swivelsphinx

I've been looking for a recommendation on hand-held sewing awls. Back in February, I called Campell & Randall's customer service, and asked for advice on which sewing awl might be appropriate for stitching with a CS Osbourne number 20 sewing needle. I own a "small" 1 5/8 diamond awl blade http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/3319-05.aspx, and I wanted something smaller. The customer service rep recomened that I purchase a #44 in their catalog, which I did. Unfortunately, this piece was *not* smaller- it's not the same size, it's noticably larger than the one I have. Would it be possible to get a better recommendation on a choice of sewing awls? I need one that is smaller than the 1 5/8 diamond point made by CS Osborne. Thanks!

You know, I've tried a variety of methods to get the chrome plating off of my pictorial stamps. I find that "weak acids" work well. While I can be impatient, slower is better- you can monitor the progress of the removal without having to worry about dissolving the softer metal underneath the chrome. I use straight white vinegar with ordinary salt at room temperature... about a teaspoon per half cup. Over night (that's 6-8 hours for me) I can see the chrome clearly peeled or in the process of peeling. I'll scrub the pieces down with a little baking soda or baking soda toothpaste. If I see real shiny spots, I rinse the tools off, and chuck 'em back in the solution. I've done this solution hot on the stove, and it works a little *too* fast- I worry about metal loss. Once I feel the chrome is removed, I rinse in baking soda and water, scrub in dish soap then air dry. I found that Rain-X was an excellent product to protect the stamps without interfering with my unfinished leathers.

I do all my stamping by hand. Sometimes I rotate a pictoral stamp incorrectly, and I prefer to re-do rather than have a badly placed marking. On veg tan, I flood the area with water/casing solution. I use "Bee Natural" which i get from Weaver leather. Once the stamped area is wetted down, I wait until it is about 1/2 dry, and start rupping the area with bone and/or wood tools. I will sometimes bend the stamped area over a hard but curved surface similar to a fleshing beam or a banister- it helps "pop" the area out so I can rub out the impression or deep scratch. I find this method works for areas I'm going to *restamp* best on 6oz and higher weights. I've even "erased" markings on hand dyed pieces that sat on the shelf for a long time! I had to flood the back, and re-finish, but you can't see the old impression at all. I've used this method to get rid of edge marks and scratches I've made with my nails when they've been very long (nearly 2 inches of acrylic glory) for upcoming special occasions. On lower weight leathers, the new impression may not take because the fibers may get to compacted by the rubbing.

Hi There! Thanks for the suggestion- I'm going to check that out! What I ended up doing was running the apholstry hides through a warm wash cycle with a cup or two of baking soda. I let the hides drip dry, then gave them a quick Saddle Soap treatment. This dulled the finishes significantly on all but one of the hides I washed, and the last one is still in good shape- still too stiff and shiny for my tastes. Best Wishes, The Swivelsphinx

Hi There! I just bought a "mystery selection" of soft bag leathers. They are pretty nice- no holes, brandy new- nice suede and top grain. However, the grain side is *wayyyy* too shiny for my tastes. I've found that rubbing the shiny side on unfinished wood surfaces does soften the glaring shine, but this is *terribly* slow. So, I'm trying running it through a conventional washing machine to see if I can break up the surface a bit more and cut serious time off of the job. Does anyone have a way they break the finish on upholstry leathers?

I actually did receive a reply... that they don't like to add categories but that they were willing to "take demand into account in the future". If they phase the category system out... I certainly wouldn't miss it much!

