sheridanman

hey guys! i have tried vinegaroon before and it worked fine, did me a great deal of saving when it comes to buying dyes, since i cant even find a good enuff dye here in my area since most of the dyes here are shoe dyes and is not really good. when i tried the vinegaroon i had the luxury of finding a pail of rusty old nails and bolts in the garage. after a week or two it worked out fine but as it gets older in the pickle jar, the vinegaroon started to show some rust residue on the leather after drying it. the beautiful matte black has turned into soething brownish that when i wiped it off it was the rust. question did i have too much rusty metal stuff in the jar even with a lot of vinegar already in there? and second question is...when you make a vinegaroon doe sit really matte rif the metal you put with the vinegar in there has to be already rusty/ the second question lead me to ask it since i relocated in a new city and i live in a condo unit the area cant provide me any means to find rusty metal objects. and its kinda impractical to travel and look for those given my sked is too tight. can i start a VG pickle jar with vinegar and new metal objects in there and eventually leave it to rust an still get good results? i am just thinking that the lesser or not too much rust on those nails can lessen the rust residue even after baking soda wash. thanks your suggestions are depply appreciated.

hi guys! want to know if anyone knows where to get elephant skins maybe the ear part if thats legal. although im not sure if thats even legal unless the animal died. i have seen biker wallets and some pool cue cases made with this skin and its really beautiful! wanted to make stuff with it hopefully, anyone? thanks!! cheers

you did it again my friend nice work!--ritch

hi rusty! your case is looking good. and have great tooling. i also make cases for pool cues but they are the envelope style. i ahve sold several of them here in asia and there in the states. funny coz you have that chan geer tooling pattern. i have used that too adn that design works really well over shapes that are very similar to a cue case. your case reminds me of the chas clements cases who is also my inspirtation when i started making pool cue cases. i admire your effort in the tooling of the case front and back. thats how it should be done. your case if you sell it can go from $500 up with taht amount of work. goodluck and more power to your cue case making. someday your cases will become collectibles. good job! and thanks for sharing!

hi sing! i love it! very clean work as always.------

hey art! nice work there again man! you've done it again! these purses are really cool. and by the way i really like your new head knife!------sheridanman

thanks guys! i appreciate all the help i can get here!----sheridanman

hi! can anyone pls share any experience on maul weights? for sheridan carving what is the and the other lighter for carving? are most of the guys here using one size/weight mauls for most carving jobs especially sheridan style? i read that for sheridan carving most mauls are in the 16 oz range only since the tools are quite smaller. i know its a matter of preference but where do you draw the line for maul weights and their relation to comfort due to the carving work and styles? for edgers if you were to buy a barry king "grooved edger" (#8602 hidecrafter catalog) what size is appropriate for 1/16" single piece of veg-tanned leather to produce nice clean beveled edges? or what size number is best for two pieces of 1/16" leathers glued together to trim and edge it neatly? just want to get surveys here as i am thinking of saving some fund to really get the tools that i realy need and that i cant fabricate anymore. geeez honestly i spend more time nowadays fabricating tools more than practicing my carving. lol.thanks!-------------------- sheridanman

hi guys! i have no where to run but to all of you here! i need some infos on stuff like fiebings resolene, edge kote, edge enamel and tan kote. firstly, is resolene a good way to seal leather thats been dyed with spirit dyes will this help seal the dye so it wont come off and transfer to clothes? second, is edge kote better than edge enamel whats the difference? third, is edge enamel the same thick gooey kinda stuff used by Louis Vuitton bags to finish the straps and bags' edges? i see really nice thick type edging on LV bags that are originally made not the bootleg bags. is this the enamel type edge finish its colred as usual like light brown on LV bags. and lastly, how does tan kote compare in terms of sealing and not taking the dyed color off when applied? guys if resolene is the winner here against tan kote in terms of sealing the dyed area rally well that nothing can go thru can you suggest stuff that can be purchased over a local hardware or handyman store thats kinda the same in nature as resoloene. are there waxes for cars or stuff like that that can somewhat duplicate the effect orf resolene as a sealer? thanks! sheridanman

