Rockoboy

Its one of them new "invisible bags"! Haven't seen them before.

I thought a wine cork was not big enough to stop the needle from letting in daylight (aka letting out sissy-juice), so I use a cork sanding block that is a lot bigger. Then again ... accumulating the wine corks is a lot more enjoyable than buying a sanding block.

Most of it comes from cows, as far as I know anyway. Always glad to help with any questions I have the answer to.

How do you work the cow horn? Is it comparable to timber to saw, sand and drill etc?

Once it gets this side of the Pacific, I bet Auspost would have their hand out. They don't do a half-baked crappy service for free you know!

Hmmm ... I know its not your fault, but $23.00 for postage sort of blows the idea out of the water. Thanx for your reply.

I see that in some pics, others are a lesson in OCD. Unfortunately my gear is spread around the house in a couple different locations and covered by other tools and clutter. I will get to it, the plans have been made, but these things take time.

Tell her about all the hi-quality good stuff you will be able to make for her! I am still trying to get some sort of order happening. Sometimes its a temporary table in my lounge room, sometimes I am on my woodwork bench (which has a leaking roof overhead). I will post when I get to a reasonable state of organisation.

Go to the For sale section, look in Hand tools Stamping section, the blokes name is arbelet12. I bought some of his stamps, which are really good. I believe you will find what you looking for in his catalogue.

Are you able to post these items to Australia, and what would the postage be for 10 of each item in brass? Thanx.

I like the scalloped stitch-line. Basket-weave looks pretty consistent. Good job overall.

I like to identify as a Western Australian, and I live in Rockingham, which a lot of locals shorten to 'Rocko' and being male, that makes my name an identifier of where I live. Avatar - my pic. Maker's mark - in the pipeline, but TBA.

That looks great. I am gonna do that with some of my tools, maybe a BBQ fork and any other thing I can think of that needs it!

That is a tool-shaped piece of art. Its a beautiful thing!

Can you sew a heap of pieces together to make a section larger than you need, then cut a circle to whatever size you need out of that piece? Once you have something to copy a template from, you will be able to keep a copy of the shapes, so all your pieces can be pre-cut for next time.

Excellent work. I cannot tell where the leather finishes and another medium (if there is one) begins. If these items were your 1st (or 100th) attempts, you obviously have a huge talent.

Avery body wat speeks good engelish knoes its spelt 'cylindracaneous'!

I am guessing all you can do, whether its a single or a multi patterned stamp, tilt each stamp a little to achieve a curve. The single will of course give a smother curve, but if they don't make both variations on a theme, what else can you do?

Hi there Reccymech, Where are you based? Home for me and at least one other member is Rockingham WA.

You could google a 'carrick mat'. What you have described sounds like a very small copy of something used on old sailing ships. If you used leather lace instead of rope, and made it a certain way, it could end up round and flat.

Looking at your pics again, and considering all that has been written here, I am thinking the $50 worth of red wine I had consumed that night had 'altered my eyesight opinion'. Definitely well worth $200 - $250, especially as it has been made in high quality timber like oak ... and the workmanship is exceptional as well.

It must be worth $50. If time taken is almost irrelevant, around twice the cost of materials seems pretty fair to me.

I am not an expert in any way, so my suggestions are just a suggestion of what might work. Unfortunately, you might ruin and/or waste some leather in the learning process. I am guessing a football will be sealed on the outside, so anything applied to the leather will have to be applied to the flesh side. In the 1st attempt, I would wet the leather and place a heavy object on it, or clamp it between solid flat surfaces, (but do not use metal) while it dries. Maybe more or less water will be the difference. If the water does not work, I would try a coating of some sort of leather lube, wax, lanolin or concoction of various ingredients. Different people have various leather treatments that the make and/or recommend. Good luck with you research, I would be very interested to hear about your methods and results.

Couple of very neat jobs to start off with. As recommended by other people on this site, to hone your skills in the first instance, try making a few dozen of a small article, I started with drink coasters, and practice practice practice. If you make a blunder, its not cost a heap of money. Put your mistake aside until you need a small piece of leather for some other test or practice piece, like dyeing or painting, skiving or stitching or any other thing. Way better than cutting a small scrap of good leather to check out a dye colour.

I like the idea of a croc bracelet, but I gotta ask, how do you get the croc to wear it?