MADMAX22

Very cool and nice looking, good job. Looks very similer to the fly rod cases in al stohlmans book on building cases, volume 1 i think. Should work out perfectly for that if you decide to do it.

Very nice work, I like the viney style you have going on. Question for ya. The Keith side of it looks like the leaves and stuff are all indented instead of raised which Im use to seeing, is that the case or am I just not seeing it correctly? Thanks

My fav is when it finally comes to gether at the end or pretty close to it. I generally feel it looks bad in the middle and find it hard to get motivated to finish, plus in the middle it never looks as good as when your all done and put together. Even if the end isnt exactly what I was looking to acheive it is still something that I made with my own hands and usually feel pretty proud of that. I think my worst part is the first cut of the leather. I allways look at a piece of leather and really admire how good it looks and think to myself about a hundred times hows the best way to utilize the leather, is there a better way to cut it, did I get my measurements right, did I get my measurements right, did I get ....... lol ofcourse Im just a beginner so Im sure alot of you all get over this after youve been at it a while.

Some good work you got there. I really like the officer setup and that knife sheath.

Got it figured out, the website that I had originally gone to wasnt the state website but something else. The girlfriend went on the state site and found the application form and all that good stuff. Looks like all I have to do is fill out the form for the business license, pay the fee and let it get processed and Im good to go. Atleast at first. Once again thanks for all the help.

Thanks for the input. That would be the coolest/best part about it is being able to order from those guys. Ohio travel bag was nice enough to direct me to there retail site and siad if I find anything on there other site to just get them the numbers and they will make them available to me. Pretty nice if you ask me. Still with all the wholesale only places I think the tax# would be very beneficial. RDB I think that is probably better then I handle things sometimes. Hence why this is just my hobby right now. If I had to live off of it Id probably be starving right now lol.

For doing the outline trace say like the pattern to cut the leather I transfer the pattern on too some heavy stock paper (got some cheap on sale) that way they last for a while. For the designs for say the flowers and stuff to be carved I use tracing paper. Got a huge roll of it off amazon for liek $10 I think it was. As far as weight of leather Im not sure for holsters and stuff as I am still a beginner as well. I know that if your doing folds say for a box or something then you have to increase by like twice the thickness of the leather or something like that, so 4/5 oz would be 1/8" or something, 10oz would be a little more, not sure how that translates into holsters and such.

Looks really good. How did you get that mottled effect? I like it

OK thats the first site I got as well. I dont want to sound lazy or anything, its just Ive grown increasingly leary of websites after a few times of having some issues with deals in the recent past. If this is where you started and you didnt get rolled then it sounds like a good idea. Just wanna make sure Im on the right track. Thanks for the input.

Hey guys, figured I would look into getting a business license, I spend alot of money on this leather stuff (mainly initial cost) and would like to get some kind of tax help if I can and in the future near or maybe longer I would like to start selling some stuff. Not alot but when I can turn out something worth while it would be nice to make enough money on the side to support my habit (lmao). Thats the why now How do I go about doing this. Anyone got some good trustworthy links that they can shoot my direction. Any experiences or lessons learned. Much appreciated.

Thank you, any helpful hints, seems pretty straight forward.

Not that I disagree with you and I can see why you guys are hesitant but ..... I dont see why when it was free before that now some nonprofit groups should be able to claim rights to it so they can make a buck even if it is for a good cause. I think most of the people that start out in leather arent rich (money wise) and need all the help they can get in learning the trade and having some downloads that they arent having to pay for it kind of nice. If a group is running off donations then they shouldnt be copyrighting something so they can get money for it hence running off donations and not selling stuff. Thats just my opinion, I see it as she wanted it to be free so it should be.

Good job too both of you guys. Tina very nice design you really have a nac for laying out the design to look great. ClayB very good job on the tooling and I really like the color. Did you copy the design of the purse before you put it together, that way you could make any changes in construction and do it the way you really wanted to next time. Atleast thats what I would think about doing.

