Sheilajeanne

Although you need more practice with your stitching, and need to learn how to make nice finished edges, your carving and tooling are amazing for a beginner! There's a sticky thread on edge finishing here:

Glad to know that! I'm sure the goat doesn't care... I am a bit surprised you didn't put a D-ring in the collar. I guess you just loop a tie rope through the collar when tethering him in the trailer?

Blemish? If you can find a blemish on that collar, your eyes are better than mine, and the last time I had them checked, they were 20/20! I AM kind of wondering why you punched so many holes in it. If this were a young, growing goat, I'd understand, but the neck of a mature billy isn't going to get any smaller!

Okay, someone has to give this the response it deserves... [slaps immiketoo]

As a lefty, this is one of my favourite plays on words: The left in Canada (meaning the political left!) is more gauche than sinister. BTW, as someone who is seriously hearing impaired, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT play background music in videos!! And if there is some way you can include accurate closed captioning, that's a wonderful benefit as well. Many of the closed captioning videos I've seen are a total joke.

Stole this from the Canadian Leathercrafter's FB page...sorry, too funny not to share!

Yes, training a dog not to pull is done mostly with treats. I don't even bother with a leash at first, because I do the initial training indoors. But once you move outside, a leash is necessary for safety. For a full grown large dog that's a determined puller, I use a prong, then, like you, transition to a regular collar or choke chain once the dog has learned not to pull. Harnesses are MEANT for pulling...that's why huskies wear them when they are working! All that B.S. about a flat collar, choke chain or prong damaging the neck? How about a dog in a harness pulling its owner out into traffic, or towards another dog, and starting a dog fight? Believe me, I've seen it happen! TEACH YOUR DOG NOT TO PULL, then it won't matter what it's wearing! Like you said, show leads are like shoelaces - if the dog pulls, the lead is going to break!

I can send you a PM about that. I do some pretty advanced obedience! :D

Large dog collars need to be pretty thick. Also, I would use bridle leather or latigo, as these have a harder temper, are designed to resist the elements, and are less likely to stretch. Oh, and you can also teach your dog NOT to pull. That helps, too! :D Edit: just realized you want to tool the collar, which makes my suggestions invalid. Darn! So, my revised suggestion would be to use a heavier weight of veg tan, then treat it with any of the numerous products available for making veg-tan resistant to the elements. Ask 5 people, you will likely get 5 different answers. Being a former horse person, I would clean the collar with a sponge that has one of those mildly abrasive nylon scrub pads on the back, then apply saddle soap. I find my dog's coat is oily enough that I've never had to use Neatsfoot oil to soften the leather. I have a plain leather collar, about 7 oz., which has been used on multiple dogs since 1984, and has held up just fine. The stitching is starting to fray, though, and will likely need replacing soon.

Looks like you're going to need some Oil of Olay....

Hey, Bob, just curious - are you in the town of Simcoe, or Simcoe County (like me - I am near Alliston.) Hope to be there, too!

Johanna, that's why I asked what the face of that beveler looked like. Not sure I want to wait a year, if I can find a similar one from another tool maker... Bob doesn't even have a catalogue on his website so I couldn't check it out there.

It sure did, Mike! So, uh, is Bob still making tools? I really like that beveller! What does the surface of it look like?

Mike, I'm curious to know where that pattern you used came from! I've never seen one like that before - I've only seen Tandy Craftaid patterns. Great video! I learned a lot from watching you work!

Yup, we have a winner! :D I had a huge crush on Chris George, and Gary Raymond certainly wasn't hard on the eyes, either... It only ran for 2 seasons, so a lot of people don't remember it.

Here's a sketch I did when I was about 15. Bonus points if you can identify the TV show it's from. I never quite finished the jeep - it was hard to find a reference photo to get the details EXACTLY right! (Pre-internet days...lol!)

