Sheilajeanne

Very nice! Was that picture done with a laser printer?

Mike, when my dad was a lad, he slept on a mattress stuffed with corn shucks. Occasionally, the sharp end of one of the shucks would be poking him, and he'd have to pummel the mattress with his fist to re-arrange the stuffing! I think the mattresses were home-made. He was one of 10 kids in a farming family. Never would have thought of a cobbler making mattresses, either!

One of the most important tools for doing leashes and collars is a good strap cutter. That should be your first purchase. You probably will not want to buy large quantities of leather at first. A good alternative is to look for belt blanks on sale. The leather is already finished and dyed on some blanks, or if you want to tool it, just get the natural veg tan blanks. Strap leather is also frequently available on sale at Tandy. If you just want to add 'bling' to collars, you won't need stamps, just setting tools and punches and tools for finishing and slicking edges, such as an edge beveler and edge slickers. Edges can be slicked manually, or you can go high tech and use an electric drill or bench grinder motor, and attach the slicker to that.

Lovely tooling great design...uh, are those zip ties holding it to the crutch?? Hey, they have their uses...lol!

Does leather dye work on them? What sort of dye do you use?

Trigger, Roy's palomino horse, was so famous, he got second billing in most of Roy's movies! When the original Trigger died, Roy had him stuffed, and put him in his museum. Unfortunately, visits at the museum dropped off after Roy's death, and his son, Roy Jr. closed it and auctioned everything off: https://www.csmonitor.com/From-the-news-wires/2010/0716/Roy-Rogers-Trigger-along-with-dog-Bullet-sold-to-Nebraska-TV-network-at-auction That's Bolin's saddle, breastplate, and (I'm guessing ) bridle that Trigger is still wearing. P.S. The guy holding Roy's guitar in that picture has NO CLUE what he's doing!!

Will someone please tell E-bay that Canada is NOT overseas!! Okay, it's probably because you said you'd only sell to buyers within the continental U.S.A. Edit: earlier this year, I sold a large-ish batch of stamps to someone in the U.S., after advertising them on this board. I just wrapped them up really well, and let the local post office calculate the shipping, which the buyer reimbursed me for via PayPal. It was quite simple! Would have been even simpler if the second person who wanted the stamps had spoken sooner...THEY lived within easy driving distance!

I can see that you have a 100% positive rating though, with 995 transactions. That's pretty impressive!

Yes, I did, and it returned 0 items. It could be because E-bay is not letting me sign in. Edit: I am now signed in to E-Bay, and it is still returning 0 results for your account.

dprezgay, there's nothing listed for sale under your user name on E-bay. Did you sell them all?

I didn't think you doubted me. But I wanted to post a bit of eye candy for a horse lover and former Roy Rogers fan... (me!). He was a pretty special guy - adopted orphaned children no one else wanted. The day his little Downs syndrome girl died from mumps, his manager had to literally pull him away from a crowd of young admirers he was signing autographs for. He said he 'didn't want to disappoint the kids.'

So, I was right about the Roy Rogers saddle...

I am a member of a FB group called Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. Spider Robinson fans will understand When someone makes a really bad joke like that, we throw peanuts at 'em... 8888888888888888888

No doubt he did this saddle for Roy Rogers and Trigger! I think that type of edging was sort of a signature of his work: And I think this is the same saddle the stuffed Trigger was wearing in the Roy Rogers Museum. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F360076932679590293%2F&psig=AOvVaw3dSEXflah5KCc3KZRDlAkH&ust=1568753124688000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCMijkfma1uQCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAk

Interesting question! Following.... The only drawback I can think of is the wood stain might contain chemicals that are irritating to human skin, and most leather items do touch our skin at some point.

Hi, another resident of Ontario here! Very nice bag! The local Tandy store had some golden elk hide available the second last time I was there. It was absolutely GORGEOUS, but oh, was it EXPENSIVE!! In spite of that, it was sold out by the time of my next visit... Where do you get your elk hide, and what did it cost per square foot? Another question...I am very interested in porcupine quill work. Do you know of anyone who does it, and could help me learn? The sewing looks fairly straightforward. It's cleaning and dyeing the quills I'd like help with.

Fred, my vet sold me a box of 100 1 ml. syringes for $20. I'm good to go for a looong time!

I use 1 ml. syringes for measuring dye and transferring it from the dye bottles to my painting palette. One thing I notice is the rubber plungers on the syringes seize up after awhile, and don't want to slide through the syringe barrel. Then, of course, when they do move, there's so much pressure on them that the dye comes out really fast. This would really make a mess if I was using a syringe and needle for painting, and not just transferring the dye. (I don't need needles for transferring the dye, of course.) Some general tips for dyeing that I've picked up, and which you may/may not know already. When dyeing, a little goes a really long way. A 60 ml. syringe would be way, way too big. If I were working with a large project like a messenger bag, I might use a 3 ml. syringe for measuring and mixing dye, but would never need anything larger. Dye is usually diluted about 50/50 with denatured alcohol. One of the biggest risks when working with dye is spilling it and ruining your project. That's why I NEVER leave an open bottle of dye on my work surface. I take what I need out of the bottle, wipe the cap so it doesn't stick next time I need it, then recap it and put it away. I have some heavy bottomed glass shot glasses that I use when I'm dyeing. They are less likely to tip than light-weight containers. I used to use disposable plastic shot glasses (also used as medication cups in hospitals) but they were too easy to tip. Many leather workers have designed something to hold their dye containers when dyeing to keep them from tipping. One person has something like a wooden test tube rack with holes in it just the right size for the containers, which like mine, are the size of shot glasses. If I'm working with a small project or dyeing a really small area, I use a plastic painting palette, like the ones Tandy sells. The little cups only hold about a maximum of 1 ml. which really helps reduce the mess if something spills! Going to look into those needle bottles - they would DEFINITELY come in handy for dyeing small areas!

I think the pink one is a rivet setter.

If you are talking about leather thickness, I found this handy chart online, and have it on the side of my computer: https://www.tandyleather.com/en/leather-buying-guide.html

And to complicate things, most dyes contain alcohol. Some things that aren't soluble in water are soluble in alcohol, so if the sharpie ink is touching a dyed area next to the letter, that can cause problems, if the dye isn't completely dry! Always wise to do a test piece first!

I now know why my mother purchased a Seamstress sewing machine during the 1940's rather than a Singer. For most of the first half of the 20th century, the demand for Singer sewing machines exceeded the supply, so no doubt, they were more expensive to buy than other brands. I remember my mom telling me the Seamstess was cheaper, and if she'd bought a Singer she would have been paying more just for the name. A lot of the clothing I wore in the 1950's was sewn on that machine, and my sister-in-law, who is the sewer in my family, took it when my mom died at the age of 92. I don't know if it will ever be used again, as she has her own modern machine, but it's nice to know it's still in the family.

Those photos inspired me to look up the history of the Singer company on Wikipedia. Interesting read! Thank you for the photos.

Hello, Frodo, and welcome from a fellow Lord of the Rings fan! I have a dog named Star of Hope, and used to have one named Ranger Aragorn. You'll find the people here are pretty much a great bunch, and very willing to help newbies!

It's awesome the stuff I learn here, some of which has very little to do with leather working! Until this evening, I knew pretty much squat about sand casting! I had no idea the sand could be made to hold it shape, or that there could be a secondary mold inside the first one so the resulting piece was hollow inside.