battlemunky

Milling softens the milled leather so mill it. Like @Dwight says, roll it around a dowel or something similar. You work it and it'll soften a bit. It's manual milling.

Those are quite badass @maxdaddy.

I really like my Frog Jelly maul. It is a bit cheaper than a Barry King which is why I got it. I don't have a BK maul so I can't compare but I do know the Frog Jelly maul is pretty sweet. Here is the one I have.

Pretty!

Beautiful.

It's tough to pull off wet forming and carving on the same holster but you did. I am digging the red. I'm not digging the belt loop slot. You can try and clean that up by hitting the edge with a beveler and then burnishing it. I myself need to get a bag punch because I always end up with less than clean slots too.

Buckleguy is where I end up getting most of my hardware. They usually have pretty good stuff. Shipping is usually a bit steeper than I like to pay.

Beautiful work @stormcrow

I haven't made a bucket but I have made a beer mug. For a bucket I'd do things a little differently. I butted the edges together and stitched them. For a bucket, I'd butt the edges together but glue in a strip (either on the inside or the outside) and sew each edge to the strip. Sealing is pretty easy on a bucket since nobody will be drinking from it. You can waterseal it with all sorts of stuff. If you wanted to stay kind of people safe, you can use beeswax or paraffin or a mix of the two. If you want to just get it sealed, you should be able to use just about anything that'll seal up wood. My $.02. Post pics once you get it rolling.

Looks great! Thanks for icing the cake for me!

I picked up a centering ruler too, all because of this thread. I still haven't been sold on it but I haven't tried to find the center of anything yet either. It was 6 bucks at Hobby Lobby.

Really nice work! Got any pics of the edges? Sorry, I'm an edge guy

Looks awesome!

I know crap all about what it used to look like but I think both of these look great.

To be fair, that cheap Chinese maul from Amazon isn't a good judge of mauls. I had mine a week and it chipped and it, still to this day, scoots from the tap side to the top side when I use it. I picked up a rawhide round maul from Frog Jelly and it is quite different and better in a million ways compared to the Amazon maul. I'd suggest trying a better maul before giving up on them.

No sweat man. I have noticed that the low VOC dyes from Fiebings leaves the metallic sheen sometimes. I never can predict when that occurs so I've switched over exclusively to the pro dyes if I don't just get a dyed side. I understand Cali is a bit restrictive. Best of luck!

Looks really well made and your style in the tooling is nice! Unfortunately, I have no sewing machine advice other than you came to the right place. Someone with knowledge will be along shortly to help I'm sure.

That is a great design man! I love the mixed leathers!

Looks quite clean as well. Nice job!

Looks really cool!

One of the best bits of advice I have seen on here is to make 10 of something relatively simple. I did 10 simple wallets and the difference from the first to the 10th was really quite stark and the level of quality of everything seemed to go up after then as well. I think I learned that from @bikermutt07 posting that he learned it from someone else. I could be mistaken but it was solid advice either way. I'm not suggesting you do that, but as recommendations go, it ain't a bad one.

Yeah, try googling "antiquing leather" or search it on YouTube, it sounds like what you are looking for. Maybe?

Right on! I have a few files I've broken the temper on that I've been waiting to turn into knives. Its a lot of effort I just haven't found time to give it. Love those mosaic pins too dude. Looks great!

Yeah, I mean, how do we know it isn't just some broke off piece of mop handle or something? Any pics of the back? Looks like your stitching is pretty neat.

That is a huge improvement over plain tool handles. I'm going to have to try it one of these days.