Windy

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA NICE ONE.

Remember what you put your name on today will have your name on it tomorrow. I would use nothing but the real thing. To think someday some kid will be sitting around a pool room talking about how your cues use fake stuff as he pulls out the old cue you made with imitation lizard on the wrap.If you are going to build a name that says quality it must say so from the beginning.Never sell seconds even if you say they are seconds it will bring your name down thus making your cues less collectible.Just my most humble opinion. WINDY

Great idea , now lets see what other ideas people have. Say a bottle of hot sauce or.......................... WINDY

Nice work I really like it , so different than most. WINDY

Art, Silly me thought people would only use a lighter to light a smoke. Now thanks to all the good people here I see that you can carry a lighter for other reasons as you so aptly pointed out. However me being tone deaf there is not much chance I would use it as in your idea. Alas if I had one of the cool gun lighters maybe I would still smoke. I stand (okay sit) corrected on my initial thought. WINDY

But who smokes these days aside from whats her name who runs this site? WINDY

Ahhhhhhhhh

David, Nice work as usual. Where is the extra lace on the pad ? I looked at it and thought something does not look quite right. Then it came to me the extra row of lace was not on the pad. WINDY

So my question is: how do you get yourself motivated to completed that part of a project you really don't like to do? And, do you have unfinished projects sitting around waiting? If this is a hobby then throw the roses in the corner and make something you enjoy making. After all hobbies are suppose to be fun. If you are doing it for living and must do it,then I think of something else I hate worse which makes it easy to go do the one you have been putting off. Yes I have projects that have been sitting around for twenty years or more in wood , leather and metal. When I get tired of working in one hobby I switch to another. It has never bothered me to have projects waiting and waiting to be finished. I will start a project , think of something else I want to make. Start that then get busy doing something on the house and afore you know it I have yet another project collecting dust. Of course if it is something I really want ,it gets done. WINDY

If you are making a handle why not make the blade ? Call your local steel supplier and get a piece of 3/16 stainless and make you a blade. A ten foot piece is only 9 bucks around here. WINDY

If I was Kathy I would be afraid to send Windy (me) the horns on account of they may not make it back. Also they would have to come with a few ribs for my smoker. WINDY

If I catch somebody stealing from me the cops will probably get me too, because I'm gonna be wailing on there ass. Billy, I understand what you are saying and why. I would like to point out to you that the courts are not very friendly to the good guys. Thanks to all the stinking lawyers. It is much wiser to raise your prices enough to cover any theft like all the big stores , than it is to put a well deserved whoopin on some low life scum who tried to steal your wares.Not to mention is it worth paying a low life stinking lawyer more money than the thief tried to steal from you in the first place. WINDY

Kathy, I have never had the pleasure of polishing Yak anything.However I have polished a cow horn tip or two. I start by sanding with 600 grit sandpaper. If it is real rough to where you have to get out dips you may want to start with 150 or there abouts, depending on whether you want the dip out. Once you progress through the finer grits up to 800 I switch to my cotton wheels with the metal polishing compounds. You can buy these at most auto parts places and Sears in the tool department. You can mount them in a hand held drill and polish away. I usually cheat and mount mine in the drill press or I use the ones on my lathe. It is much easier on the drill press opposed to the hand held drill.I believe the kit you can buy from Sears has four grades starting with the black then brown then red then white. I may have the black and brown backwards. Alas it tells you on the package which is which. I get a super shine on the horns using this method. Albeit time consuming as hecky pooh pooh. I have only polished cow tips and would not look forward to polishing a whole big horn. Let us not mention that when sanding cow horns at high speed the horn smells like flesh burning. Not a very pleasant smell mind you.The following link is to the kit at Sears. http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00928650000P WINDY

One thing I thought about doing with elks horns is to make one of those lamps that you put on bookshelfs or paintings to illuminate the objects. Those small LED lamp kits would be perfect for this. All you need is a antler with a good bend so the lamp can illuminate the picture or whatever properly. Tom Now that is a slick idea or should I say that is a cool idea or should I say that is sic or just how do the young folks say neat idea Tom.Anywho I think you get what I am saying really nice idea. WINDY

Clay, I think you should put it back and tell everyone it is a monkey. That is what I thought it was. I never even thought of a bear. Really nice work and tutorial. I have just one question though, where do you get peanut butter as thick and dry as bread dough? Or why do you make your bread dough as thin and runny as peanut butter? WINDY

