Sheilajeanne

Nearly every time I go to the local dump, I see bicycles people have thrown away for scrap metal. It makes me very sad. There is a man in the nearest large town that fixes up and sells old bikes for a living. I wish there were more people who did that!

Thanks, Fred. Yeah, I got a PM saying basically the same thing. Seriously thinking about getting one now - need to read up on the threads here! Of course, I wouldn't try to do something so big and elaborate, but it's so much nicer looking than the clunky letter stamps I've been using up until now. I've free-handed a few sets of initials, but that has its limits, too, as there's only so small you can go, and still do a nice job of the tooling!

I know next to nothing about laser printing on leather. Was this notebook cover done with a laser? COULD something like this be done with a laser?

Where did you get that from, Frodo? That is NOT what the MSD sheet says! And I really wouldn't want someone substituting cow brains for my T-bone steak!

Have been looking at the Artisan Leather site you got your tools from. What ripoff artists! £49.50 for a poly maul from Ivan?? Gaahhh! https://www.artisanleather.co.uk/v-z-codes.html And the prices for their stamps are about what I'd pay in Canadian dollars! To buy a single tool at what they are charging would be about $17.00 Canadian, before shipping and taxes!

Frodo: YIKES! That sucks! I've heard of punches bending and breaking (usually Tandy) but have never had it happen to me. Only Tandy tool that was defective had a small burr on the face, and Tandy was quite willing to replace it for me. Affaltar, that's a good starting point for now. All of those tools are ones I use frequently, and most are in the the beginner kit I purchased when I started. Strongly recommend you get an undercut beveler, as mentioned above. It's used for lifting the edge of flower petals and leaves to add more of a 3 D effect to your carving.

Chuck was interested to see what popped up when you Googled...I got a completely different result! The page I was directed to had Jim Linnell, Barry King and other top toolmakers! What manufacturers did you see that you'd recommend staying away from? Interested to see comments from others who've used Ivan Taiwan tools. Ivan has profited by producing Tandy stamps that are no longer available, such as leaf and acorn stamps, but having never used these stamps, I don't know how their quality compares.

Oil tan is not burnish-able, Frodo. I think the best you can do is put Edge-kote on it.

Okay, in that case, going to add an undercut beveler to the list of tools you'll need. Tandy designates them with the letter 'U' and the most commonly used one, is, I think, U 851. Ivan follows Tandy tool numbers, I think. Anyone who is seriously into leather carving usually winds up with AT LEAST 100 stamps. It quickly becomes an obsession! I'm going to list the most basic ones by number, the ones included in a beginner's kit. That should be a good place for you to start. A104 backgrounder B701 beveler C 431 crescent shader P 207 pear shader S 706 seeder V 407 (not sure about this one, might have been a slightly smaller one.) To these I would add, based on my own experience, several different sizes of bevelers, both smooth and cross-hatched, several different pear shaders, smooth and cross-hatched, some flower center stamps, starting with the really small A102, and going up in size. Some people would recommend you get a bar grounder for doing backgrounds, but I don't like doing backgrounds that way - too time consuming! I'd get one of the larger A stamp backgrounders, also something like A98 for really tight spaces. There are a million different crescent shader stamps/sunburst stamps out there to choose from. They are good for borders, as well as decoration in Sheridan-type carving. Pick a couple you like, and bang away! Hope this helps! See??

Affaltar, it depends on what you want to do with leather work. If you are planning on doing Sheridan style tooling, you will need a wider range of tools than if you just want to do plain leather work , and keep the decoration of the leather simple - e.g. , just add a border to a project, or do a basket-weave stamp. For a basic set of tools for Sheridan carving, you'll need at least 2 bevelers: a big one and a smaller one, a couple of pear shaders, crescent stamps, veiners, seeders and at least one backgrounder. Also, a good swivel knife is essential for any sort of tooling. If you want to do basket weaving, buy a good basket weave stamp. But again, it depends on what type of carving you like doing. My instructor recommended I buy a basket stamp, when I asked him what tools I should buy to supplement the ones that came with my beginner's kit. I soon found I don't enjoy basket weave stamping - I prefer something more creative - so my basket weave stamp is sitting unused in my tool rack!

