MADMAX22

Look up Bearman on the forums here, think his son is making the mauls now. Think they start somewhere around $70 or so. Remember alot of people here have been doing leather work for years and years, some using very nice leather, and very nice tools which arent the answer to good tooling but it helps. Most of it is just experience and lots of good practice and nice leather.

You can get a bear man maul for the price of those tandy things. Much nicer and will last ya a good long while. Up to you though how you spend your money. Ya think thats bad wait till you start getting nice stamps instead of that craft tool stuff.

The mallets you got are probably pretty bouncy I would think. Personally I really like mauls. They take a bit of getting use to at first but for tooling I dont use anything else anymore. Either one maul or mallet needs to be the right material and it will make a world of difference.

Those portabands are used by alot of knife makers, even ones that have a nice big band saw. As far as the knife great job. The steel in the very old circular blades use to be high carbon and great for blades, the new ones because as stated have inserts for the cutting edges are not always the best steel. If your lucky its 80CRV2 or similar which heat treats similar to 5160 and is a great knife steel. The issue is you dont know so its always hard to get a good heat treat on them. If you want to get a good cheap steel try for some 1084, you can order some from NJ steel baron. The 1084 you can bring to non magnetic, soak for a minute then quench and then draw it back at like 350f for a couple of hours then work your way up to get the proper hardness. Pretty sure if I remember right alot of the old head knives were similar to 1084 or somewhere in that range carbon steel. One other thing on the handle if you can use the long setting epoxy, generally the longer it takes to set the stronger it is.

Look up Chuck Burrows post on this forum and on some other forums. He was very good with this stuff. I have a bucket that I put the vinegar in with some steel wool and some old pieces of steel. I think adding a little vinegar once in a while will help if you still have the steel in it. Another thing that helps is giving the leather a quick soak in something with alot of tannings like a walnut shell solution or coffee type solution. Then go to the vinee solution. Remember also some leathers dont do it as well. All my HO leather did really well, WC mostly did really well, tandy leather was a crap shoot if it would take or not and how dark it would get.

I usually get the skirting myself since I tried it. I personally think it tools and molds a little better but honestly both are top notch. I like the skirting in the russet color which is about the same color as a nice sun tanned vegtan. Not alot of steady sunlight up here in the northwest except a couple months in summer. Compared to most leathers you get retail even the lowest grade WC that you get is still pretty nice.

You can buy single hides from WC,

Why does everything have to be on pinterest? Dont feel like giving access to all of my phone and email accounts to them.

I like mine angled, coming out either the awl or the machine. Both sides.

I actually found that with the lower feed dog it helps to maintain back stitches "but" that is in combination with taking the stitch length lever completely to reverse then pulling it back down to give it about a quarter inch of space. If I can nail that distance it will get the backstitch in the same hole. I tried the washer thing and it worked ok for a while, I just find the distance thing a little easier. I was thinking of making a shim for the stitch length plate, if I measured the correct angle on the reverse side corresponding to the stitch length I think it may help.

Haha thats not good. I mean Wiz and the guys are great but that dealer should be fixing the machine he/she sold ya.

If you mostly doing knife sheaths do you want the long edge to be glued together and uniform? When I do mine it depends on what type I am making but all similar. If I am making separate belt loops that get stitched on then I finish those completely before assembly and finish the sheath with the exception of the final long edge. Put it together and glue the long edge and stitch. Then finish the long edge burnish and all that. This keeps everything uniform since its hard to get a finish coat on anything that has stitch or rivet on loops or anything.

I cant find any pics of the mounting side of the swing down guide. Looked at the one on the techsew site and it says it will fit theres but possible drill and tap may be required. The only pics are of the arm side not of it mounted to the machine. I have an older neel's version (cowboy) and it has those two tiny tapped holes on the side you sit at and it has a bigger single tapped hole on the other side where I think it would mount.

Agreed, I either flip it or saddle stitch back by hand. Depends on what I am making and how nice I want it to look. The saddle stitch back stitch looks nicer and I can pull both threads to the back, but it takes way more time then just flipping my work around. I went back to using the standard plate. Seems to work the best out of all of them as long as it meets the sewing needs.

Good luck with using the slotted plate and back stitching. Even with leather and making as many adjustments as I have scene it still wouldnt work worth anything. Using the feed dog and normal plate with a silly washer installed on the ramp and still pushing up on the lever then pulling it back down about half an inch I can get them to line up correctly with leather. Ofcourse it could just be my machine or one of the many who have started threads on the subject. Pretty sure even Wiz said it doesnt work properly with the slotted plate. reverse stitching is not one of these machines strong suits.

Dont feel bad, that is one of the hardest stamps to get correct. On that particular one it pays to buy a barry king or other high quality. The tandy ones are very difficult to work with.

Basically what I am thinking of making is a table clamp like this picture but instead of on the side have it on top of the bench running the full length of the bench so you could slide the hide under it and bring out the edge you want to trim. Then make a thin one of this style blade that you could draw down just over the clamp. I think this method would be pretty quick and easy once it is setup. The only issue I could forsee is that the length of the clamp may not hold the middle portion well enough.

There was a thread a long while back where someone made a basically 2x4 board clamp and had a utility knife that he sliced down the hide. I have been thinking of how I would make one. Was thinking probably the easiest homemade one is a straight board clamp/vise setup on my work table, then make a draw knife (not sure of nomenclature but the straight blade with a handle on each end) with a thin blade.

Great looking holster, that alternating black and brown is a nice touch.

The best advice I can give ya is look at various peoples work that mimics what you want to do then either ask them what they started with or look at there how to blogs or forum post and see what they actually use. Look on ebay and craigslist for occasional deals. At that price range tandy or springfield leather are really your only options or second hand which is good also.

Thats a good deal surprised its still ir sale

Those are all the guys who import the machines, they dont make them. Pretty sure the OP is asking about the company who actually makes the machines.

Nicely done. I like that color pattern as well.

Depends if your doing double layered leather as well. Pretty sure some of the really good sheath makers use a thinner lining leather then a layer or two outer leather depending on the design and style. I found about 30 ways to skin a dead cat but someone else said there were 100. If ya get my drift.

Good start, I use the same piece I cut out for the inlay plug that way its always the same size, just trimmed down for thickness of inlayed material. Looks like a beast of a knife. Did you back off on your upper tension for the thinner material?