thanks guys! i like to thank personally tony c. (OutBackP) for helping out and hello rdb glad to hear from you! this is the bag i carved out of the bone blade i was telling you. but not sure if it was you or troywest that i was talking with about this blade and fabricated swivel knife. but anyways this is the bag that i made for my mom who was egging me to make here a bag. so i have to device a blade out of a real waterbuffalo bone. that will simulate a real swivel blade to start this project. my real swivel knife injured my hand severely so i cant use it. so what i did was to make my own and to make the blade that will be onepiece unit with the barrel so there wouldnt be too much screws and bolts. spider i cant keep up with your carvings i get inspiration here from ol' you guys. but its just too darn hard for me since i dont have the right tools like you guys do. everything i use are fabricated mostly the hand tools. the stamps i have are like 7 only and it was handed down to me from a friend there who lives in indiana. there are no leather shop stores here thats why everything i own are fabricated tools. 95% of them. --ritch

you got me there whinewine! i have been looking around online for knife sellers i even contacted a japanese distributor of henley knives and cant send payment to him thru western union which is the only way i can pay him. with henley direct its quite pricey with teh shpping and stuff. presently i have a knife but its too tal and i already injured my carving hand using it for years. the latest i got to do is make a balde out of a bone and grinded it, then the barrel is home made from rods adn i jsut attached the yoke of my knife to tghe home made one. it worked ok but i guess having teh rod modified professionally to a barrel by a amchinist on a lathe would improve it. i'd take singteck's advice that a lathe man would do it. i have been experimenting wth bone and ivory blades that i made they cut really nice. they dont stick to leather like metal blades. when my ivory made barrel and blade as one piece unit is done all i need is to figure out how to do a good spinning yoke. i dont believe in the ads with yokes spinning like a thousand turns. coz what a yoke does is just to swivel the barrel and the turn isnt always to a full 360 degrees. so i dont need a yoke with loads of bearings. who knows when its all good i might sell them online if they look good. im gonna scrimshaw the ivory barrel and blade.

hi! thanks tony iwill keep this tip in my mine. it sounds pretty paractical and a money saver. not to mention its so hard to get tools like you guys use there and you can jsut get from supply stores. me i have to fabricate every tool i need. like you i fabricated my own creaser too from a single tool layin around the house which i dont know what tool is this for its not for leather that i know but it worked really well for a creaser. the channels are not too deep that theread would group or hug the leather too tight tothe extent of going to the next hole. im building a swivel knife barrel too the right size fit of my hands. it will be form a real ivory rod. the blade will be ivory. it will be a one piece unit with the barrel no screws at the side of the barrel locking the blade liek you see on common swivel knives. i cant get my hands on a knife i can try to fit my hands first before buying so i will build one. the 3/8 blade i built out of bones cut better than my old swivel knife steel blade. this is just my opinion as i can see it glides even without stropping for months. doesn'e stick to leather as well or drag. i carve sheridan style and the bone blade works wonders for me. send me an email i will send you a pic of what a bone blade can do. i have no pictures of the blade but the bag i made for my mom has sheridan carvings i cut from bone blade. its worth it! this is what i do since i'm handicapped with the absence of leather supply stores here in my country. this is not cowboy country and leather tools here is out of reach. thanks again!hi marlon! good to hear from you my friend! i will take your word for it. yeah it seems like it. the chisels will be bigger than my awl blade. i am too afraid to use them on my thin leathers if thats the case. its good to know this info. at least i have a peace of mind. thanks again! take care!--------

hi guys! can anyone pls tell me if a diamond four prong chisel is used to mark stitch holes for the awl to stab thru or is it used to be punched thru the sewing channels of the leather and thus producing diamond shaped holes and that it would be easier to secondarily follow up with the real diamond bladed awl? and for example if im going to buy a diamond prong chisel and if i want a 5 stitches per inch on my leather what prong size should i get is it a 3/32 or 1/8 diamond chisel? i will be buying a 5 stitches per inch and 6 stitches per inch overstitch wheel carriage i just dont know what diamond prong chisel number should match the two wheel carriages. and lastly just curious are 3/32 and 1/8 numbers on a diamond prong chisel the distance of each prong from each other or is it the size of the holes it makes thru the leather. thanks and i was hoping someone can let me know if anyone here sell the 5,6 and 7 holes per inch english pricking irons and i can sleep well. i was inspired by singteck and some other members stitch work here and now im so hooked i dont even bother tothink of getting a sewing machine for now. ------- sheridanman

