dikman

I'm with chuck. Anyone can make a blade very hard, but the downside is it's brittle. Wusthof-Trident kitchen knives made their knives harder and used it as a selling point, but if you dropped one on a hard surface the tip usually broke. They replaced them under warranty if this happened (they really had no choice if they wanted to maintain their reputation). A chef I knew told me that professional chef's didn't like them as they were too hard and difficult to maintain a good edge on. A flat grind is probably the most practical to use.

Alex, I just had a look at your arty things link - very nice work there, my friend. The forged blades are well done, simple and clean designs.

As Arturomex said, some maintain that cutting a groove in the surface of the leather weakens it, which it probably does, but if it's thick leather then it's not likely to be much of an issue. I have yet to see anyone providing proof that doing this has lead to premature failure of the product. On the other hand as Dwight said it provides protection for the stitches and in my opinion looks neat and tidy. Bottom line is to do what you like and what works for you. You're not breaking any rules.

The bent nail welded to the nut (for a handle) might be a bit of a giveaway?

With all that hand tooling and hand stitching, not forgetting the time in laying out the design, it beats me how you could make any money on it.

That's a lot of fringing!

I think some of this should have been put in the 3D printing section?

That is jaw-dropping stuff! Absolutely amazing! Makes my plain ones look, well......plain. You've given me something to aspire too.

Very nice, the sheath colours set off the snakeskin, particularly the first one.

That leather is real nice! It almost has a used look about it right from the start. The bag looks like a fairly complicated build, you've done well.

Brian, you've done it again! If you need to cut longer fringes than your jig allows could you cut them and then slide it up to extend the cuts? I'm also wondering if it would work with a head knife, using a rocking motion with the knife rather than dragging it.

It's a domestic sewing machine. It might sew thin garment leather but that would be its limit, it's simply not designed to sew leather.

A pretty absurd thing to say (probably by someone who has an overly inflated opinion of themselves) and also a contradictory statement. You can't get the experience unless you make, and sell, the holsters, but if you don't sell them then how are you going to be able to keep making them to get that experience? No-one can make "hundreds" of holsters before deciding to sell them. I'm with you, LiftPig. Once you understand the basics of holster making, whether pancake-style or western, it's not that difficult to make them properly.

Smooth (grain) side out generally has a nicer, finished look about it but some do use rough-side-out for the very reason you mentioned (to try and improve the belt's grip). Whether it makes a huge difference I don't know (I've done both) as over time the rough side will slowly wear smoother anyway.

If you can make a very simple jig to just touch the shaft you should be able to see where the bend is by rotating it.

You're right! Both a work of art and a remarkable achievement. Having just done rudimentary smoothing on mine I can imagine the amount of time he must have spent in smoothing and polishing every part!!!!

But what do the 5 and 16 actually mean?

You need to either replace the handwheel, as Toxo said, or fit a speed reducer . If you search "speed reducer" on here you should find many, many posts on the subject. Do you have a needle positioner fitted, by any chance?

But if you change that won't it also change the spacing width for the stamps? That has to stay the same while widening the part where the belt fits.

I'm guessing it could probably be brazed. If it was mine, being rough as guts I'd probably use the MIG to put a dob of weld on there.

That makes sense. If the forward stitch length is longer then by adjusting the plate further out it should have the effect of shortening the stitch length by limiting the downward travel of the arm. I was puzzled about those small screw adjusters until Old Coach explained it (like many things, obvious once you know ).

Great idea, Gary! I'll add the file to my collection and print it out (never know when it might come in useful). A 1.5" would be nice as it's a fairly standard belt size. (Hint hint ).

That is the reality that many come up against. So many want a single machine to do it all, but it's something that simply doesn't exist. An upholstery-class machine is a good choice - until you want to make holsters! For that you would be looking at a CB3200/CB4500 (or equivalent) type of machine as a minimum, but trying to do finer work on one of those is extremely difficult (if not impossible).

Nice! The background texturing is impressive (as is the carving, of course).

I wonder how many of us have done just that, bought something because 1) we wanted it or 2) it seemed like a good idea, and then had to figure out how to use it. My plasma cutter comes to mind.