Yeah... messenger bags or their ancestor "the Pony Express" bag are pretty cool! I first fell in love with "the possibles bag" and went half-nuts looking for patterns... until realizing that over half of the "rustic" purse patterns Tandy has sold over the years are variants on this historically manly bag! I now affectionately refer to it as "that f*cking bag" because it seems to be *everywhere* in shooting magazines, old copies of "The Craftsman" and of course, on Ebay disguised as *purse patterns*. -The Swivelsphinx Thank you for the encouragement... I certainly gave myself the short stick when I thought 175.00 was adequate for this "experimental project". Now I try doing web searching on "going rates" for these things before taking a stab at pricing.... The Swivelsphinx

Tip on the outer pockets: - On the pockets, I have used the following options. I sew the gussets then the flaps on the outside of the bag *before* stitching on the fronts of the pockets. The fronts of these pockets can be sewn from mid-bottom *up* (middle to the left or middle to the right). I tend to hold everything in place with either Barge Cement or Testor's White Rubber cement. The other option I have used is to sew on your flaps and flare the gusset on your pre-assembled pocket *out* and sew it to the front of the bag facing *out* rather than tucking it in. If the pocket is wide enough, I can actually sew the flap on, assemble the pocket and then glue the seam of the assembled pocket so it does not show... to the front of the bag before *that* is attached to the main bag. That last option is how I did this one! The Swivelsphinx Yep... it's a kick to figure this stuff out... the kick in the *pants* is figuring out how much I *should* be charging! -The Swivelsphinx Well... I feel it's my *job* to be "my worst critic" rather than my customer! Best Wishes, The Swivelsphinx Arrgh... I'm embarrassed to say I charged 175.00 for this thing.... "next time" I would charge about $600.00 <br /><br Arrgh... I'm embarrassed to say I charged 175.00 for this thing.... "next time" I would charge about $600.00 <br /><br

Thank you!

You *are* right about tags... but really, I just feel that leatherwork deserves its own category... I mean sheeeeut.... knitting has one, and so does woodwork!

Thank you! This was my first inverted carving... had Stohlman's Inverted Carving book open the whole time by the bench!

Thank you. The background is a tan with yellow and a tiny bit of orange added. The white is layers of Fiebings white dye. I used a black acrylic antique to fill in the cuts.

What beautiful, clean lettering! I wish I could get my straight lines as crisp...

I work with a fair number of exotics. I primarily do costume collars. I have that edge problem as well. Here's a few things that seem to help: 1. Make sure to rough up *at least* the surface of whatever leather the scaled leather is going on. If its uber thin like snake, it's going to be difficult to impractical to rough up the exotic... however, when working with something a little thicker like carp, I'll go over the exotic with a l50-220 sand paper. 2. I use regular screaming death- yellow issue Barge cement too for my "first attempt at adherence". I try to remember to apply the skin on one edge then "roll it down" the rest of the surface- I'm fussy enough to trim off the excess with nail scissors or a cuticle cutter (looks like a really tiny light duty edger... good for lots of exotics I've used except stingray or shark.) I like to press it down with a heavy roller to avoid little air pockets. 3. If the edges still pop up and there's enough room to peel the layers back where they don't stick, I'll actually re-apply the barge as a contact cement. If there isn't even enough room to get a little brush with the thick goo in there, I like to use something more flexible... believe it or not, hide glue or even (DUN DUN DUN!)... Aileen's Tacky Glue. Then I clamp with heavy duty clothes pins with or without pads. Most of my projects end up flexing a lot while in use- if this was not the case, I'd use Gorilla's Super Glue. 4. When my shapes aren't sharply curved or highly irregular, I will cut the exotic in the right shape but purposely leave the edge a bit long- like a 1/2 inch or more on 6-8 oz leather. I glue everything down with barge, and muster the restraint to leave it alone overnight. Next day (or whenever I get back to the project) I get a nice soft paintbrush and wet the underside of the stick-out edge a little. I pull that over the entirety of the backing leather edge as tightly as it will go without separating the scales. After pressing all that into a smooth edge, I clip it all down with safety pins (usually with pads) and let that dry... with NO glue. Once it is dry, I'll gently peel that edge away enough to apply glue... since you sew your exotics on, you could leave enough of a "lip* *to sew through both the top and bottom edges. Sewn thusly- the edge is highly unlikely to pop up... ever.

