YinTx

+1 on all this. I also use a bit of water with a couple of drops of dish soap for lubricant on the sandpaper. Can take it all the way to 2000+ grit sandpaper, wet/dry 3M. Finish on the 4000+ grit stone if desired, then strop for final polish. also, I don't follow the roller back and forth, instead side to side, with the roller part OFF of the sandpaper. It'll slide along just fine on the glass/granite. This keeps the grain in the direction of the cutting action of the blade, and easier to control the burr for me. I forget who I saw doing this but it was a game changer for me. YinTx

Getting the angle identical every time you take it to the stone is not easy. Bruce makes it seem easy, but that is years of practice. Using a simple swivel knife jig really facilitates getting this right. When you don't get it right, the bevel will lean, and you may have multiple bevels, instead of one flat mirror. Some of the older blades are rougher than the one he is working on, and take a lot more effort to get sharp. However, they will easily cut you or anything once you get it sharpened and stropped. Sometimes I'll use it to cut out the shape of a piece I've just tooled because it makes small complex curves easy to cut. It'll go right through 10 oz leather - I take it almost all the way, then let it dry and finish with a round knife or one of my other leather knives when I am done. I spent a few hours on these to get them to this point, while not perfect they are fun to use and cut very smoothly. The one on the left could use more work on the 5000 grit stone before stropping again. As far as I know, these are all old Tandy blades, and cut as well or better than a Barry King I tried out once. YinTx

That just looks prickly and all business! I like the style! YinTx

Try a bit more top tension, that will pull the knot further up into the leather from the bottom. Then you can tamp it with a hammer (smooth face) which will even out the dents. My experience is the bottom isn't very often very nice looking compared to the top, hence why I tend to do a lot of hand stitching. Then the alcohol goes to disinfecting the puncture wounds and for medicinal purposes to numb the pain. YinTx

Looks good! What kind of rivets are you using? YinTx

That black wallet is bang on! Lining up that armor scale stamp isn't easy. Nicely done. YinTx

That came out fantastic! what a work of art! going to be a joy for you to use. YinTx

I'm not sure I can tell which is the before and which is the after. However, most finishes will darken the color of the dye, and tend to make it more vibrant as well. Using a Pro Dye vs. the regular dye will help keep it from migrating when you apply a finish, and also spraying on the finish (like with an airbrush) can help prevent it from migrating. Nice work, btw. Block finishing isn't always easy! YinTx

I thought that is how you fixed electrical problems... YinTx

Thank you, it is Peanut Alligator from American Tanning, with Natural Chevre Chagrin for the lining. I've done a few over the years, but getting small parts to match up perfectly with turned edges is a challenge, especially with an exotic like glazed alligator. Not much stretch or flex room. I wasn't quite happy with them, but finally, I have to get something in the customer's hands! Appreciate that! although, must say I had other (not so positive) words as I was constructing it I am grateful it came out well enough in the end! YinTx

Finally managed to get this one done, nearly a year in the procrastination phase! Thankfully I have patient customers! YinTx

There are many kinds of leather, and differences even between brands of the same kind of leather. Deerskin is super soft. Armor veg tan or sole tan is super hard vegetable tanned leather. Veg tanned leather from the belly section is pretty soft. It all depends on what you are working with. Photos help! YinTx

I have a large collection of vintage tools, all of which I use - hence, they are not junk like some of the cheap import items you will find on places like Amazon. I am sure I can put together something for you, including some leather, lace, thread, needles, awls, buckles, snaps, whatever you might like. Send me a pm if you are interested. YinTx

Maybe the fly is a reincarnated dog, it thought you wanted it to roll over and play dead. I'm not convinced the bees were the only ones partaking here.... YinTx

it could be a bit grimy, say hand lotioin or just dirt/grit/grease in general. Try a light bit of saddle soap with a bit of water, work into a sudse, wipe off, let dry see if it helped at all. If there is no seal coat, you could dye it even after nfo. I do recommend a seal coat when you are done tho. YinTx

That is a lot of nice tooling that you are going to have to dye black now! YinTx

I just made one out of cheap leather, and am in the process of making one out of real alligator myself right now. Look forward to seeing what you end up with! YinTx

Also looks like the current ahem "administration" here in the good ol US of A has decided to confiscate orders of kangaroo being imported, resulting in losses to the end customers. Not sure what that is about, but I suspect if there were a way to follow the $$.... this is too bad, as I was hoping to get some beveled kangaroo lace to try out myself. Looks like I won't be. YinTx

It took me a while to learn how to use the aquilim to avoid the sticky buggers on the edges. For me, I have to apply it really really really thin. Like, transparent thin. No lines showing between strokes with the spatula spreader. Then, I hit it with a hair dryer to dry it out pretty well, it will be just tacky. Stick em together, and no buggers. YMMV. YinTx

I don't think a kitchen knife would be the best, but a sharp scalpel can work if used carefully enough. Swivel knives can be pretty cheap, $10 plus shipping if you are really going to get into it well worth it. The older Tandy knives are actually pretty decent once you get them sharpened up and oil the swivel bearing section. Make a beveler out of a large nail, cut the ends off, file one side to the shape you need, voila. If you don't have a mallet, make a whacky stick from a piece of wood. This doesn't have to be an expensive hobby, but it certainly can be. YinTx

Swivel knife maybe? Rotary knife would generally be used to cut all the way through the leather, not for carving... Really nice looking result, either way! YinTx

@DavidP, Best way I have found to resize images is to reduce the resolution, or pixel count, not the shape. On a Mac laptop, I open with Preview, go to "tools" drop down, select "adjust size", then you can select one of the resolutions in the "fit into" like 320x240, 640x480, 800x600" etc. Alternatively, to adjust width and height manually, leave "scale proportionally" and "resample image" both selected, Fit Into is "custom", leave width and height locked together, and put in a percent as a way to reduce. If you have a 1mb image, and put in 50% in the width, the height will automatically reduce in scale since it is locked to height, and the resulting size will reduce. Haven't tried on an Ipad, but suspect there may be some similar editing capability there. YinTx

Right now it doesn't look like any, but I come across unusual stamps once in a while, so just wanted to know which ones to be on the lookout for! YinTx

you just have to resize your photos to get them to load, as there is a limit to it. Many folks here with stitcher experience, imagine one or more will chime in once they see what you have. You can add to the thread with your resized photos. YinTx

That does square up the bottom nicely, and similar to what RockyAussie suggested. Kinda tells me a single layer chrome tan isn't really going to be a flat squared off bottom like those. I think Hahn's would have come out really nice if he had stitched the base so the leather didn't pull up when he formed it and put in the rivets, maybe I'll try one like that! YinTx