yep, thats right sing. im going around town to look for some machine shops. i might as well get them to build me pricking irons. the good thing is most mahcine shops here dont really charge that much. i remember one time i had them machine something for me and it cost me around $1 usd. and the materials came from them as well. i have to see if they can indeed copy the ball bearing in the yoke shaft. the assembly of the whle knife is easy but how to make the swiveling part of the yoke is the tricky one. then all i have to do is get a nice blade. i found one seller who is selling me his ruby blades. last night i tried cutting decorative practice cuts and i cant do it for 5 minutes. teh middle finger really is painful coz of the stretch. this knife im using really is way too tall for my hands.

hi guys! i still have a hard time trying to get a nice knife overseas. last nihgt i started noodling wiht my x acto knife and teh tip of the handle that hold the blade is knurled and can be unscres from the long handle and is made out of aluminum. the knurling is gold in color and the size is perfect for what i am looking for a 3/8 thickness for the barrel. i like to take out the existing yoke and shaft on my working swivel knife that has a 7/16 girth and 2.5 inches tall barrel. teh barrel is too tall for my hands adn i have thought of cutting off a part of it to shorten it to fit my hands but the knife was a gift from my mentor. since i will not destroy the knife anyway if i take the yoke assembly i'd like to attach it to the knurled handle of my xacto knife thats aroun 1 inch all i haveto do is find a way to drill a hole at the side near the bottom end of that xacto handle to lock my blade. can you guys suggest any ways i can do this. i know its unloading to buy a new knife but in my situation its kinda difficult. hope to hear some suggestions from you all! thanks!

nice work! i really like the way you did it with the brake pedal really creative!----sheridanman

hey guys! we all know there was a hacking yesterday here and i wonder if the dragon and chinese bird patterns where delted along with the other stuff here especially those patterns posted ehre by our new member leathereraft.cn. anyone seen those paterns? i cant find it. it was here jsut 2 days ago.

this is another work that keeps toggling the notch higher and higher. and so fr i've never seen one of his works that i didn't like or all of us didnt dig.everything he makes is just awesome. beautiful purple haze jimi hendrix kinda electrcity on colors.----sheridanman

hi guys! a lot of times when we use the wooden wheel and attach it to a drill or somekind of rotating jig, teh problem i hear here is teh hole a the center can get busted in the course of time since its wood or if plastic it gets loosed theread and gets the holes at the center of the wheel bigger. one solution i found is use pulley wheels made of steel the holes at the center can be fitted to the exact drill bit size kinda jig for your rotating drill or what have you and the wheels of pulleys have different widths. i have a problem with tools since i live in an area whre leathercrafting is not so popular and i jsut live with what i can get my hands on. 90% of the tools i use i make on my own , i fabricate them acoording to what i think that make it work for my work on leatehr adn mostly guesses and hunches lead me to cheaper fabrications coz in the first place finding the funds to buy my tools from the states is a long shot in my case. because i need to burnish a 1/4 thick of two leathers glued together from two 1/8 leathers i need a wider wheel kinda thing. so i looke around and started thinking what is the best tool to fabricate a burnishing wheel and when i saw a picture of what a burnishing wheel looks like a pulley wheel came in to my mind and i got one for like a dollar at the only hardware store here in my area. i got the wheel out of the pulley jig and tried it and it did burnish all i did was attach it to a bit that will hold it together on the drill. hope this helps just thought i'd share something i stumbled on that would help others here have something that will last. it did for me. thanks!---ritch

as usual as always. never fails to amaze all of us here. the consistency in workmanship and tightness on details just raises again and again the bar higher and higher. i am always delirious after seeing a posted work from this guy! nice work beez! keep it up and get our creative juices flowing. ritch