Ok.... I've been doing custom leatherwork as a sideline for at least 4 years now. For starters, here's a bit of internal dialog that occurs far too often than is probably good for me: "Ooh! I've never done one of those! I bet I can do that!" This project ties for 1st place for a PITA award (PITA = Pain In the Ass). This older woman brought me a decrepit old backpack purse (purchased between 1986-1988) that had a zipper & snap closure under the flap, two outside pockets and shoulder straps....none of which I had done before. I had the old back pack taken apart as a model, some analog travel photos from all around the world featuring the back pack, and a slew of digital photos *I* took of the bag both inside out and outside out before I dissembled the darn thing. No pattern, no instructions... no sewing machine... just my collection of Stohlman books and a stack of Leathercraft magazines. Oh yeah... I *hate* working with soft leather on anything more complicated than a drawstring bag. I took up leatherwork with harder leathers in part because I am no good at working with cloth. Anything more complicated than a pillow case has the potential of driving me to tears. This bag was made of 2-3 oz "distressed cow" (MOOO! GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!) leather.... identical to what you will find in a "brown leather bomber jacket", The leather in the original bag was slightly thinner. I think what made me do it was that she had been sent by the local shoe repair shop.... apparently this bag had been patched and repaired over the last 12 years and they were sick of looking at it. The man at the desk said that his shop couldn't revive the poor little bag anymore (or wouldn't) and gave her my number. I almost didn't get photos of it the day of pick up. I finished the last stitches less than an hour or two before the customer's arrival. FYI: This bag took me more than 6 months to figure out before I was confident to even cut the pieces. What an arrogant little snot I can be... damn my helium hand! If I'm ever asked to do a project like this again, I'm charging 3-4 times as much as I charged this customer. Comments welcome I guess.... ( ;.

"XI" Knife Sheath : This is a second photo of a custom knife sheath featuring the Roman number "11". The band is made of diamondback snake skin. The knife was made by Shane Stainton of Red Dog Forge. The colors, theme, whipstitching, & placement of the numeral were requested by the customer. Comments are Welcome!

Hi There! I recently opened a store on Etsy. When I went to make my first listing, I was surprised that "leatherwork" did not have its own category. There are "bags and purses", but as we all know, that's just a *fraction* of what leatherworkers can do! I think it would help everyone who works in any kind of leather to get more business if "leatherwork" was recognized as a category. Like woodwork, leatherwork requires specialized skills, tools and materials. Woodworking is recognized, several forms of fiber arts are recognized... but not what we do! If "needlecraft" and "woodworking" have their own categories, we certainly deserve a way to have our customers find us by category selection too! If you would like to see "leatherworking" recognized as a category on Etsy, please hit the button that says "Contact Esty Support" and then select "Category suggestions" (or similar) as a topic and *tell* Etsy you'd like to see "leatherwork" recognized as a unique category in the search menu! If you sell on Etsy, if you BUY on Etsy, if someone you know sells or buys on Etsy, please spread the word! Thanks, Tannin Schwartzstein Etsy Store: TrueCraft swivelsphinx

I get polished water buffalo horn from http://www.atlanticcoralenterprise.com . Atlantic Coral has a nice Ebay store too. http://stores.ebay.com/Worldwide-Wildlife-Products It's good to keep an eye on both of their web catalogs.

Hi! That's pretty neat! I just made a molded leather holster for a 9mm Beretta (just added it to this chapter of "Forums"). I had never made a holster for a small firearm before (I used the old nylon holster as a template) , so I am very interested in learning more about structure options. On your holster for the R. I notice a leather plate was sewn onto the top section of the holster. Could you tell me if this serves a practical or aesthetic purpose? Thanks! Swivelsphinx

Hey All: This is a holster I made for a 9mm Beretta. Due to the fact that I do not have a firearms license or FID card, I bought the "training pistol" model in the photo to use for the molding work. This worked *very* well- the customer's pistol fits in the custom holster beautifully! As you can see, the closure on the holster has a single snap and is attached to the body via Velcro. Aesthetically & structurally, this was not my personal preference, but done on the customer's request. I took the Velcro elements from the old worn-out holster and saddle stitched it into place with linen thread that I waxed and dyed myself. I normally prefer to embellish my leather work in a distinctive way, but decided to stick with "basic black" because the customer is planning on wearing it with his National Guard uniform.