MADMAX22

Once you figure out what you wanna make I would recommend giving Esantoro a PM or maybe he'll jump on the thread but hes got alot of experience making bags of variouse types/

I think both of you may be right. I know David does mostly motorcycle seats which see a different type of abuse (I mean use). With the constant weight of someone sitting on them with 90% of the time levis rubbing against the finish with the thrown in vibration from the motorcycle along with the elements I could see how it could test finishes pretty well. I think a gun belt and holster like that style has a little bit better chance of surviving with the finish. Not saying it wont see rough use and get tested just that its a different type of use and may benefit the use of the antique for your projects better then his. It will be interesting to see how it holds up.

Dinosaur hide

Pretty good looking sheaths. Personally I like the ostrich inlay one the best, I think those ostrich legs give a really cool effect when used as inlays.

Wanna say thanks for putting these together and getting these sections started. This will be very helpful to anyone that takes the time to read them.

Looking good storm. Hey by chance have you checked out Paul burnetts tutorial on carving. I think you can get the pack of like 5 tutorials for a decent price, I just picked it up and man alot of good info. There is some stuff in there on doing fine work and and extra tutorial on scroll work too.

Pretty much any of the links at the top of the forum will take you to good leather working dealers. Not sure if you want to find just old stuff or general overall everything leather working.

Thats really nice looking. So whats the next big project you have in store, I see you have been working on all these nice scroll work and such,

I like using my round knife the most but sometimes I will use my utility knife as well. For the corners your talking about either will work fine. Personally I like about 5oz for wallets and about 2oz for the interior portions. Ofcourse that is just what I have used and Ive only done a few wallets but they turned out ok. Once you get all your stuff in there they will be plenty big enough. Also if you want a thicker wallet do a trifold. Kevin has some great tutorials on wallet making. I recommend checking them out. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=9940

Wrong size or not it gives a very interesting look/effect to the stitch.

Agree with the other posters. I tried the drill method using one of those things all I did was make a mess. Leather is suprisingly hard to drill thru with a round drill like that.

Have you read thru this thread yet http://leatherworker...showtopic=16609 Lots of good info. I cant do it exactly as they do because I dont have a garage or regular workshop so no power tools except my dremel which doesnt work to great for edges. I basically shape the edge with a edger. Dye the edge (I do this after I have dyed the project) I now have a canvas block that I wet with water and glycerine soap and rub this on the edge, this is mainly to make the edge damp and get the soap on. Sometimes Ill rub the soap straight onto the leather ever so lightly. I take my wood boning tool/edge burnisher and work the edge to get the shape right and get everything to lay down. This should make the edge shiny and give it the shape I need. Then I take straight bees wax and rub this into the edge, just get the wax on basically. Now I take a piece of canvas (levis work also) and work the edges, as you do the canvas gets pretty hot and melts the wax into the edge. Thats about it, then go ahead and finish it like normal. I usually make sure to get a layer of tankote or atom wax on the edge also helps give it a nice sheen when all done since sometimes the wax can get a little dull depending on how much you got on there. Seems to hold pretty good. Oh and make sure to glue all the way to the edge when doing double layers. I had a issue of the burnished edges splitting where the leather joined. Really annoying, now I make sure I glue them to the edge when ever I am sewing something together. This way it acts like one piece of leather. Heres a quick pick of my burnishing tools in all there glory lol.

Thanks a bunch for the compliments everyone. Teamroper I am not sure how long the edges will last, Ive been wearing my belt I made for about 3 months and my ex has had her belt for quiet some time and no fraying. Maybe after time it will guess I gotta wait and see.

Thanks guys, yeah Pete. I dont have a machine yet (maybe next year) so Ive gotten use to hand stitching these guys. I admit I cheat a little, once the two layers are glued together and edges cut clean I groove front and back then prepunch the holes with my awl, then its off to the pony. That way I can just sit and stitch. I also use probably about two yard sections of thread to keep it shorter and manageable. I wanna say it takes about an hour and a half to stitch a belt like that (about 37" overall length).

Finally got around to finishing a few things. The belt is double layered with 8oz outside and about 3oz inside. Dyed with feibings DK brown, oiled, one coat of sno-seal, finally a couple of thin coats of neatlac. Hand stitched using some waxed nylon. This is for a buddy of mine, the last belt I made him ended up being the wrong size so that got passed to another friend lol. The belt leather had a natural kind of tiger striping to it which actually looks pretty cool. I was pretty happy with the way it kind of made it seem like a little more then just a brown belt. I am making another keeper though, for some reason the top layer of leather wrinkled on it, dont know why. It was like that before the finishes were applied so its not the finishes. Its allright those are the easy part to make. The gerber sheath is for me at work, quick job. Hand stitched, wet molded. Its not overly nice looking but does the job nicely. I vinegarooned this guy but did it after wet molding because I wasnt thinking so there were several spots the vine didnt penetrate so went back over with some usmc black. Oh and just ignore the ring around the rivet, grabbed the wrong setter, good thing its for me and not someone else.

Great job Luke, looks good as is. That stitching looks great too, what thread did you use, it allmost looks like a thick hemp. The way its stitched makes it look like a miniature rope laid on there.

Great looking seat. On the black I agree it is a pain, plus then you have to worry about rub off as well atleast I do. One thing I found was that vinegaroon can be painted on then once its done its deed a quick coat of black over that makes for outstanding color (that is if the vinegaroon doesnt do the job). Its harder to use when the whole project isnt black though. Still I have gotten away with doing some painting with it.

Ordered the carving pack yesterday and must say that it is outstanding. Alot of stuff that is gonna help me in the future with my carving and stamping. For anyone that hasnt gotten them yet give them a try, its well worth it.

That is great work, I know alot of guys that would love to have that on there bike. Great work.

I think its a big deal to make sure you give credit, or atleast try to as often as possible. I have learned everything I know about leather work from LW, books, and trial and error. When I started getting into rifle slings and inlays I think Dave (DCknives) was without a doubt the biggest help I had. Ive used a couple of his ideas and asked him to do so and if anyone ask I am very quick to point that out. There are several that have helped me work on my motorcycle seat as well. I think its a respect thing, granted most of all leather work has been done in the past at one point in time but its nice to mention that someone has helped you out in your design.

Thats interesting, thanks for sharing.

I dont have one now but back in the day when I use to do airbrushing I loved my badger, badger has variouse levels of airbrushes but are pretty nice. Theres a few brands badger, pasche, and Iwatas that I would consider if I was getting another one but Ive allways dealt with those three and they all have a very good following. The standard double action badger that works pretty good is a the 150, get it as a kit and it will last a long time for ya but there are alot to choose from. Biggest thing is make sure you compressor has a small tank and a filter, atleast the older compressors if you didnt have a tank would give you a pulsation which even if small would still cause issues with fine detail work. May not be the case anymore.

I usually give them a shot of oil front and back. Once they sit over night I run some sno-seal on them and let that work in overnight then seal them up. Allways seems to work very well. I think picards and bees natural are similer to the snoseal so you could try one of those also.

Awesome work Ed. Really got the depth going on there. Gotta love carving that WC leather.

Very cool indeed. Now I gotta ask how did you do that.