CitizenKate

Oh, Turtlefeathers does have them! I checked earlier, but didn't find them. Thanks for making me look again. Kate

Those are awesome, Ray! Here are a couple of my favorites: http://artgoldberg.com/ Michael & Vera Goldberg of Tel Aviv, Isreal. Definitely DO watch the flash intro! http://www.colonellittleton.com/ Colonel Littleton. Very classy collection of leather goods. Kate

Angelus leather dyes supposedly come in pint, quart, and gallon sized containers, but I haven't found a reseller that offers them in anything but those pathetic little 3oz bottles. Anybody's guess... Kate

Nice work DJ... another triumph for the custom leather worker! Look forward to seeing the whole shebang. (I.e., restored bike with newly-remade accessories.) Kate

Can't get over the lacing... just beautiful! Oh, and the carving is alright, too. ("alright" = "fabulous") Kate

Hi Chris, Clay does a lot more than just antique. Ordinarily, I'd just plug in some links to his earlier posts, but he has done so much (including some photo demos of his coloring techniques), that I think it would just be easier if you do a search on ClayB and check out all the posts he has originated. If I have some time later, I'll try to post a few that I thought were especially good. Kate

Hmmm... apparently they don't have this issue with all their stamps. I've got that same exact stamp (which I bought from HC at whatever the going retail was. I've used it a lot with a 32oz maul and it's held up with no problems. Any time I see a lot of early bidding going on, I figure there is some shilling going on. Kate

He's gonna cry when he finds out. Kate

As you can see from this photo, when I go to work play at my bench, sometimes the color really flies. Not much I can do about the stuff that hits the wall - heheh! But here is something I came up with that helps keep some of the mess off the bench. It's a blotter I make out of the 25"x18" sheets of newsprint I buy for shipping material. I take about 15 sheets of it, staple it together along one edge, to make a kind of blotter. It's thick enough to stop a dye spill. Then when it gets covered with dye or stain smudges or spills, I just tear off a sheet or two, and the blotter is clean and ready for the next job. When it gets down to about 5 sheets, I add more to it. Kate

Cool wallet, Pop - it just OOZES with testosterone! Kate

I appreciate that, Holly. I am planning to offer mine (at least, initially) for closer to $28, and I still wonder if that's too low. I still struggle with pricing my work. So many factors to consider. But regardless of where you set your prices, you will lose business on pricing. Some you will lose because the price is too high, but some you will lose because the price is too low. I would not lose any sleep over losing business to the low-ball crowd, would you? Kate

That's a pretty clever idea, particle. I think some small swarovsky crystals would be the perfect touch. Kate

Steve, here's a guy on ebay selling a bunch of vintage Craftools: http://shop.ebay.com/wy-slick/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340 I don't think he's got the exact ones you're looking for, but some of them are pretty close. Kate

There are a few stores here that carry it. I just tried some on a piece of test scrap, then on a project, and I'm very pleased with the result. It leaves the leather looking perfectly natural, flexes without cracking, and is almost bulletproof! I even poured hot coffee on the test piece, and left it sitting there for about 5 minutes. Can't see any sign at all that anything was spilled on it. Well, it smells like coffee now - LOL. But that is a great finish if you really need to protect the leather from wetness. Thanks for the tip, Dave. Kate

Happen to have any Tan-Kote sitting around? Kate

Nice to see some of your work again, Freak! The basket weave on the back is intriguing. I've gotta try that sometime. Kate

Heheh! I almost used the pink stuff, just as an inside joke. I don't know if you recognize the stuff I did use, but that is also some of the leather you shipped to me along with the pink stuff. (I like to think of it as more of a "mauve". I'm saving it for something special.) Kate

I love this kind of stuff. Kate

It's a new product from MinWax. It contains a spirit-based wood stain, and is designed for touch-ups in wood work, but as you can see, it also makes a great edge dye! You can buy it anywhere you find wood stain products. Click here to see product info. Kate

