Instinctive

I first learned the basic of leather crafting/carving in high school art class when I was 15 (1975). I started my first business then, buying Tandy pre-embosed belt blanks and buckles, finishing and assembling them. When I had made enough money, I purchased a Tandy basic leather crafing kit with tools and expanded the offerig to hand tooled wallets, bags, etc. As I remember it, that work was pretty crude. After getting an engineering degree, I picked it back up again and decided to try and improve my tooling skills and skills in general. With no shops in the area, I did this by buying the books and teaching myself (pre-internet days) While workig a real job, I started another leather side business, the Wallace River Leather Company, but about 20 years ago packed away my tools and any leather pieces I had to focus on my new business I started that made use of my engineering education. I'm retired now so I've blown the dust off my tools and am back it trying to rememeber what I knew and, through sites like this, learn something new. "Work" that isn't work anymore. For those interested, the picture attached is one of the first carving I did 39 years ago. You can see some pieces from 25 to 30 years ago at www.wallaceriverleather.wordpress.com. I hope you will notice some carving improvement. The better ones will be closer to 25 years ago. I am sure that WRLC "The Retirement Project" pieces will be posted from time to time.

Michael, Thanks for the comment and as soon as I have the "as-built" drawing ready, I will send you a copy. I see that your have an actual shop with real tools. I would be very interested to see how it turns out if you make one. Sugestions for improvements will be welcome. Very nice belts by the way.

Some 20 years ago I stopped doing leather work when I started a business related to my engineering training. I'm retired from that now so I'm blowing the dust off my tools I kept in storage all those years. I never had a stitching/lacing pony so decided to make my own. I didn't want a horse because of storage space. There is only so much room in the garage (not allowed to work in the house). I had the intention of just copying a basic design but my engineering mind could not help itself. Staring with a computer aided design (CAD) I did of a typical pony, then testing and modifying as I built, it appears I finished up with a portable pony thsat has the stability of horse. My "pony" has an extension to move the jaws out from my body to accomodate my "thick" build. When I did this, it was not as stable as I liked so I used a piece of built-in vacuum cleaner pipe I had, made a recessed socket in the bottom of the extension to hold the pipe. The stability pipe can be cut to suit any chair height and is removable for storage and transport. Now I have a very stable, comfortable and portable pony-horse. As built drawing are next.