Brumbie

Talent vs skill. To me talent is something that comes natural, being born with it. Skill is earned through hard work. So scew not having talent. By your other accomplishments you can develop the skills needed to do what you want with leather.

I have a hard rubber dead blow hammer that I picked up at a hardware store. It is not plastic as you generally find. I think the hard plastic is too slick and doesn't give a good "bite" to the tool you're hitting. The rubber seems to bite better and is hard enough that it is not showing signs of damage from the tools being hit. It is pretty heavy too which means I don't have to hit as hard with it. Which is nice, unlike a rawhide mallet that you have to swing pretty firmly at times. I use a poundo board as a backer and have no tool damage. I too use the white plastic cutting boards from the kitchen area in Wal-mart. They are inexpensive and work well to cut/trim leather on.

Excellent solution. I'm very impressed.

Very clean design. I like it alot. One question. The small d-rings in front of each belt loop. Are they there for just in case or did you have a specific use intended for them?

I posted this over on another forum that I hang out on but wanted to share here too. I picked up this knife while working in Norway a few weeks ago. I really liked the knife, but the sheath is what caught my attention. It had a tab of leather coming up the back between the sheath and belt loop. The tab fastened over a metal fitting in the hilt of the knife. Pretty cool. I thought it would be nicer if the tab would be part of the sheath and came up the spine of the sheath. So I made this one. This is my first try at making my own pattern for a project. I went through 3 paper patterns before settling on this one. This is the second sheath as I accidentally cut through the face of the first one ruining it. I did a rotten job on the belt loop. It works and looks (ok,kinda)...but I would do that part way different. So no picture for you all of my belt loop. ahha

I posted a new topic the other day with a knife sheath I made. It's gone now. Did the board crash and lose the thread? Was it removed for some reason?

It's not quite finished yet. I'm waiting for some proper clips for the pegboard so that I can hang my tools up on the wall behind the bench. I remodeled my half of the master closet and squeezed in a tiny workshop. I had really gotten sick of not having a dedicated workspace. Most times the dye/finish work and some edge sanding will be done out in the garage. For the cutting, stamping, stitching and other non-smelly operations it'll be done here. The bench is 47" by 20", solid beech and quite sturdy.

Hi Pitman, My wife was looking over my shoulder and wanted me to tell you that she graduated from High school in Legnica Poland in 1987. What area do you live in? Extremely nice work you do.

Hi everyone, I got seriously interested in leather working while I was working in Iraq. So I got Chuck Burrows DVD on making sheaths and ordered some used tools off an auction site. I have been practicing off and on for a couple of years now but never had a dedicated space to work. Getting tired of the floor, kitchen table, my lap I've finally claimed a small corner in the closet. I originally found this site by a recommendation from another forum member on a different forum I frequent. Saved it then forgot it. As I started working out my ideas on how to set up my little work space I searched the internet and found this forum again. Time to sign up. I hope to have my tiny workspace finished by next weekend and I can post photos of it. Glad to be here, I've got tons of reading to do. See ya!