rdragons

First project since mushrooming. Punching holes with same 4 prong 1/8 inch straight lace punch. Had to use the 27 oz dead blow hammer. Worked great and did not mushroom the tool. Does it always take such a tremendous force to drive a lace punch through dry leather? Still doesn't seem right.

Winter is almost over, but I managed to make an oak mallet. I also bought a 27 oz dead blow hammer and a Walmart cutting board. Found some of that Tracing Film in a kit I already owned, bought from Tandy. I didn't know what it was as the directions didn't mention it. As for breaking Tandy tools. The set on the left came from Hobby Lobby. The set on the right came in a kit from Tandy. The set from Hobby Lobby is much better quality and the working end is attached with twice as much metal. Notice the Tandy swivel knife got short changed too.

Thanks Timd. The lines work for me. And I am not really partial to tracing with a stylus, seems kind of messy, wet paper, yuck. Just the same, anyone with ideas on how to make lighter lines, give an input. Thanks broncobuster. Its a good idea and I will check it out. The mallet saga continues. Tandy had two of the big polymers. The handles wiggled in both the heads, neither seems to weight the 16 oz as catalog advertised, and of course I walked in the day after the sale was over. Concluded the quality wasn't there even at the sale price and left them on the shelf. I have some 100 year old oak flooring scraps in the shop and am contemplating making my own mallet. In the meantime the little wood mallet I have does tooling just fine and I have a belt blank here just screaming for a design. It doesn't need lacing holes. I need a tooling design, not a geometric pattern, not cowboy. It will be vinageroon black, lines will not show. A man's dress belt.

Thanks to all who responded. westtxcowboy1979 whinewine Timd somewhereinusa Luke Hatley After serious consideration from everyone's input I have decided I need the 16 oz polymer mallet. I visited both WalMart and Sears today and had no luck in locating a polymer. Did find a dead blow hammer at Sears, but I have enough leather experience to realize it is like Storm says, next to the swivel knife the mallet is the most important tool there is. So will stop by Tandy tomorrow after work and get the polymer. Also will be sharpening the chisels and grinding the mushroom off. Even though I don't know why they weren't sharp brand new right out of the bag. I also think I will try punching the holes while the leather is cased instead of letting it dry out. wyoming slick Storm The dark lines are from carbon paper used to trace the pattern. I have used carbon paper to transfer patterns since I started dabbling in leather. Earlier work was mostly painted. Then my wife bought me the basic set of six tools and I did the Victoria Clutch Purse. If you look hard enough you can see hints of the lines only because I used a flash to take the picture. What color remains ends up in the knife cuts and adds an outlining shading effect which I like. For the most part the lines are not noticeable after applying neatsfoot oil. As to the current project I finished lacing this morning and applied the first coat of neatsfoot this evening. If the carbon paper lines still work for me I will post a picture.

First attempt at making lacing holes with a straight chisel. Both Chisels are mushroomed from having to hit so hard to get them through the leather. I had shiny chips of chisel plating coming off all around my work. The Tandy video makes it look easy. http://www.tandyleat...tch-Lacing.aspx I used a piece of hardwood with a scrap of belt leather as a buffer to protect the tool blade after its through the piece I am working on. But it took such an extreme amount of force that the tools are mushrooming. Obviously something is resisting the tools progress. They are new tools and should be sharp. After, I thought about wetting the leather to make it softer, but haven't found anything on the internet that says to do that. What is wrong that my chisels are mushrooming.