the end of the bolt into my drill press and proceeded to take a piece of 80 grit sandpaper and true it up. I then tested with a scrap piece of leather and it worked GREAT! I went back to Michael's and picked up a couple more of various sizes and worked through the process again of bolting and truing them up. Best part was they were about $.89 a piece and I didn't have to put hardly any side pressure on them. This means it won't hurt the drill and I have a fast, efficient way of slicking the edges. I tired both water and Gum Trgacanth and they both came out beautifully. Slick and shiney! Thanks for the tip Jordan!

Wow! I don't know if I will order from Zack White again. I placed my order on the 3rd and it won't be here until the 22nd! I get stuff from other places and it only takes a couple of days. So far I am not impressed with the service.

That is awesome. I about choked on my coffee!

Me like! Very nice!

Thanks David, I will check it out!

I have been looking at different software programs, but I can't see spending $150+ for software, when I can get the Microsoft ones for free. Though I may have to bite the bullet and get Quickbooks since that seems to be what everyone is using.

Beautiful as usual Tina!

Thanks. I found a long lost friend of mine who was an accountant and I am going to get on the phone with her tonight and she is going to walk me through some of it to help make more sense out of it.