Chief31794

Beautiful, Great Job kit or no kit! Ken

Then I'm even more impressed, that is some excellent swivel knife work. Ken

Very nice, I really like the detail and the use of the hair tool. Great!!! Ken

Not sure about the swivel knife problem without seeing you carve. If the knife is sharp, you shouldn't have any of these problems with cased leather. You might want to watch some videos on Youtube and Tandy and watch how other folks use their swivel knives, I suspect you may not be tilting it forward so that you're cutting with the tip and as far as one side having a ridge or being differenet than the other, I suspect you may not be keeping the swivel knife perpendicular to the cutting surface. Like I said, hard to tell without seeing it happen, check out some videos and watch how they tilt the knife forward and pull it effortlessly through the leather while keeping it straight from side to side, hard to explain better to watch it. Hope that helps, Ken

I've got an etsy account, just opened last week. Chiefsleatherworks. http://www.etsy.com/shop/ChiefsLeatherWorks?ref=si_shop I have been getting a little traffic, but have to wait and see if it picks up, it was the same way when I started selling at the local craft's fair we have here weekly, but after a while people got to know about me being here and the orders and sales of stock items started coming in. One Problem I have is that I make a lot of special order stuff, so I don't have a lot of inventory to offer nor the cash flow and shop time to build out several hundred items that might or might not sell. I take pictures of the items I make and sell, then post them as examples. Got to work that one out. Ken

Must be a European Thing! Being from Southwest Georgia, we don't go in much for fashion trends, and I don't think they'll work out that well on a Bass Boat. I could be wrong, that's happened before. Looks great though. As you see in the picture below, it would get in the way of my holding the Bass. Ken

Very Nice! She'll love it. Ken

Totally agree, at least 4oz, I used to use a cheap sliding micrometer measured in 64ths but I ordered some templates from BlackRiver Laser and they sent me a neat little guage with a wedge in it and measurements in ozs (64ths), you slide the leather edge in and where it stops shows you the thickness in ozs. I really like it. Ken

That's what I've always done, typically I carve smaller pieces but have on occasion carved a bigger one and I try to maintain the moisture content as much as possible with light dampening to get where I need to be from time to time. There may be a better way, some of the saddle carvers etc, may way in and give you a good answer, I can't see anyone carving a whole saddle in one setting so there must be ways to do it. Ken

Got a picture of gator hide from a supplier, to my untrained eye, they look identical except for the color. I've never seen embossed hides that had scale designs on flesh side. The second picture about is not a good one, it looks fuzzy, that is a grainy picture, the skin is slick smooth with scale impressions. I've sent a piece off to the supplier. He thought the picture looked like gator. Will confirm. Ken

Mmirob, Can't take a picture of the entire hide, it was remnants in an exotic skin remnant box. The piece I got was about 30" long and about 8" tall and there was a chalk line where an object had been cut from it. Ken

Thanks mmirob, Same comments as I replied to Katsass, I don't think it's cowhide, I have some of that and the difference is astonishing. I think it's real skin, just not sure what type. I think I'll send a small piece to someone to look at, the pictures don't do it justice. I'll talk to SLC and see if they will ID it for me. Ken

Thanks Grump, I got this in a box with all real skin pieces, ray, lizard, etc. It was the only one this size. I have some embossed cowhide but the backside doesn't have the scale effect shown in the second picture so I thought this was real skin of some type. I didn't know they embossed both sides of the cowhide. It is definitely not leather, it is identical to the lizard I use except larger and prettier. Thanks for the info. Ken

X2, one note, you can have any color you wish in the depressions, dye that color first, let thouroughly dry, then block dye the item which will leave the original color in the depressions. Normally a good idea to use a darker color for the block dying so that the original color is covered well. I do this a lot on Black Guitar Straps, dye the letters red first then use USMC Black to block dye with. Ken

When I buck stitch I close as said, unless the backside may be seen often as well, I then bring the last stitch in overlap the begining end on the back side, skive them and glue them together with leather glue or contact cement then it is barely noticable but make sure you've got it glued well, the preferred method is to stitch over the begining end and pull the ending through a stitch on the back

Overall I agree with Panther, nice job and an excellent job for the first build. I'm not sure if it's what Panther is talking about on sharp edges, but the thing I noticed on your tooling is that it appears you had too much moisture still in the leather, that makes the impressions not as sharp, particularly the basketweave but also on the floral carving. The leather should have started returning to it's natural color in places, then maintain that moisture content by slightly dampening the entire peice as needed, but don't get the leather "soggy". Tooling impressions will sharpen signifiantly when the leather is cased properly. Great Job, Ken

Sorry Folks, I don't spend much time in the Exotic Forum, but I have this material and it is beautiful, It is pretty large or I would tend to think it is Lizard of some type, but the pieces are cutoffs and some are 36" wide, can't tell how long it was in the other direction because something pretty big was cut out of it, looks like maybe a Brief Case or bigger. I would like to make some items and sell them but don't want to misrepresent them as being something they are not. Don't know if you can tell from the pictures but I took them of both sides of the skin. Thanks in advance, Ken

Welcome aboard. This is a very friendly site with lots of great leather knowledge. Ken

Kevin, Visited your website, beautiful work, glad to have you on the forum. I live in Tifton, Ga let me know if you get over this way. Ken

Tandy sells it over the internet or in most local stores. Ken

Barry King makes blades, lots of folks swear by them. As for staying sharp long, that is a relative term, I don't think any of them stay sharp for a long time, I strop several times during any carving project and sharpen at least every 2nd or 3rd project. They have to be maintained. If you don't like the ceramics then you will be sharpening a lot if you carve a lot. Just my opinion, you may get some better responses from more knowledgable folks out here. Ken Ken

Diamond Sharpening stones are high quality stones with diamond dust impregnated in them if you can believe the marketing stuff. They are excellent hones, a little water (mildly soapy is even better) and they will really sharpen any blade very well. Still have to maintain the angle, etc. But they are worth the money to me, they don't distort through wear etc. Google Diamond Sharpening Stones and you'll get lots of info on them. Ken

Paul, First I think that a Line 24 for 3 oz leather is not very well matched. For 3oz leather you might consider using glove snaps or segma snaps. Line 24's are the brutes in leather working. However if properly installed they should not be offset as you indicated. That is normally caused by "Beating them violently". Snaps should be tapped lightly until they are completely seated and they will still be difficult to keep from going awry simply because they are too large. Hitting them too hard will make the shaft bend instead of rolling correctly. Another solution would be to use a mechanical setter. There was another post similar to this one a short time back (1-2 weeks) and the discussion of various types of setters insued. You might try searching for snap on the forum and see what else you can find. Ken

Very Nnice. Ken