leatherjunkie

Yep thats the one. i ordered #2. #1 seams too small for what i do and #3 may be too big for me. but i probably will order all of them after i play with it awhile. Chan Geer demo'd this in his sheridan carving class last year. He stamped it then rotated it 90 degrees and lined the legs up into the stamped one, rotated 90 degrees and repeated it. it makes a very nice basketweave design. it may be easier to line up this stamp than the traditional basketweave stamps. i will always use the traditonal design basketweave stamps. Chan Geer also demo'd another great basketweave stamp from hides to art. they make great impressions just like barry king stamps. just look up hides to art to see the different stamps they have.

hey thanks for the heads up i got to see his new basket weave tool as a prototype in Chan Geer's class last year(september). i have been waitng for barry king to list it on his website since last september. i just ordered the basket weave tool last nite.

i have the barry king, al stohman(from tandy) and the henley swivel knife. the al stohman knife i purchased when on sale and thought it was good with a ceramic angle blade in it. found out barry king makes a double line blade that fits this knife. now this knife cuts only borders when i want a raised line for a border. the barry king knife i purchased right after attending Chan Geer's class in portland or. Chan let me use it on my project and i fell in love with the feel of the knurling on the shaft and the ease of turning it, smoothness of the blade cutting the leather. also learned that this blade needs to be stropped a lot during use. the problem with barry king swivel knives is they will only take barry king blades. last year i tried a henley knife at the 3rd Chan Geer class in portland or. i really fell in love with this knife. the feel of the knife was like no other. i ordered one 1 week after the class. it took 2 months for the henley to show up at my door. henley said that it will take about 2 months due to me ordering their most popular size. i have the angle blade and straight blade from henley and just love this swivel knife. i still use my barry king knife but find that i reach for the henley first. bottom line is i think you cant go wrong with barry king or henley swivel knives they are both great knives and would not trade/sell them for anything.

I also started with the basic tandy swivel knife. I later purchased a Al Stohlman swivel knife when it was on sale. it is easier to use than the basic tandy knife. During a leather class i was introduced to the barry king swivel knife and the henley swivel knife. these 2 swivel knives put the tandy and al stohlman swivel knives to shame. I fell in love with them. I now have a barry king and a henley and will not trade them for anything. once you get a good swivel knife with a good blade that will stay sharp you will never go back to another swivel knife. its amazing what you can do with a good sharp swivel knife. you will wonder why you stayed with all the others for so long.

i would take 2 mags, place them on the table in the way you want them to be. cut some leather that will cover the mags sitting on table. now case the leather real good for wet molding. i would then using a food saver(the kind that sucks the air out of bags), place the cased leather over the mags on a board wood or plastic(stiff one) in the vacum bag and suck the air out of the bag using the food saver. let sit in sealled bag for 10 mins then open otherwise the leather will not dry out. let dry for 24 hours then just sew it to a backing piece and cut out in the shape that you want. use a oblong bag punch to punch the belt slots in the leather.

check out Chan Geer's videos on sheridan style carving. after taking 3 of Chan's classes I learned that I prefer the sherdian style carving more than traditional floral style carving. I just like the flow of sheridan style and its less busy than traditional style to.

You can find Chan Geer's pattern packs at www.hidestoart.com. hides to art also sells barry king tools which are designed for sheridan style carving. Check your local leathercraft store and see if they will bring Chan Geer in for a class. If not hopefully you have a tandy store close that may be able to bring Chan Geer in to do a class. Chan Geer is a very good instructor and easy to talk to. He loves teaching sheridan style to everyone that wants to learn. If you can find one of his classes be sure to have some extra money with you cause he sells tools from barry king and hides to art at his classes. www.hidecrafter.com also has some videos made by Chan Geer which are very good to watch. his leather lacing video is the one that i watch the most, mainly because i forget how to finish the lacing. Jim Linnel from tandy leather factory says you can use crafttools to do sheridan style tooling. He even did a how to video one sheridan style. think that tandy leather factory sells this one. I was able to take one of his classes on animal carving. He also loves teaching leathercraft to all. I think his speciallity is animal carving and embossing. any video that you can pickup for leatherworking is well worth it even if all you do is watch the video.

