battlemunky

Usually, once you go darker, it's reeeeeally difficult to go lighter. I don't know how to lighten it, personally. This may ruin it (<----disclaimer), but you could try soaking it in water or mineral spirits for a bit to try and leach out the color but I don't know if you're ever going to get it back to the original shade.

I have poly and rawhide mauls and rawhide mallets. Unfortunately, they each have their place so I can't give a recommendation for "one smashing device to rule them all". My rawhide maul is from Frog Jelly and it has been excellent. I'm not affiliated with them, it's just served me well over the last 5 years of near daily whackin' with little signs of stopping. I have a cheap poly maul from Amazon that I don't recommend...it has chipped with what I'd consider normal use. It is cheap though. I have another poly maul that is excellent but I forget the mfg.

Two ideas, one similar to the hockey tape suggestion is road bike handle bar tape. The other is to get some polymeric clay and make it custom to exactly how you will hold the tool. I don't have the numbness issue and have thought about making the clay handles myself. It is pretty easy to use and quite forgiving until you bake it to cure.

This^^^ Beautiful package Chuck.

I like it @Gulrok. It sounds like you are making a great shop. Just remember that if you wouldn't use it yourself, or pay top dollar for it, customers shouldn't be expected to either. Don't forget that and you'll be just fine. I think that is where a few of the big names in leather have lost me.

You are correct, that IS interesting.

All of that is ridiculously awesome.

You have to at least admit to being a little deceptive in the way you approached things from your first post @Zack00. Congrats, we all know what laser engraving is and where to get everything we need to do it. Please get to sharing your own work and how you execute it or figure out how to sell your wares and/or other people's stuff some other way.

Indeed. Let a set of mouse ears even try to make it onto anything and you'll be sued to Never-Neverland and back. Ahhhh, good catch. Brave soul clicking on links like that.

It only seems thick until you've worked with the thick stuff... Also, always wet it before bending it or it's likely to crack at the peak of the fold.

Is the liner glued? I'd think that if the liner was glued it would help to limit stretching/hogging... "Limit stretching/hogging" is a qualitative statement, certainly, but if you just glued the edges and not the entire piece then maybe that is adding to it? If not, maybe some card stock or manila folder glued in between the liner and the main body? The "right" leather is probably the answer, but (!), if you have to burn up a side of the milled stuff, there may be some solutions along the way to help that. I think it looks wonderful though...

I strop my BK awl often and haven't even had to touch it up on the sharpener and its been a few years. Still buttery smooth. It'll make a hole in people leather pretty easily too. I've got a few other cheaper awls and that BK seems to get me more often than the others for some reason.

Thanks @chuck123wapati but these are some of my shabbiest pieces. As with anything from when you start out, you tend to appreciate the early stuff less. Having said that though, they haven't budged in nearly 10 years. These were drilled holes and lots of stitching mistakes, etc., and it rides a little high. I've been meaning to remake them but why when they are perfectly functional, ya know? I'm way happier with those homemade micarta scales than I am the sheath on the green one. That was a blast to make! Also, the screw holes aren't really that noticeable and I've used it for hours. @riy, one thing you may want to do too is strip the paint off, it'll carve and baton way easier. If you want to preserve the "BK-2" you can get some circuit board etchant and it'll stay after you strip it. That paint is great but it makes everything a little harder to accomplish. You can also force a patina in a different pattern using mustard if you wanted, it'll help with corrosion. And sorry for hijacking the thread

Well don't let my criticism discourage you from getting out there with it. I've made a ton of stuff with it from spears to fuzz sticks to and it has done all of it. Food prep is where it sucks...that 1/4 inch blade wrecks a lot of stuff like carrots and taters. In the field that doesn't matter so much though. It is a great camp knife that, like most knives, does a few things well and others as well as you can expect for something not meant to do them. Fun fact: my BK-2s were the first things I made sheathes for and are what got me into this hobby/small businessy thing..

Sweet!

Well first, I think that looks great and any distortion is adding to the character. Second, looking at that leather, it looks milled so it'll be quite a bit softer than unmilled vegtan and more susceptible to distorting. Without seeing how you've been using it (front pocket, back pocket, riding a tractor, sweating on it in different sitting/kneeling positions, how much and what type of stuff you carry) I am going with the softer hand of the leather. Again though, I think it looks better than fine and is wearing well.

Glad you are back at it Stewart!

@kseidel, those examples hurt my sensibilities how good they are. Man is it well executed! I'm not a huge fan of traditional western carving but when it is excellent, it's impossible not to appreciate it.

If you can get a Barry King awl, his are sharp out of the box. I've heard Leather Wranglers are too but LW's are this side of the pond and I can't verify personally because I've only heard not experienced myself. Also, a vice and some sandpaper will likely cost you less than either of the two I mentioned.

And be careful @Frankster, many of us started under the guise of "there ain't no way I'm paying that much for X, I'll just make it myself" and then a few thousand bucks later you find you have enough skills and equipment to run a small hobby business. It is totally worth it though! There was just no way I was going to pay $75 for a knife sheath...

Yeah man, beautiful knife, sheath, and scales. Great looking work!

I just learned this the other day...you want the edge not too slick when using edge paint, for veg tan anyway, so I guess since chrome is hard to slick anyway that the paint probably wants a little bit of fiber to hold on better anyhow. By all means try it and whatever works best, use it!

Tokonole works better but I haven't encountered anything that works as well as painting or rolling the edge and stitching. Its better than gum trag but not an elegant solution, especially if you can't get a good bevel on your edge due to it being too floppy/supple.

Oh really, which Becker? I have a few BK-2s and a couple BK-16s. The 2s are a bit too beefy but its always good to know if you need to beat your way out of a dumpster, you have the option of doing so. The 16s are wonderful all around users. Most of the Beckers are badass knives. As far as skivers go, I grabbed Tandy's largest French Skiver when I was first starting out and didn't know any better. It's good for edging the lips of holes so you can eke out the use of a line 24 snap but mine sucks as a normal skiver. Those red handled Japanese skivers from Amazon are pretty good and look pretty ambidextrous but not being a lefty I honestly don't know how to rightfully discern but they do work better than my French Skiver does. Not even sure of it's a Tandy thing or no, mine is pretty sharp and smooth, just doesn't bite well enough to do any real skiving.

I really love the sentiment behind it! Does it have a bottom like a dice cup? Congrats to your son too, by the way!