LOL, immiketoo! I know I have a bit of artistic talent. I used to do pencil sketches of my favourite movie, TV and rock stars when I was in my early teens. My mom was quite surprised because she had a sister who was a professional artist (studied at Ontario College of Art) so she KNEW the human face and figure were one of the hardest things to do well. I really wish I'd kept it up. I also used to sketch horses a lot, but that didn't go anywhere either. I look at what people are doing on the Art of the Horse FB page and feel like I have NO talent whatsoever... But, maybe, maybe I'll get the confidence to try it someday with my leather work... Oh, yeah, and EXACTLY what Bob Blea said above! Even when using Craftaids and other designs from the Net or from Tandy, I often want to tinker with them and add my own personal touch. Maybe it's just resizing the design, or changing a couple of things to make it fit better. You learn by doing this, rather than slavishly copying the same design again and again.

Leong, just have to say that is one BEAUTIFUL backpack! Lovely detailing, lovely carving and stitching...

I agree with this. My goal in leather working is not to find the most efficient way of churning out dozens of copies of the same item, but to learn how to produce something that is both functional and beautiful. But trying to find that line where craft leaves off and art begins is pretty well impossible.

Immekitoo, I belong to a FB page called Art of The Horse. I am constantly amazed at the quality of work posted by people on that page. One of the most common things you see on that page other than artwork, are reference photos. Yes, even the superb artists on this page STILL need something to copy from. I also know a couple in the States. The husband is a full-time artist, and the wife is both an artist and a writer. BOTH of them use models for their artwork. She wanted to put a crow on the cover art of one of her books, and had to import a museum specimen from England. He often has his wife dress up in period costumes for some of his artwork, so he can take photos to use as a reference for his work. (He likes to do buccaneer and pirate art, and has been the artist for the Captain Morgan ads for many years.) It's the same with leather work. IMO, 90% of what we do is in the execution of our craft. 10 leather workers can start out with the same design and same pattern, and produce 10 very different results, depending on their skill level. I have seen some eye-popping work from newbies to this craft, but inevitably when you ask about the person's background, you find out they have been in some other type of art/craft BEFORE picking up a swivel knife for the first time, so the artistic skills have carried over. No one picks up a paint brush or drawing pencil or a swivel knife and beveler for the first time and does a beautiful job worthy of being submitted to a juried show. There's a learning process involved. The design is just the beginning. Before the internet, there were Al Stohlman's books, with their beautiful designs and pictures. These were even better than what you can find on the net: they gave step-by-step instructions for producing both Sheridan carving, and beautiful western scenes that contained all sort of figures. It was an art course in a book. How many of us could follow his instructions and produce results that equaled his the first time around? Heh...are you laughing at yourself yet? Maybe one day after I've done 10 or 20 or 30 Sheridan carvings, designed by someone else, I'll feel up to the task of creating my own. And maybe after I've done a dozen figure carvings, using Al's work, or a Craftaid template, I'll have the confidence to draw something of my own, and put it on leather. But we all have to start somewhere, and even the best artists started out copying a photo, a model, or someone else's work. The only difference is the net has made these things easier to find.

LOL, I know what you mean! I'm not a red-head, but have enough Celtic genes to need sunscreen when I go outside in summer. Is Frisket for leather only, or can you buy it in other craft stores?

That is one gorgeous table! Well worth restoring, that's for sure! :D

Beautiful! Here are my two girls, Eska and Star: The poodle belonged to my mom, and the black dog in the other photo belonged to a room-mate. As you can see, he and Star got along very well! The other German shepherd in the first photo was my male GSD, Ranger, who passed away at the age of 14.

Trish, I believe you have to have a certain number of posts before you can post photos. You could post the photo elsewhere, and give us a link here, though.

WOW! That is gorgeous! I am a German shepherd person, too. Would love to try that myself for one of my dogs, but not sure I have the talent. Can we see the inside, please? And is that hand stitching or machine stitching? (Very nice stitching, regardless!)