i have been using tandy leather factory craftool for a few years. these were the only stamps i knew about when i started leatherworking. Tandy leather factory started bringing in Chan Geer 3 years ago to teach sheridan carving. This was the first time i was introduced to barry king tools and henley swivel knifes. during my third class with Chan Geer (last year) he told me to stop using tandy stamps and get barry king stamps. he said that my toolling is to the point that the cheaper tools are working against me. the first thing i replaced was the bevelers. the bevelers from barry king are steeper angle and work so much better than the craftool beveler. just by placing the beveler in the cut line on the leather you can tell the difference between barry king and craftool. next on my list was the pear shaders, veiners, seeders, backgrounder, camouflage, border stamps, basket weaves. you dont use all of the veiner and camoulfage on the leather at once so you can adapt the one size you have to most of your work. this is why i only purchased one veiner and one camoulfage stamp the most popular size. i have 2 basket weave stamps from hide crafter which is better quality than the tandy ones but wanted more, can never have enough basket weave stamps. so i purchased one from barry king. now i reach for barry king stamps more than anything else due to easier to use and looks great on leather. barry king stamps can be spendy but you get what you pay for. another good basket weave company is hides to art(www.hidestoart.com). they also sell other brands of stamps. picking the right swivel knife can be a hazard to your pocket book. its hard to go to a shop now and play with several different brands of swivel knives. just not that many shops carry leatherworking tools other than tandy crafttool ones. you may be able to find a leathercraft trade show close to you, go to it if you can. there should be different venders there displaying their tools. i started with a tandy swivel knife moved up to the al stolhman swivel knife and thought this was the one for me till i tried the barry king swivel knife. barry king swivel knife fit hand better, turned eaiser and carved leather like hot knife cutting butter verses the tandy swivel knives steel blade or porcelen blade. last year i tried the henley swivel knife and it was better than the barry king swivel knife. i ordered the henley and henley co told me two months waiting time. i said ok put my name on the list. i ordered it the week of thanksgiving and got it in mail 2 wks ago. it works like a dream. i will still use my barry king swivel knife. doubt i will use the tandy swivel knives anymore. other people swear by chuck smith old smoothie swivel knives. i have yet to try one. so i cant comment on this swivel knife. point is there are a lot of tool makers for leatherworkers. just find what works for you and go for it. but i do suggest you buy at least one high end stamp and try it out. i suggest buying a basket weave stamp for your first high end stamp. you only need a border stamp to go with the basketweave stamp. you can do a complete project with just these 2 stamps and it will look good.

looks great. you sure picked a hard basketweave stamp to learn on. the standard baskweave stamp only is rectangular and lines up on either end long ways not at all 3 sides. great job. as far as stitching the the back area where the leather buts up against each other stitch it like you do your shoe laces.

I find the angle for basket weaving similar to what you do. i dont draw a light line. take the basket weave stamp and make a light impresion on the leather with it. dont hit the stamp just place it on wet leather and apply enough hand pressure to it to make a impression. look at the basket weave stamp with it sitting left to right longways. name each leg starting on the top left leg A, right leg B bottom left leg C bottom right leg D the impression you made line up the basketweave leg A to impression leg C, Basketweave Leg B to impression leg B. basicaly you are taking the basketweave stamp and splitting it in 1/2 by going to oposite corners on the impression. this is how i was taught how to find the stamping angle of the stamp. also on the arrow stampping try not to draw the line as it leaves a line visible when you are finished. always use a ruler or straight edge for your line. this way you are not looking at the finished project and seeing a line. here is my arrow designed for my harley gas tank

looks good. on the front inside the border area i would bevel the corners more. run the beveler all the way up into the corner so its touching both border lines. you will be able to smooth it out by overlapping the bevel area when you go against both sides of the corner with beveler facing each border line. the basketweave looks great. each stamp is straight and crisp in the leather. as far as edge dying i do this very last step. seal the project, coat the edges with gum trachum and burnish. then edge coat. less problem with sealer streaking the edge coat this way.

i agree with what everyone has said. that and 3/4" thick is too thin. should at least get 2" thick. i was able to pickup a counter top that was cut wrong from a friend that installed granite counter tops. only catch in getting it was his wallet had to be the first project the granite slab was used for. so i traded a wallet for my granite slab that measures 2" thick by 30" long by 20" wide. its great for doing belts and other large projects

i have 2 blackpowder pattern books from tandy. one of them may be the book you are looking for. i would check ebay, think thats where i got my copy. another great book for black powder bags is sold by track of the wolf. its recreating the 18th century black powder bag.

at least your handgun fit in the holster. the first one i made was designed for my 357 ruger seq 6, my 22 mark 2 wouldnt even fit in it

hmmmm. another place is check out chuck burrows' videos on western holsters and knife sheath making videos. you can find him at wild rose trading company also while you are the tandy leatherfactory store get the al stolhman book on holster making. then go to www.hidecrafter.com and look at his books, patterns and videos about holster making. most of these are for western style. if you are going to make auto style holsters not western style then keep reading here. as i dont know where else to look for auto mondern style holster making

you stitch that flap to the back of the holster / belt loop while the holster is not inside the loop. puch all holes before stitching. take 2 stitching needles and cut them down if you have to so you can clear the flap when stitching. just stitch as normal. after all stitching is done wet form the holster by getting it wet but not soaking. shove the holster in the flap continue to shape the holster whith hands by opening it up as much as you can. then stick your unloaded handgun inside a plastic bag and stuff it into the holster and continue to form the holster to fit the handgun as you want it to fit. john b. videos are good but i dont like his finishing techniques. i do not use neetsfoot oil on my holsters. i do oil the holsters but not like he does on the video.