Well not being a lawyer and not liking lawyers, I can tell you that anyone who gives you advice that is not a lawyer is being a little egotistical. Then again a person who asks for legal advice from a bunch of leather workers gets nothing but opinions which one should read then laugh and call a stinking lawyer. Now as for my opinion which you can stop reading or continue on , I was taking a pottery class in which a man constantly made plates with the University of Cincinnati logo and name on them along with quite a few Kentucky Wildcat plates. Well imagine that this very topic came up. He called the University of Cincinnati ( well he said he did ) and they supposable told him he could not use their name or logo for any reason , not even if he was donating the plates to a charity auction, not even if he was giving them to his friends, not even if he was giving them to U.C. alumni , they told him he could not even make them for himself. Now this is all hearsay since I was not privy to the call , nor do I know this man well enough to judge him a fibber or a truth teller. I just wanted to type something here so I did type my most humble opinion , which once again is call a lawyer when you need legal advice and call a leather worker when you need leather work. Call me if you want a humble opinion on anything concerning common sense, cents or is it cense or since. WINDY

Anne, I think they look great. Nice work. WINDY

I like it. WINDY

you should find a bigger piece of "white stuff" to shoot your photos against. They will look far more professional than when you have your work bench or tools showing in the background. Get a sheet, or maybe a white shower curtain, and use that for your background on all your photos and I think that will make them look more "artistic"! (Personally, I found a white silk bath robe that I would *NEVER* really wear, so that my work will look nice with a silk background.) This is nice work and deserves the extra attention to detail. Why not "WOW" the jury? You can do it, so go for it! Even better yet try this link. The person explains how to build what appears to be the cheapest light box in history. I can tell you a light box will make the photos of your work look 100 percent better. http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/light_box_light_tent Oh yea nice work. WINDY

I smoked for thirty years three packs a day at the end. My niece came to visit ,gave me a viral lung infection. The first week it was hard to smoke. I still did it about two or three a day. Then after a week with no intent I never picked up another smoke. The pack laid there on the end table with my lighter for more than two years. I had six packs in the fridge which I just threw away a month ago. I am not sure how long it has been, since I never said I am quitting. Albeit I believe it has been about ten years or more. I can tell you it has been 23 since I stopped drinking whiskey and all of its relatives. Most of my friends smoke which does not bother me not even in my truck with the windows up. I have to agree with a couple of the others that said quite simply "when you want to quit you will" . I have found in my life when I want to do something I do it. But I can never do it for anyone else. It has to be for me. Maybe you just really do not want to quit.Then again I am not a doctor of the mind. But if you really want to quit send a hundred dollars along with a 6/7 oz side of Wickett and Craig leather that you have held in your hands. I will then put in the word with the big guy upstairs who in turn will grant you the ability to stop. If per chance you somehow defy his will , send me two hundred dollars the next time and a side of leather in 8/9 oz. Remember you have to have held it with both hands while awake on a Tuesday during a month of the current calender year. It helps if you had biscuits and gravy for breakfast at least twice in the last month.If this fails I will personally hire two of them little Irish green guys to follow you around and stick you in the butt with a sharp knitting needle every time you reach for the pack. WINDY

A few years back I used to buy knives from this little place across the river in Kentucky. Thay are a wholesaler with good prices back then. Still there just have no idea on their prices now.It was started by Cecil Clark and is now run by his daughter. Very friendly people.I just quit dealing in knives. Cecil Clark Knife Company 833 Monmouth St, Newport, KY 41071-1820 Phone: (859) 291-2541 Oh yea nice work on the sheath.

Turn an oval on your lathe (all leather workers have a wood lathe ...right ) then quarter it length ways. Slip it in your barrel then drive in three wedges to push it out to the size you want. If you do not have a lathe to turn the oval , I am sure you can take a large dowel of appropriate size and build up the middle to make it oval using leather. If you have no large dowels find a baseball bat that is the size you need. If all else fails make your oval form from clay or some other suitable material you have laying around. WINDY

This is just a quick example of what I was talking about. WINDY

I think you need to rework the word WALDEN. The gap between the w and a makes it look like W ALDEN to me. Of course I also think the name WALDEN needs to be centered with bags under it and your other statement curved around the top.Just my most humble opinion.

Jim, I have had weeks like that. Give me your address and I will send you something I have made. Then you can have something from Cincinnati cause no one ever wants to visit Cincinnati. WINDY