Thanks, Fred!

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing! I was wondering why very few of the knives had tangs or hand guards, then saw where you said most of them were for eating. Yes, of course, in medieval times, they only had knives for eating. The fork is a more modern invention: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork#:~:text=Although its origin may go,barjyn was in limited use. Beautiful workmanship!

Last I checked, the number one reason for personal bankruptcies in the U.S. was medical bills. You guys are the only developed country in the world that does this to its citizens. Since I'm a senior, my drug cost is only a $75.00 a year deductible. There's the odd drug not covered by the provincial plan, but that's extremely rare. In my entire cancer treatment my biggest expense has been for parking! Next biggest - snacks while in the hospital. And that stopped back in March when they closed everything down due to the virus... The parking fee is back, now, but for awhile I didn't have to pay that, either. So far, I've only needed the magnifier reading glasses for leatherwork, but I've always had very good eyesight. Good lighting is very important, so I installed a fluorescent tube right over my work area. If that weren't ever enough, I'd go with the headband magnifier.

Thank you! It was my first time trying to line a bag, and it was really a challenge. Also, the dye didn't want to go on evenly on the front panel, so I had to apply numerous coats, while trying to protect the Celtic design in the center. Yeah, without pictures of an assembled bag, that would be hard to figure out. Maybe there's someone out there who's actually done this same bag who can help. If you posted pictures of the pieces of the bag, that might help too... I mean, there's only so many ways something like that can go together!

The vertical bag had a pocket on the outside (front of the bag) and on the back, but the inside was open. Here's some pictures of mine - I lined the inside with pigskin, and whipstiched the edge of the front pocket to hide a skivving accident! For assembling most bags, you usually put the bottom layers together first. Then attach the straps to the gussets, and stitch the gussets in place*. The flap can go on at pretty much any time in the assembly. Those bottom layers were a b***h to sew because there were so many, and you had to make sure you got them in the correct order! If I were ever doing a similar bag, I'd eliminate at least one of the pockets, or make it so the pocket wasn't one of the layers at the bottom. When I was putting the gussets in place, I was sewing through FIVE layers of leather! * With the straps being sewn in, I probably could have done it after I assembled the bag. But if you're using rivets, it would be easier to do it before! (I actually don't remember if I did it before or after, I just remember doing a lot of cursing when sewing the gussets!) Make SURE you tack the layers together before sewing. That will help reduce the amount of swearing!

There's a video online for the vertical kit, but it's so sped up, don't know if it would be any help. Also, the narrator talks about how helpful and easy to follow the printed instructions were...

I am fairly sure I have the instructions for that bag. Is this it? https://tandyleather.ca/collections/kits/products/messenger-bag-kit-vertical Edit: okay, you said horizontal, not vertical...but looking at the two bags, i THINK the instructions would be similar. https://www.amazon.ca/HORIZONTAL-MESSENGER-BAG-LEATHER-TANDY/dp/B00GUTKUJQ

The leather used in Tandy kits often isn't the best quality, unfortunately!

Working great now! Thank you for the fix!

[sigh!] I AM using Chrome!

I've changed several settings, but am still having the message pop up every time I want to go to another area of the site, or post something. I can't even open my 'Notifications' right now, even though the site settings say that notifications are allowed! Arrrrgh!!

I got the following message this morning when I tried to log onto the site. It also popped up every time I tried to open a topic: Your connection is not fully secure This site uses an outdated security configuration, which may expose your information (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards) when it is sent to this site. NET::ERR_SSL_OBSOLETE_VERSION Hope the admins can fix this soon!! What a PITA!

Following....

Can't say I have, but I once bought a cheap chequebook cover made out of eelskin that stank of mildew. This smells like that expensive leather jacket you know you can't afford to buy. I really really, got a very nice gift from a man who was cleaning out his house in preparation for a move. Both the feel and the smell of this leather say 'excellent quality' to me.

It smells like leather, not urine. I'm not an expert in judging leather, but it seems to be quite high quality.