Rockoboy

Great looking bag. I bet anybody would be proud to own it. Just one little question ... are the leather handles a bit long? I am wondering how the bag feels to carry?

Nice knife and a good looking sheath to go with it. Your stitching is very tidy, plus I like the colour combo of the inlay, thread and the leather. Did you use a welt on the sheath?

I sewed the side seam first, then cut out the bottom piece to fit, glued and stitched the bottom in.

Any place you can visit for real customer service, advice and hands on experience is better than online (where you tend to be left on your own). Even if the price is less, it must be significantly less to justify not having any assistance within arms reach, IMHO.

Still waiting for the "slowest-postal-service-in-the-world" to deliver mine! Any ideas on what we are getting into for the next project? Or do we do more of the same, because we all learnt something from our 1st efforts?

Always my dominant hand. I get more control that way, and I need all the control (or assistance) I can get.

It looks like you have a perfectly functional item there. With the benefit of 20/20/ hindsight, if I was making the sheath, I would have made the inlay, the same shape as the front piece of the sheath. Maybe the hair could be shaped a little to make the bottom end of the hair not so square-cut. Maybe its just me being ultra-picky on a nice job.

Another way to deal with this issue is to have a makers mark made to your specification with the camo or veiner stamps spaced and set out exactly where they should be. Several very good custom stamp-makers on this site, and some are very good value.

You should be aware of the difference between these 2 products. I believe the NFO Compound has silicon added to it, so it behaves differently and subsequent coatings (of different products) may not give desirable results.

I seem to remember somebody hereabouts, saying 'most of the 3M spray adhesives give less than desirable results for adhering leather, except for the 90', but I cannot find the post ...

Am I correct in assuming you wish to buy some tanned rattlesnake skin? I would contact some local tanneries and ask if they have any, or do they know any place that has some for sale. As they are in the industry, they will probably know who is in that particular field of expertise.

That divider is a nice touch. Well done.

So glad you like it. It did not come out as good as I had hoped, but it was a learning experience. Still waiting for our postal service to do their thing, but they are notoriously s. l.. o... w.... ZZZZ

I really like that style of closure, and the colour looks great ... and the basket-weave is very smooth, so I like that ... and the .... OK OK OK! I like the whole job! Very nice work.

That was on my mind, because the box stitch I have done previously was 'not exactly the best'.

I made a basic dice cup from some chrome tan leather. I found the leather to be very tough to stitch with an awl, so I used a drill press with an awl needle in the chuck. Thread is 1.0mm waxed Tiger thread (thanks @silverback for the thread). Edges are finished with Edgekote brown and a little black. Unfortunately I made a blunder with the side seam, which I am blaming on my 1st attempt at sewing this type of stitching, you can see the tension is tighter in the middle than the ends ... plus I did not take a big enough bite of the base for the stitches to hold properly, so It's good that I used glue.

Looks good to me. I like the shape of the CC slots.

Once again, you have surpassed excellence, and made an innovation whilst doing truly amazing work! The lilly's look so real, even better than a photograph.

@MsChrissi, Local to what area of which country?

Great work, very clean and tidy. I like the top handle and the front flap where the catch is reinforced.

Once your dye bleeds through the 1st layer, it will keep bleeding through until ... forever! If you can start again, I would mask the lettering before dye is applied, then remove the masking and carefully apply the paint. Keep your first attempt as a test piece/reminder/evidence etc. Disclaimer: I have only used leather paint on a couple of occasions, so while I understand house paint principles, I could be way off the mark with leather paint. Hopefully somebody with real knowledge will be along soon. After better information came through ... I am happy to see that people who know what they are talking about, stepped up with good advice. It appears that leather coatings are so far removed from paint coatings that I have experience with. I have seen stains and marks bleed through domestic acrylic paint coatings after 30 coats with no trace of reducing the amount of staining, until the painter used the correct undercoat.

Very clean, stitching looks great, straps look very tidy. Very nice bag.

Hold a piece of cork behind the leather when you push the awl through. Cork does not feel the pain or bleed anywhere near as much as you do. Some people use a champagne or wine bottle cork, but I prefer a cork sanding block which is about 3" X 4" X 1.5" thick. It also helps to stop the leather from puckering where the awl comes through.

Good to see a small business expanding, in spite of 'X' wholesaler. Maybe they will come knocking on your door, when they see how much they're missing out on.

Yeah! A strap cutter, a knife and a straight edge ... who woulda thought ...