Sheilajeanne

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.

Yes, that was a good movie! Okay you stamped the letters WTF on the mask, but this doesn't show on the finished mask. Did you do that just for fun? Cool mask - should do well in the raffle!

I had some very bad, hairy leather from Tandy that was to be the straps on a tote bag. Sanding and burnishing didn't do much of anything, so I applied gum trag followed by atom wax. That smoothed things out, but the leather became very stiff. I really didn't want to put neatsfoot oil on it in case it would rub off on someone's clothing, but finally put a light coating on it, and it did help. Would be most happy to hear other people's solutions!

Toxo, one thing I'm not clear on is what sort of fry you've hatched out. Are they fish, or amphibians? Years ago, when I was raising tadpoles, and wasn't sure what to feed them, my nature encyclopedia (Comstock's) said to give them some tulip leaves, but first, I had to peel the membrane off the leaves so they could easily get to the pulp. That worked really well.

Please keep us posted! I used to teach at an outdoor ed. school, so this is right up my alley! Loved giving inner city kids dip nets, and letting them poke around in the pond to see what they could find...one of them found a Eastern painted turtle that had had 3 of its 4 legs bitten off by a raccoon. I took it home, nursed it back to health, and kept it as a pet for many years. Called him Stumpy. Edit: I remember those Sea Monkey ads!

Yes, that is very similar! And I can tell from the feel of the leather that it's definitely high quality, so could be Horween.

Okay, here are the photos. First one show flesh and grain sides, next one shows tanner's stamp.

Could be, but wouldn't Nubuck have a definite nap to it? I did read the Wikipedia description of Nubuck, and yes, the leather did darken temporarily when I applied water. The colour is similar to the nubuck shoe shown on the page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nubuck#:~:text=Nubuck (pronounced %2Fˈnjuː,may be white or coloured. As for latigo leathers, the ones I've seen are very shiny on the grain side, due to the waxes and oils used to repel moisture. This leather isn't. Will get some pics up ASAP.

Lovely work! I'm very impressed! I tried Celtic knotwork before, and I SUCKED at it! I've never seen a strap going between the ears like that before though! What's the purpose of that?

I don't think this leather is chrome tanned. In my rather limited experience with leathers other than veg tanned, I would think chrome tanned would feel like a leather couch. This is much finer than that, like I said, it feels like suede, but without the nap. Will post a picture soon. Oh, and the flesh side looks natural to me, not like a split. But again, could be wrong...