Thanks for the comments, guys. Glad to know you're finding this useful! Okay, next thing we're going to do is take part #3 and mark stitching holes where the lines are for the small pocket on the flesh side. Then, turn it over and mark stitching holes around the bottom and side edges. This is for later. Stain and slick the top edge. Apply adhesive along the smaller pocket lines (NOT around the edges), on the grain side. Then lay it grain side down on top of the zipper pocket so that all the edges line up as shown here: Stitch along the smaller pocket line, and this is what you end up with. Be careful not to cut through the thread in the zipper's seam when you punch holes for the pocket seam. Also, note in the photo that the stitching holes have also been marked on the zipper pouch. You can do that at just about any point in the process. Now take part #4, and mark stitching holes for its card pocket on the flesh side. Dye and slick the top edges of parts 4 and 5. Apply adhesive along the stitch line, on the grain side of part 4, and glue parts 4 and 5 together, with their grain sides facing each other, with all the edges lining up. Stitch them together, and you now have two partial assemblies. Now we're going to put the two partial assemblies together to form a bill pocket. Apply adhesive around the bottom and side edges on the flesh side of either part 3 or 4. Then lay 4 on top of 3 with their flesh sides facing each other, like this: You already have stitching holes marked for this seam on part 3, around the bottom and side edges. Stitch parts 3 and 4 together along that line. This shows which two parts are getting stitched in this step: Here's what you should have at this point. It's finally starting to take shape! The last major step is to sew together the two halves of the zipper pouch. Just apply your adhesive to either half (or both, I guess, if you're using rubber cement), press them together with the edges lined up as best as possible, and stitch them together. Now all the parts are attached, and all the pockets are "functional", except for the second bill pocket, whose other half is the wallet cover. Finally, spiff up your edges by sanding them to get them evened up, dye, and slick them. No need to finish the edges on part 5 until you attach it to the cover. It probably goes without saying that the better job you do of cutting them out and lining them up, the less work you'll have to do at this point. And here's the completed interior of your biker wallet! I pointed out a couple of minor boo-boo's I made, so you might possibly avoid them. In my next post, I gotta figure out something interesting to do for the cover... hmmm.... Kate

I'm going to start with the interior. Here is pictured all the parts for the interior, all cut out. If you use any veg-tan leather to make these (which I normally do), you will want to apply any color and sealer to all the parts before starting. I numbered the parts for easy referral throughout the procedure. This shows the back-side of parts 3, 4, and 5, where I have marked the stitching lines. This shows the order the parts will go together, and which way they will face when assembled. First, we're going to work on the zipper pouch, part #2. Start by dying and slicking the edge of the slot in the middle, where the zipper will go. I usually install the zipper using a hand-sewn saddle stitch, but it's perfectly okay to use a machine if you've got one to do this part. Using a pair of dividers, scratch a 1/8" stitching line around the zipper slot. Mark the stitching holes along the line, going all the way around the entire slot. My own preference is to use the punch only to mark the hole, not to punch it. Then I use a very sharp awl to slice the holes into the leather. This shows the ziper slot with stitching holes marked. Glue the zipper to the slot as shown here, and sew it in. Here's how the zipper looks after being sewn. (This doesn't sew up quite as nice as with calf skin.) The snaps need to be installed on the zipper pouch before you sew the two halves together, as it is nearly impossible to do so afterward. So we might as well do that now. Here's what we have so far. The front pocket also needs to be sewn on before the zipper pouch is sewn together. That's part #1, so take it, and dye and slick its edges all the way around. Mark stitching holes around 3 sides of the pocket, as shown here: Glue the pocket onto the front of the zipper pouch as shown. Remember that there will be stitching 1/8" along the bottom edge, so make sure the pocket clears that. Stitch it down, and this is what you should have so far. In my next post, we'll add part #3 to the zipper pouch to make the second card pocket and half of the first bill pocket. I hope to finish posting this tomorrow. Kate

Kate's instructions have been copied into a PDF file A while back I had posted my biker wallet pattern, and a few people have asked me for more detailed information on how these wallets are put together, as it is not intuitively obvious from just looking at the pattern pieces. It took me a few tries to figure out the construction sequence; the pieces have to go together just right, or you paint yourself into a proverbial corner! I usually cut the interior pieces from some very light calf skin. But I'm out of that, and I really wanted to do this demo this weekend, so instead I used some light-weight chap/upholstery leather I had laying around. It does not sew up as nicely, and it's a little heavier than I normally like to use for this, but it's good enough for demonstration purposes. I'll probably update this later, when I've got more calf skin to work with. To start off, here is the pattern, and a couple of photos to give you an idea of what the wallet looks like when completed. If you print out the attached PDF file with no scaling, this will give you all your pattern parts in actual size. billfold_Bikers.pdf Here's a view of just a fully-assembled interior, with the cover not yet attached. It's got a zippered coin/key pouch, two bill/receipt pockets, and 3 id/cc pockets. It's a little hard to see here, but there is an eyelet through one corner of the first bill pocket that you can attach a chain to. Here's a view of the cover. Note the snaps fasten to the front of the coin pouch. On my next post, we'll get started making one of these. Kate billfold_Bikers.pdf

Beautiful work, Tom! I agree with the others... if you are trying to reach new heights in leather artistry, I'd say you are succeeding! Kate

Spence, I believe the stamp you're referring to is made of delrin. It's a very hard plastic, but it may not be great to use for a heat-stamping process. Ruthless, what kind of leather are you planning to stamp? If it's veg-tan, then you don't need to heat the stamp, but just case the leather as you would for stamping or tooling. In that case, a plastic stamp will work fine. If it's chrome-tanned leather, then you probably do need a stamp you can heat, which means you need it made of a material that won't melt when you heat it, and stay hot long enough to get the impression made. There are companies who make custom stamps of steel and other metals. Kate

The depth and alignment of your basket stamping has improved tremendously from some of the earlier specimens you posted! Nice job! Kate