tashabear

At an absolute minimum, you should look for a swivel knife and a modeling tool or two. Honestly, looking for a carving class at a local Tandy, if you can get to one, probably wouldn't hurt. Also, are you wetting the leather before you try to tool it?

Ideally, you should have a stone slab to tool on. You can get them from Tandy, but it's cheaper by far to go to a local monument maker or custom counter shop and see if they have any broken pieces you can have for free or for cheap.

Fingernails (or maybe scrape with the edge of a butter knife), and next time, leave folded-over tabs that you can grab. Ask me how I know.

Smash? There's your problem. You just want to tap-tap-tap on the setting tool; you can tell by the sound when the rivet sets.

It depends on how thick your leather is.

Gorgeous. What did you use for the gold paint on the fire cross?

I actually got them for camping -- setting up in the dark sucks when all you have is the headlights of your truck. I'm a very habit-driven person. I work better with audiobooks playing and the headlamp on my head these days.

My husband had Mathilde when we met; I think he got the name out of a baby name book. I named the other cat Max because he was huge -- twice Mathilde's size. When we got Bob and Kaede, they were named Buttons and Peanut, which we just thought were stupid. I gave Bob his name because I couldn't think of a better one, plus he smiles when we play, so sometimes he's Smilin' Bob. Kaede (pronounced K-eye-ay-day) is named after a character in a Japanese cartoon called "Inuyasha". It means "maple," and it seemed fitting, since she's a calico and has black and orange markings. My vet, who introduced me to the rescue organization from whom we adopted our cats, said that if they need a name, they just go through the baby name book alphabetically and pick something. :-)

I'm so sorry for your loss. We lost both our darling cats within a week of each other this past October. Max died of complications due to FIV, and Mathilde died of a series of strokes following surgery. We still miss them dearly, but the space is a little filled up by the two cats we adopted from a feline rescue agency. Bob and Kaede are still getting used to us and we to them, but they are already very dear to us.

Have you checked out etsy.com?

The problem with this is that if one stitch pops, the entire seam lets loose, because neither the top thread nor the bottom thread ever go through the leather; they just loop around each other. Those loops are what are holding the seam shut. With a saddle stitch, if a stitch on the top goes, the stitching from the bottom will still hold the seam shut.

Have you tried adding a dash of brown to deepen the red? Mahogany might do it. Or maybe a drop of blue. Just a very little bit, though, or you'll end up with purple.

Why do you say that? The Norse were wonderful tailors, artists, and craftsmen, just look at all the decorative motifs Freki shared with us. I think Daggrim's work is lovely. Were he to embellish the helmets with carving and/or painting, it would take that tiny step over the edge into spectacular.

Whoa. THANK YOU. I can only hope to do justice to these designs half as much as you have.

If you mean ham... Boil it in a giant stockpot with cabbage and potatoes and carrots and baby onions. Best dinner EVAR. Also, I'd like to know about the powdered dyes, too.

I have gotten great results with Ecoflo Cranberry. I find Fiebing's Oxblood very hot pink/fuschia. I've also had great results with acrylic paint; I like Liquitex Basics Alazarin Crimson. It depends on whether I want all over red or detail.

Make it a .zip file, and I'd be all over it. (I have a hard time with .rar files.) I'd even be happy to host it.

Wow. That is truly beautiful work!

In a heartbeat, if it was warm enough to go out in the garage and use the table saw and drill press. I even have pieces of 4x4 post left over from a home repair project to use. Can you wait till spring? ;-) Dammit, that's even better. Now I have to make one (when it's warmer).

I'd be interested in #5, please.

Very good point. And when I have a table I can do that on, maybe I will.

The last sentence is "I'm sorry not to be able to give you more details about this person." I guess I still read Spanish better than I speak, despite all my neighbors being native Spanish-speakers.

Which is why the testing requirements have been stayed for a year, till they can work out legislation that suits both the big manufacturers and the small ones.

I use a dead blow hammer that my beloved husband got me for Christmas. :-D

Apparently it's a Fiebings thing. http://leprevo.co.uk/photos/glo_getter.html