Maeshin

It is not a good quality cutter by any means ($20 wood one, not brand name or anything). It could well be that it is just a junk strap cutter, but I didn't have the money to put down on one of the $60+ ones, so I figure I'll have to make do. I am having a great deal of difficulty cutting 2-3 oz leather and less of a hard time cutting 5-6 oz leather. All of the leather that I am using is fairly pliable (generally a mellow temperment). Basically thin garment leather is what I am having the most trouble with (maybe that's why I'm having so many problems with it). Sorry I wasn't more specific to start with ^_^

Well, I recently acquired a strap cutter, figuring that it would speed up my projects a bit, but rather than speeding them up it seems to be slowing them down. I'm not sure what I am doing incorrectly, but the straps never turn out even unless I cut them really slowly (I could do it faster and more accurately by hand), and even then I can only cut them evenly if they are at least 4 or 5 oz (otherwise the leather slips, slides, and rolls up against the cutter, thereby messing up the line). Any ideas as to how to fix this?

justleather.com carries a lot of chrome tanned hides in all different colors (many in various shades of pink as well).

I'm not sure if this is a good approach or not, but when I have encountered areas of veg tan that were particularly difficult to cut through I have generally either continued my main approach (a series of light passes with a rotary cutter until it finally goes through--pretty time consuming and you have to be really careful, particularly on the first couple of passes) or used a pair of metal cutters (the edge tends to be a bit sloppy with this approach, though that can be somewhat mitigated by doing a few passes with a rotary cutter before implementing the metal cutters).

Oh my god, my boyfriend would love that, lol ^__^ Cool idea, and it looks great ^_^

That's some pretty sweet looking armor. How long did you say it takes you to make that? Oh, also, could you post a close up of the hands? I'm curious as to how they are put together ^_^

That's a really cool looking vase ^_^ I've never seen anything like it.

Sweet armor ^_^ you're really good at that

Wow, just wow! Fabulous post ^_^ Thank you very much for that incredibly thorough tutorial. I'll have to give it a try now that I know how to go about it ^_^

I'll have to start making my list then, lol ^__^ I appreciate your openness : )

Pleased to meet you! Computer nerdiness is nothing to be ashamed of ^_^ my brother is the biggest computer nerd I've ever met, and he's a totally awesome and socially ept person : ) As to World of Warcraft, that's all well and good (my brother, again, went through a phase wherein he played it quite a bit). I hear that it's quite a fun (and addictive) game, though I prefer Dungeons & Dragons myself ^_^ Welcome to the board, and I hope that all of us here can help you out with your work in one way or another ^_^ P.S.: If you're in the Michigan area, you should really consider going to Mayfaire--totally sweet renaissance festival ^__^

It is always nice to meet more BDSM-oriented leatherworkers ^_^ although you are quite a bit more experienced than I am (you've got about a decade on me ^_^). What I have seen posted thus far of your work is beautiful; I look forward to seeing more of it!

Welcome ^_^ I see there's someone else who loves emoticons as much as I do ^_^

Goat ^_^

Those are quite nifty ^_^ I'm curious as to what the inside looks like though. Could you post more pictures? ^_^

Wow! What a collection ^_^

Pleased to meet you ^_^ That case looks beautiful; quite graceful.

Let's see... I like justleather.com for, as the name implies, leather. I prefer it because you can see exactly which hide you are buying before actually buying it (they have pictures of all of their hides on grids), so you know in advance what shape they are, whether/where they have holes/brandings and such. Also, free shipping within the US continental states, and (I think) decent prices. I also like http://www.saroftreve.com/hardware/index.htm (WWL hardware/Sartan's workshop) for most of my BDSM-oriented hardware. They carry a lot of supplies that I just can't seem to find anywhere else and the prices are decent. The last store that I shop at frequently is http://leatherunltd.com (Leather Unlimited). They have good prices and a wide variety of leatherworking supplies. Hope that helps ^_^

Thanks! I'll take a look at them ^_^

You did a really fantastic job on that! Good choice in subject matter, too. I love that movie ^_^

Sweet! As always, your work is astonishing ^__^ I really hope I get that good someday.

That bag is adorable ^_^ and I really like your tooling on the dragon (for both, but particularly the one with the celtic knotwork). Good job!

Thank you, that was very helpful ^_^ Unfortunately I don't have a sewing machine (I should probably invest in one of those at some point), so any stitching I do will have to be by hand. Hopefully I'll be able to manage it alright after a few tries. In any event, I shall implement your suggestion for making it myself (and will likely be back with more questions once I get the materials together to do so ^_^). Thanks again!

Well, I only came to the realization that this stuff existed a short while ago. As such, I'm not entirely sure of the proper name for it, though I've generally seen it called either "leather piping" or "leather welting". It is basically this stuff (link below), which is easy to find in fabric stores, but I'm looking for a leather version. http://www.jkmribbon.com/wrights/piping/pa...ing/117303.html Does anyone know where I might be able to buy some?

Wow! You've only been tooling for a few months? That's amazing! You must be a very quick learner ^_^ As to the padding, I think that I know the material you're talking about (though I must confess that I don't know what it's called either). Thanks for the tip ^_^