Sheilajeanne

Thank you, Mick and Bikermutt!

Where can I find knobs like that? I'd like to try to make my own pony!

The tools you need depend quite a bit on what type of work you are going to do. If you want to do Sheridan carving, you'll need seeders, mulefoots, veiners, camouflage stamps and pear shaders. If you just want to do borders or geometric stamps you'll need basket weave stamps, crescent camouflage stamps, and other tools that look good on borders. A tool that's indispensable for doing flowers is the undercut beveller, Tandy B 60.

Just an FYI that may help: leathers OTHER than veg-tan won't burnish at all, or won't burnish well. Edge paint is your friend when using them.

Tell me about it! Yeah, I figured the hardware wasn't what Tandy provided. I just finished a Molly tote bag, and the next step is lining it. That's a WHOLE 'nother learning experience, as I found out with the first bag I lined! This one will have pockets and zippers, while the first one was just a plain liner. Nice job of upping Tandy's stock tooling pattern to something more beautiful and complex!

Very nice! I am just finishing up a Tandy tote, so I have some idea of how much work that was, especially with all that beautiful tooling and stamping! Did you line it, or is that the natural flesh side of the leather? And did the kit include all that nice hardware?

Celtic Print, in my neck of the woods, I often come across them as road kill. I carry a small pair of pliers in my car, and if the carcass is fresh and not too badly mangled, and it's safe to do so, I will hop out of my car and start harvesting! I haven't made anything with the quills yet, but it feels good that part of the animal will be put to some use. Haven't had to harvest any from my dogs yet...touch wood!

Scooby, planning to make some moccasins, and want to decorate them with quills. Using this book as a guide, though I'm definitely NOT trying to do anything nearly as fancy as that cover photo! https://www.amazon.ca/Quillwork-Companion-Illustrated-Techniques-Embroidery/dp/0943604257

I am still organizing stuff from my move - haven't gotten back into leather working yet, but made a big step forward today when I unpacked several of the boxes that had my tools in them! Had to be careful -one of them contained some porcupine quills that had escaped from their bags!

That's the same design we used for our project. Looking at it, I can see the lifter was Craftool B60, not U851, which is a mulefoot stamp. There are some nice designs there! Three of those flowers are provincial emblems for Canada: the trillum (Ontario) the dogwood (B.C.) and the wild rose (Alberta). Think I'm going to download that sheet!

When I took the basic leather crafting course at Tandy, a maple leaf coaster was one of our projects. The only tool that wasn't in the basic kit was a petal lifter (U 851). Here's the pattern we used: Let me know if you can download it okay. If not, I will scan it as a .jpg file. The arrows point to where the petal lifter was needed. Our instructor let us borrow one for the project. Everything else was just basic cutting and beveling and a bit of pear shading! Edit: oops, there are no arrows on the diagram. The lifter was used in 4 spots, at the deepest part of the lobes of the leaf. If the leaf were a clock, that would be at 2, 4, 8 and 10. Here's the finished product. However, this was not my first effort! maple leaf .pdf

Well this sounds pretty good. Let's see what it produces going forward. Yes, I can't help but be a little skeptical! But on the other hand, my experience with Tandy has been more positive than negative. Again, I have to credit my mentor, Bill (God rest his soul!) with being far more interested in teaching his students than pushing Tandy's products.

I learned something new this morning: tr.v. tawed, taw·ing, taws. To convert (an animal hide) into white leather by treating it with a mixture containing alum and salt. [Middle English tawen, from Old English tawian, to prepare.] taw′er n. Since I didn't know this type of leather even existed until just now, I have no help to offer. Just putting this up here for others who are wondering what the heck 'alum tawed' leather is!

My basic leathercraft kit came with a wooden mallet. It was the ONLY thing it the kit that was pretty much worthless. It was just not heavy enough to make a good stamping impression. I soon replaced it with a medium weight polyethylene mallet and have used that ever since.

Many of my family are or were farmers at one time. I'm sure every dang one of them can tell you a machinery horror story that will curl your hair! Worst one I can think of was when one of my uncles let his teen son stand on the back of the tractor as it was pulling a disc harrow. It was only going to be for a short distance, so he thought it would be okay. He fell off and was run over by the harrow. He survived and still has all his body parts, but he was on crutches for a very long time!

Okay, I've fixed it! Funny, I thought if you reset the size for one website, all of them would be affected! Apparently that's not so, and I somehow accidentally reset this site to 80% of normal!

So, all of a sudden the type face on the site has shrunk to about half its normal size! I can barely read it! The ads still look as they normally do, but everything else has SHRUNK! And no it's NOT my computer! Other websites I visit are okay!

True story: guy manages to run over his foot with a lawn mower. When he goes to Emerg, he finds a cousin of his is on duty. The cousin asks to see the injury. After looking at it, the injured party asks "So, what do you think?" The cousin replies, "Well, I think your lawn mower blade needs sharpening. You've still got all your toes!"

Indeed! I play guitar, so I appreciate just how much even something like stabbing yourself with an awl or a needle can affect your playing ability!

Jazz, with your other hobby being so reliant on intact fingers, PLEASE be careful!!

My mother did an awful lot of peeling when she was keeping house for a family of four, and the blade of her peeler was razor sharp from use. One night, it slipped while she was peeling potatoes, and removed a sizable piece of her left pinkie! She bandaged it up, finished preparing dinner, and we all stat down and ate supper before she made a trip to Emergency to get it re-attached! I am still kicking myself for pooh-poohing the injury, ungrateful teenager that I was. I really though she was being overdramatic! There are times when parents are unsung heroes!

Chrisah, please note the original post is more than a year old!

If you are seeing halos around lights, get your opthalmologist to check you out. Could be the beginning of cataracts!

Tried to catch a box cutter knife I dropped once. ONLY once. Have a permanent split in my right thumb nail after damaging the thumb nail bed when a knife slipped (yes, I'm left-handed). But the best story of all is the one about the guy who decided to test the sharpness of a round knife with his thumb. I disremember who the owner of the round knife was, but he's on this board, so maybe he'll chime in! Yes, numerous stitches were involved!

I find I need to adjust my guitar strap depending on whether I am playing standing or sitting, so adjustable isn't a bad idea! Very nice piece of work!