Chief31794

Excellent, thanks Mike, I was beginning to feel lonely. Ken

I watch this site almost everyday and see all the Howdy's from Texas, and Hi Yall's from Tennessee, etc, but I never see any one from Georgia. Am I the only leatherworker in the state of Georgia, if so, I ain't marketing very well. If you're from Georgia (Particularly the Southern part, although I'll talk to folks from Atlanta and above) reply and let's get an accounting of where we all are. I'll start: I'm Ken from Tifton, GA, I work in Albany but live in Tifton. Ken

Welcome aboard, this is a great site to learn, browse, pick up tips, etc. Ken

looks good, wish my first tandy kit had looked that good. Thanks, Ken

Welcome, Ken

Welcome Jim, looked at your gallery, nice work. I think you'll enjoy this site. Ken

Welcome to the dark side, this is an excellent site with many talented friendly people. One of the best sites I've ever participated in. I think you'll enjoy visiting here, post some pictures of your work so that when you're famous and turning out leather art we will have a reference and can say I knew him when... Ken

I don't understand this at all Bob, I carve just like you, swivel knife in right hand, stamps in left with maul in right, but yet the end result isn't quite the same by like about a million miles. This is some of the best work I've ever seen and I've been to the Stohlman Museum. I know people might think this is sacrilage but to me I think your work is head and shoulders above anyone else including Al Stohlman's. Absolutely beautiful!!!! I've never seen anyone as good with a swivel knife as you. Ken

Welcome to the site. Ken

Bill, On the fuzziness, one mistake some folks make is to leave the camera on total auto, that makes the ISO setting automatic and the camera will raise the ISO to get "lower light" shots, set the ISO to the lowest ISO setting you have (normally 80-100) on most cameras. Then only move it off there if absolutely necessary. That reduces "grain" to a minimum. The other main causes of fuzziness are 1) hand held in low light situations resulting in "camera shake", 2) Low Resolution, make sure your camera is set to the highest resolution possible, cameras allow you to reduce the resolution to get more shots on a card set it on high, additionally fill the frame as much as possible remembering that you need a small border around all sides to prevent cutting off sections.3) Camera doesn't have sufficient resolution, normally depicted in Megapixels, most modern cameras (point and shoot) are in the10-12 MP range, I use an SLR with 15MP but the newer ones are going to 18 and some of the really high dollar ones are over 20MP. 10-12 is sufficient for very sharp pictures. One recommendation for the lighting is to use a Photo Light Box, you can get as extravagant as you wish but you can significantly improve your photos with a simple one that is very cheap such as the one depicted in the link. Hope this helps, there is a ton of info on the internet about photography. Ken

Welcome to the site, Ken

Mike, Welcome to the site, great place. If you're moving in 3 weeks there's still time to change your mind and move to God's Country (Georgia). Hope you have a safe move. Ken

Now seeing it used it makes more sense. Nice job on the purse Andy. Thanks, Ken

John, I've never heard of a stamp kit in Olde English Font, Tandy sells two Craftaids in OE, one uppercase and one lowercase. You would have to carve the initials as opposed to stamping them. Sorry I can't be of more help, perhaps someone else will have a better solution. Ken

I use the press that Tandy sells (about $120 if you are an elite member, course then you have to buy a set of dies for the Line 20 Snaps, the Line 24 snaps, Rivets, etc, they ain't cheap), while I know you said you didn't want to spend a couple of hundred bucks, if you do a lot of these it's worth the money. They produce absolutely perfect connections every time and the resulting "curls" where the post is rolled back is perfect and looks very professional. I highly recommend them. Ken

Pretty much the same method, with one exception: 1. Stain everything 2. Paint what is required with Cova Paint 3. Seal the whole project. On some items like rose scenes sometimes I: 1. Paint what is needed with liquid dyes using a brush. 2. Let Dry Thouroughly 3. Seal the painted areas with a brush using two or three coats of sealer. 4. Let Dry Thouroughly 5. Dye project. 6. Seal the whole project. I'd experiment on scrap good chance to practice the carving and the painting method to determine what works best. Ken

I haven't used this particular clasp but I've used quite a few. It appears that the two-piece section (with the hole) should be mounted with the leather flap or strap sandwiched between them and the leather cut out to allow the solid piece to pass through the three items (clasp back - leather - clasp front). The solid piece is more puzzleing is it two piece as well, just not shown if not then it appears that it would rivet to the bag itself. Not sure, but that's how I would approach it. If it is two piece then it would mount to the bag in the same manner as the other. I would think that rivets would be somewhat unsightly and that screws would look better but that would mean that there would have to be a backplate. Ken

I use a wood burnisher for hand burnishing and I have a burnishing wheel mounted in a drill press. You can achieve a very nice edge just by wetting and burnishing, I normally do that then after dying and finishing, I use gum tragacanth to really seal the edge. I haven't tried the beeswax but I keep a couple of cakes of it around and might try that. Ken

Excellent start, where in Central Ohio are you, I visit Columbus very frequently and go to the Tandy store there while I'm there just to look around. I left Columbus yesterday morning and the snow was coming pretty good as I was leaving town. Ken

Welcome aboard. Ken

Welcome to the site, lots to do and learn here so have fun. Ken

Welcome, feel free to lurk all you want, more fun to participate and post some of your work for us to see. Most folks out here really enjoy looking at pictures of other people's work. Ken

Welcome aboard. Ken

Welcome aboard. Great site here with lots of talented folks, some of which have already introduced themselves. A great feature you may want to check out is the "How do I do that" forum, lots of tips, techniques and general discussion about how to produce quality leather work. Ken

Welcome to the site. Ken