Very cool, thanks for sharing.

I think it depends on how long you leave it in solution. I only dunk for about a minute if that and they turn very black once oiled and are alot stiffer but not to terribly hard. Try experimenting, a gallon of vineger and some of the steel wool and about a week and your set. oh forgot to add that I think from listening too others and from what it looks like, is that the vine pulls out the oils to the surface of the leather. This should harden it and makes sense.

Hey guys I am planning on making some of those sheep skin lined moccasin style slipons. Something somewhat like this http://www.minnetonkamoccasinshop.com/minn...oftsole_moc.htm Now what kind of sheep do you guys use on these? Is it the saddle stearling or is it something else. Ive been looking around at the leather stores and they have the saddle stuff or the rugs. Thanks for you input.

UGGGG I feel sick,

Actually it was aluminum oxide that they thought was causing it, the regular ol aluminum wasnt the cause, would hope not considering aluminum is the most prevelant mineral on the planet. Agree with ya on the media, its such a pain and the fact that the general public in most cases because they see it on the news beleive it atleat too a pretty big degree.

Yep gonna get one tomorrow. Hey have you done this before on leather, did you have any pics of any projects maybe that encorporated something similer? Your stuff is allways a inspiration and you have done some really cool stuff with variouse colors.

Well while at wallyworld I picked up a cheapo bath sponge to play with. Like this http://www.webvitamins.com/product.aspx?id...mp;term=bizrate but a far cheaper one. I think the effect will work much better with either a higher quality one or a real sponge if you can find them. These experiments were done by taking a piece of the spongs and putting some dye on it then dabbing on the leather. The first coat is layed on with daubers in a nice even coat then the sponge dabbed over that. These were quickly buffed and one coat of oil then a coat of nuteral show polish. Just really quick, you guys probably have tried this allready but I thought it turned out well, I wanna try with a better sponge though. Anyways the top one is just tan with mahogony layered on top, Second one is the same as above just with a second layering of black Third is ox blood background and top layered with black fourth is I think (did it yesterday) ox blood, blue, non dyed background. On this one it ran a bit because I used some atomwax leather balm and didnt buff the dye enough before hand.

Thanks for the info.

Your bags look absolutley great. I love this last one you did. Maybe its the color but all in all it looks great. One question, I assume you machine stitch the bag as hand stitch would take forever (atleast for me lol). What machine do you use? EDIT: OK had to go to your site and I see now what you hand stitch and what is machine stitched. Great idea and looks great upclose. Some very nice details on your webpage.

Thats very very nice looking. I gotta get me an airbrush (assume thats how you did it on the fade)

Refurbs from a good company are fine. They will save you money and perform just as good as new, in most cases they are pretty much new. The one big thing about computers is you can save alot of money if you have a set use for it and as such can dedicate it solely to being used for that function or a few functions. Linux allthough you can get it for free and use wine to (sometimes get most apps to run) you need to know alot about command line stuff and its not gonna be a easy thing to get into, theres a huge learning curve. However once your in your in good and can use it to do just about anything. Windows XP is gonna be dead soon. Windows 7 I think is coming out in 2010 if I remember right. Vista 64bit is a great OS and generally I havent found a single setup that wont work on it. Some programs you have to run in windows XP emmulation mode but they will work. Ive got both a xp machine and a vista machine. As far as macs go I personally cant stand them because of there over priced for the same components and the darn commercials they advertise with. You can get the same performance from a homemade PC using the same components for far cheaper then you can buy a mac for. However people like them and if you have the money and only use them for some stuff then go for it. If you just need a computer for the shop to run your equipment and such a cheap refurb laptop would work fine. If you know anything about computers then you could easily find discount parts and build one your self for pretty darn cheap. G/L

Good job, sounds like I may have to start using something else on my riding leathers. Thanks for the relatively controlled experiment.