rodneywt1180b

Good write up.

I haven't been involved in leather long. I mainly got into it as another option I can add to my canes-leather grips and wrist straps. I've only made a few so far and have a long way to go before I I'll be completely satisfied with my work. There are a few other leather projects I may attempt at some point, like a decent harness for our dog, but right now my focus is canes.

Great looking bag. It's a great design. I can't see the stitching you were complaining about. I'm thinking no one else will either. We are our own worst critics.

That knife with the repaired pouch looks very similar to the Old Timer pocket knife I have. Nice job on the repair. I didn't know a knife pouch could get that worn out. Rodney

Danged peasants. Always stealing the show...

I'm hoping one of the mods will chime in. I'm sure there's a good reason for it. Could be as simple as it's not about leather projects. I haven't read the whole thread. Was there significant drift in the topic? I'm a member on other forums too (mostly woodworking related). Some are stricter than others. All but one were fair in their policies. The one that wasn't (sewing related) was more interested in keeping their advertisers happy than they were in a free exchange of ideas. I don't visit that one any more.

I think there will always be a desire and market for real products. Imitation products have their place but real materials have a beauty and warmth that man made materials lack.

As long as the producers can't call it real leather.... They mentioned it can be liquefied in the article. That could open some interesting possibilities for molding or casting it. Plastics and other man made goods have their place. For my own work I'll stick with natural materials though.

The good thing about England is it has had a lot of different cultural influences in it's history. You have a wide range of styles to choose from. A lot of really good suggestions from the others here.

Even if the steel is a little soft and will need touching up more often you did a great job. Use them with pride and your next ones will be even better. Rodney

Beautiful skin. I think it will be a great bag. Getting out the popcorn for this one....

This might get more responses in the How Do I Do That section or the general conversation area. Maybe ask a Mod to move it? Rodney

Great looking bag! My wife is a Dooney & Bourke fan. When I first saw the bag my first thought was "My wife would like that." Now I know why. I think you nailed it. I love the bleed knot detail on the straps too. Rodney

It's a great looking bag. I would expect you to get some orders from it. The brogue holes and stitching really set it off.

I'm pretty sure there's more than one guy out there with "Kung Pao Chicken" tattooed on him. Great looking mallet. Somehow I was expecting something a little heavier though.

Great looking bracelet and nice touch on the snap.

You would be surprised at how marketable "post commercial waste" is. Re-using, upcycling, whatever you want to call it is really popular at the moment. When I was younger we used terms like "scrounging", "scavenging", etc. and it wasn't very marketable at all. Back to the armor. Great job on it! Very cool. Is it for yourself or are you selling it?

Nice job on both the leather and the pin. Your friend did some nice fine detail work there.

Depends on who you ask. If you check my driver's license I'm 52. My brain still thinks I'm 25, my body knows I'm at least 52-some days a lot older, and my wife and daughter are both convinced I'm about 12.

I know in the short time I've been here I've learned a lot. I still have a long way to go. First thing I learned was it isn't as easy as it looks. Anyone can make a basic saddle stitch. That's easy. When you start talking about straight lines, smooth curves and consistent stitches, well, now you're talking about something much harder to achieve. There's no way I would attempt a watch strap right now. Maybe never. Things need to be pretty much dead on perfect at that scale for them to look right. I'm nowhere near that good and know it.

I love the pattern and colors too. Nice wallet.

Your friend went above and beyond on that. My wife wouldn't let me keep something that nice in the shop.

This.

Currently on the leather side of things I am that "less skilled" hobbyist w/o the leather working chops, though I am trying to learn. I don't think the real leather workers here have much to fear from me.

I think to machine stitch something and call it hand stitched is wrong, it's clearly misleading. Can an item be machine stitched and still be hand made though? Yes, I think so. My focus is mainly wood -canes (I'm here because I want to add leather to the handles). I use machines to make my canes. They take a lot of the grunt work out of the process. It's the same as clicker cut or round knife on leather. Wood doesn't care what cuts it either. I would use hungry rats if it got the results I wanted. The final shaping and sanding is done by hand though. I see this same argument about what is hand made in other forums too. It's not an easy one to define. How do you define the care an individual artisan or crafts person or even a small shop with only a few employees puts into an object as opposed to an item being mass produced in a factory with multiple people doing individual steps along the way? It's not simply a question of whether machines were used or not. All those employees are still operating those machines by hand. I think to me the defining thing is whether one person made an object as opposed to a large number of people, each completing an individual step. Then there's the question of a small shop or an individual doing runs of 500 essentially identical items. Still hand made, or mass produced? The lines do get a bit blurry at times. Maybe "Artisan Made" or something like that as opposed to "hand made" might be more appropriate.