i was just waiting for the obvious question. thanks for not disopointing me. i dont know where it is at this time but i have read that you use the oven to dry leather when making a canteen/ water carrying container out of leather. gotta use the oven because you are getting the bees wax to soak into the leather so that it can be waterproof. i read this on a muzzleloading forum. think this may be the same process as armor makers use to harden the leather. not sure though.

just found the pic of my version of the brazo jack shoulder holster. shoulder holster.bmp shoulder holster.bmp

Jim, thats a great shoulder holster pattern. I made one for a 45 long colt old model vaquero sherriffs model with the birds head handle. I changed the pattern a little by making the holster one piece of leather instead of 2 pieces that need to be sewen together to form the holster. other than my small change the holster went together without a hitch. the patterns and directions are very easy to follow. thanks for making a great pattern package.

the tool rack looks great. lots of room to expand. as far as putting leather on the strop board, i used barge cement. leather is still stuck on the block and been using it for 2 years now. as far as the tools discoloring from chemicals in the wood do not use ceder. i used ceder to make a drill bit storage block. the drill bits started to rust after 2 months in the ceder block. i changed over to walnut block and had no problems with bits rusting. as long as you use a good hardwood like walnut or oak you will not have any problems with tools rusting/discoloring.

Aaron, not sure about oregon or federal law on this style of holster. but what i do feel is this style of holster is not safe to the person packin it. i dont want to put a handgun/holster in my pocket with the trigger exposed. it could and would catch on something as you are putting it into the pocket and fire the round in the chamber. well then you have a hole in your 6th or worse yet the family jewels........ accidents happen all the time and if you tempt murpheys law, he will win...... handguns and holsters IMO need to be safe when carrying unless you are competing with the handgun. i.e. no exposed trigger and a manual safety on the handgun.

propane torch is not what i call a blow torch. to me a blow torch is a oxygen acetene cutting torch. the propane torch may not be able to get lead hot enough to melt all the way without using lots of propane. i only went through one 1 pound bottle of propane on my camp stove to melt 20 pounds of lead. you have a bigger area of heat with a camp stove verses a propane torch that only centers the heat in small area always remember to melt lead in a well ventilated area. best place is outside. the lead fumes are bad for you. just put the lead chunks into your pie tin and put on the camp stove. let cook. after its melted remember to skim off the sludge on top. this is the contaminated stuff and is junk. the top should look like a mirror after you are done skimming off the junk. it may haze over but this is ok. now let it cool and then dump the pie tin over on your work bench and you have your block. also be aware of the health concerns when handling lead. i always wear gloves while melting lead. i try to handle the lead with gloves(even when im done casting it) to reduce the lead coming into contact with skin. you may want to consider this when you are using the block.

well i used a cutting torch to meld down a big block of lead that a buddy found for me. it melted the lead real quick. but the lead hardened up quickly once it hit the pan that i was melting it into. to keep lead molten long enough to pour into the mould that you want to use, i still think the stove idea would be the best bet. also its safer because you are not trying to hold the torch under the melting pot and pouring into the mould at same time. a cooking stove or gas cooker that barra suggested is going to be $20.00 - $35.00 . oxygen and acetene bottles plus the hoses and other atachments that you need to operate it are going to be in the $200.00 plus range. i think that you will have troubles melting part of the lead to resurface it. there for i suggest that you remelt the entire block. depending on how much lead you used for your block it wont take that long to melt it down again. it only takes about 10 mins for me to get 10 lbs of lead melted and ready to start my bullet casting process. just drop it in the mould that you used, heat it up till the block becomes liquid then let it cool.

blow torch is overkill. i use a steel pot on my coleman camping stove (converted to propane) to melt lead. after i get the lead to melted to a liquid form i will skim off the junk that is floating on top, i use a long handled cooking spoon to do this. then i use a ladle to transfer the liquid lead to the my muffin tin. i do this because i cast my own bullets for black powder shooting. the muffin tin size lead will fit in the melting pot that i use for making bullets. i can also melt wheel weights without any troubles this way. its a little slower to melt lead this way but it works just fine for me. you also want to use the coleman stove outside preferable no wind to little wind. this way the heat of the flames will be on the pot more than if there was a lot of wind.

I second the book the art of hand sewing. its a great book. also it has a pattern in the back for making a stitching horse. another good book is leather tools at tandy leather. it explains a lot on what tools do what how to sharpen and other stuff. another great set of books i highly recommend is the art of making leather cases by al stohlman. this is a 3 book set. well worth the money for the information contained in these books