Chief31794

Thanks Northmount, Great tips. Ken

Thanks Cheryl, I'm carving a project now that I'll be using Round Braid on in about a week or so, I'll video it and if post it if it looks like it might help folks with that stitch. Ken Thanks Wishful, Let me know what you think. Ken

I have never did a video before but I saw a few posts with people expressing frustrations about lacing so I made a tutorial with lacing tips for Double Loop lacing. If people like it I may do one on Mexican Round Braid except it will be more toward how to do the stitch, starting, ending, and going around corners. This one is more about how to get your stitches to look neat and even, I assumed everyone knows how to do the Double Loop stitch. I could also do one on Two-Tone lacing. Let me know if you like them. Ken Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

The Tandy Leather Site has dozens of "How To" videos all free, from Beginning Carving to Lacing, sewing, etc. Since they're free, they can't do any harm. Ken

Porcelain swivel knife blades are available. I use them and love them, but I'm lazy and they don't require sharpening just stropping. I used one so long (about 3 years) it did start to give me trouble, a little work on a diamond sharpening stone (extra fine) and it works like brand new. Well cased leather with a porcelain blade works very well in my opinion, although I'm pretty sure some of the purists in the leather carving world will be frowning at me pretty hard. Ken

I use a professional cutting pad made by Hydroma, it is what is used on clickers etc. I use one side for cutting and the other for punching, doesn't have to be done that way, I just rather have a system because I'm a meticulous old fuddy duddy and that's the way I do it. I have polyboards and cutting mats that I use as well, but the work horse is the red cutting board. Ken

Very Nice!!! I love the stitching, beautiful job Ken

Hi Marc, The Agrirama is going strong. It is now a part of ABAC. I sell leather goods at Agrirama every Saturday and have been doing pretty well. Good to hear from you. Ken

I don't have the same problem, but I wear leather buckles because I play music in a band and Martin Guitars and Beard Dobros cost too much to be scratching all up with a belt buckle. Make yourself a leather belt buckle, I sell quite a few of them to musicians. Ken

Contact Cement is PERMANENT and IMMEDIATE. You touch the two pieces together in the wrong place and there is no moving it. Rubber Cement is Temporary. Rubber Cement is normally used to temporarily hold pieces together to facilitate assembly (stitching, lacing, etc). Contact Cement is a method of construction, used to permanently bond two pieces of leather or anything else to leather, it is used a lot to laminate leather flesh to flesh to provide a smooth surface on both sides (holsters, belts, etc) I use contact cement but normally cut the backing piece slightly larger, glue them together and then trim the backing piece to match the front piece. Keeps me from having to drop the pieces together perfectly. Hope this helps, Ken

Really nice! I bet your Dad will love it. Ken

Since no one has attacked in well over a hundred years, you guys are doing a jam up job. Keep up the good work. My daughter graduated from Kennessaw State and I think she also stands a post from time-to-time. Ken

What I do on small lines (Stems, leaf stems, etc) is tilt the beveler back toward me so that the impact of the beveler is concentrated away from the cut line. Hard to explain in text but focus on tapping the cut away from the line as opposed to just putting it next to the line and letting it dig in toward the line and press back against the background. Perhaps someone more eloquent than I will chime in. Not saying this is the only way, but it works for me. I also then use the beveler to make the line even like on stems if one area is a little wider than it should be, I straighten the beveler and tap lightly to move the line in a little. Hope this helps, Ken

Sly, There are several different type of thread, various thread sizes, as well as different colors. There is a forum farther down in the forums under the grouping of "Fabrication", the forum is call "Sewing Leather", the folks there talk about thread as if it were a religion and would probably be glad to give you some information on this subject. You might try searching the forums for info on Thread as well. Sorry for the non-answer, but I do some hand sewing, but use waxed thread (I assume that's what you mean by the Tandy Stuff), most of my stitching is done on a Tippmann Boss and have never thought about using any other type of thread for the hand sewing I do, what I do works well so I haven't checked to see how else I could do it, I pretty much stay with White, Black, Brown and Natural colors. Welcome Aboard, Ken

Hi Richard, You guys in Kennessaw should start a guild. Ken

I've owned one of these for several years, have all the dies to do Line 20, Line 24, Rivets, Segma, etc. With the Elite Membership I have a little over $500.00 in every thing for this and wouldn't take anything for it. Does an excellent job every time and I don't find changing the dies to be concerning, I change them often and rapidly and maybe it's because mine has been used a while but when I loosen the set screw on the top or bottom die they come right out (the top will actually fall out.) Now that I think, I may have a little less becuase I bought the press itself while it was on sale. Can't remember how much exactly but I haven't regretted it. Ken

X2 on the round knife and also on dampening the leather, I haven't tried it with the leather competely cased but dampened it tends cut smoother. Use the tip of the round knife for going around curves and a little more blade when going straight. One thing I do and I'm not sure others would agree but here goes. If I have lots of tight curves and a little more intricate cuts I precut them with a swivel knife, that provides a nice guide to follow with the round knife and for lack of a better term chamfers the edge and gives it a more finished look even before sanding and burnishing. Just my way of doing it, may not be the recommended way. Ken

Welcome to the site, there is a ton of tips, techniques and information out here and some of the best people you'll meet on any forum. Ken

Thanks again, nice of you to take the time to post encouraging comments. Ken

Great to hear from you, thanks for chiming in. Ken

Thanks Cheryl, I use this color quite a bit. I oil the leather lightly with Neatsfoot Oil, then I dye with Eco Flo Hi-Liter in Saddle Tan. When that dries I put on a good coat of Eco Flo Super Sheen let dry overnight and then use Eco Flo Gel Antique in Saddle Tan. I let dry several hours or overnight then it gets two coats of Tan Kote. Ken

Thanks, This was done with a craftool X501. Ken

All the laces at Tandy are sold at 1/8" and 3/32" you have to select the size when ordering. I buy lace from Springfield Leather Company (a sponsor on this site), they have great products, great service and good prices. If leather lace is too expensive, there are plastic laces that some folks use that are much cheaper, but I wouldn't recommend them. Ken

Nice Job, very well done. Ken

I started in 1970, but I'm a slow learner. I don't do a lot of shows, I sell every week at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture they have a Craft and Farmers fair. I use the internet and I have quite a few word of mouth customers. Not a lot of leather carvers in this area, most make belts using embossed blanks or stamp designs with veiners and such. I do some of that but prefer the hand carved stuff, glad to know you're here in Ga. My brother lives in Griffin, haven't seen him in several years but he's still around there. Ken