battlemunky

Looks awesome Mutt. I'm working through my first bag right now, it's the messenger bag from Leodis' packet. I got Acadia's Ruby premium pull-up for my bag. First time with their leather. It is beautiful stuff but scratches a bit easier than I'd like to see., wishin' I'd have went with the Crazyhorse after seeing yours. Any reason you went with punched holes over slanted ones? Your stitching is so damned nice I thought you'd have went traditional. Don't get me wrong, the round holes look great on this, just curious is all.

I can only echo everyone else. You are a master at this good Sir! Yet another amazing piece. Regarding painting vs not...I love to follow along with the progress. I'm stunned by the unpainted one and then am always afraid it'll be somehow less after you paint it but so far you haven't let me down. @toxo, a journey of 1,000 miles (or km ) starts with a single step. Grab some leather and start googling and you'll find some starter advice. @ABHandmade has a few tutorials of how he does it on here as well. There is some building up of the underside with other leather, some molding and shaping, etc. First though, you gotta do it, and in this case, likely fail a whole bunch first dozen tries or so, and then one day we'll all be drooling over your stuff like we do ABH's.

Pretty cool. Glad I could help! Word of caution though, those facets created from the grinder may contribute to miss striking when using leaving you with an unclean hit. If you find you are having some inconsistency you may want to try and sand it more evenly. Good luck and keep posting!

That is great work! Makes that bike pop.

How'd it work out?

Yep, belt sander. I've reshaped mine before but from mushrooming/wear. I don't have any idea how that happened either.

There really is no right or wrong but there sure is what makes life easier. I use size 2 John James harness needles. I broke more CS Osborne needles than was sensible, then once I've switched to JJ needles, I think I've broken 1 needle in the last two years. I wish they sold shirts...

That looks great! I love the appliques of thicker leather on the corners and under the rivets. Is it just an open tube on the inside or is there any divider or anything?

We get those annoying "free" "news"papers flung onto the driveway every week. They never have anything in them except ads. It's really littering IMO. In an act of rebellious retribution, I use them to line my dye table and just peel off the affected layers until its clean to dye on again. I've turned an annoyance into a supply.

Yeah....this one is going to be worth following. Lookin' quite badass already.

Looks pretty good to me. If you need to make another pair you can fix any of the things that bug you. Thanks for your service @Stewart. My son is a sailor, almost finished with sub school.

Nah, that old thing...need to send it to me so I can throw it out for ya! Your tooling has come a long way @YinTx. I hope when I can give my time to it I pick it up as well and as fast as you.

And now I do too ;). Thanks @DJole

Great question. Unfortunately, I don't know the cause or the solution. I don't see it on any of my stuff though and I have no idea what I could be doing differently. What kind of leather is it? I use mainly HO full sides but have used some Tandy double shoulders and don't see it. Is it belly perhaps? Outside of the cut of leather, I'm kind of just here to see an answer myself...

Another "holy crap!" level piece of work Sir. I can only hope that someone wants to pay you good sums of money to do this work for them someday. This is outstanding!

I'm pretty sure the plans are in Stohlman's Handstitching manual. I'll have to check and get back to you though unless someone beats me to it. Edit: Yep, on or about page 68 or so.

I'm envious, that looks awesome! I have a Frogjelly rawhide maul and its great but I really want to make my own. I really like the Frogjelly maul though. I have a Chinesium one too and it chipped

Thanks for the detailed reply @MudBugWill.

That is really pretty! I'll ditto the clean lines and stitching and braids. Looks fantastic!

Beautiful job. I like the red thread too, its not quite a contrast but is off color enough from the leather to catch your eye. You done good Sir.

Looks great and yeah, about those fingers....gotta still be screaming at you.

@ScoobyNewbie, I've heard that the pro dyes have a different pigment that does penetrate better and the alcohol dyes has more of a powder pigment that leaves some on the surface. Regarding the waterstains, I have a few things that I used green waterstain on and on the corners where they come into contact with pockets and other things, they have rubbed off with time and leave behind a dark brown due to inside pocket burnishing/polishing. It doesn't look bad and actually has some character but if I bought a green sheath, I want it to stay green. As far as waterfastness goes, if you get a water soluble thing into some water, you are going to have some leach out/off. I've seen this with the sheath I have; a little rain or snow and it does transfer color. I've also noticed that the waterstain is a little finicky with streaking when applying. I don't dislike them outright but I don't get anywhere close to the consistency with them as I do the pro dye. For the 50 cents more (or so) per bottle, I'm willing to pony that up from now on. Many of the brown waterstains are quite nice but I've sorta commited to the pro dyes before I used more of the waterstain products.

Looks great Yin! What is the spirit stitch though?

All of it looks really nice!

Nice job!