jmorton

Have you considered using stainless steel bolts from the hardware store? You can cutoff the head or the thread or both, as your application requires. Thanks, John Morton

For anyone just starting out, the lists provided are pretty complete. I bought the largest white plastic cutting board I could find, and went to a place that makes granite counter tops, told them what I needed and waved a ten dollar bill. I got a huge piece of granite that has an odd mix of colors in it. Due to its weight and hardness, it does not move when you tool on it or when you put the cutting board on it for cutting or punching. If your work area moves around you are going to get lousy cuts and stamping. Whether you do any stamping or not, you are going to need a variety of knives. a utility knife, a rotary cutter and an x-acto or clicking knife are a basic set. At tandy(or wherever) get a stick of white jewelers rouge and go to the hardware store and get a sheet of fine emery paper and a sheet of crocus for maintaining your knives. Finally, get some cheap, ugly, cheap, belly leather to practice cutting, skiving, stitching, etc. on. Bellies are also good to practice wet molding. Have fun! John Morton

My suggestion is to buy the deluxe adjustable swivel knife sold by Tandy and others. It is still less than $20, I think. Use that for a while and then, love it or hate it, you will have a good idea what you want next. The upside is that you may like it fine, and if not, just dedicate that knife to tasks that you don't do very often. All that said, in the end, you will wind up with several Swivel knifes eventually. Also, the cleaner and the sharper you keep all your blades, the more you will like the rest of the swivel knife. Happy Tooling! John Morton

My two cents - See if the Tandy near you has classes. If they do, then make the trip for a few weeks to get your feet wet. They are going to try to get you hooked on leather crafting, so take advantage of any price breaks they offer. Use their tools and their leather samples till you feel comfortable. Find out if there is leather guild in the area and join. Most guild members are glad to teach you and are a pretty friendly lot. You will be amazed at the goodwill a box of donuts and a pound of coffee will generate. My first project was going to be a camera bag. After 8 years, I still haven't gotten my skills up to the point to make that camera bag, but I have made a lot of other things and my skills keep inching up. You may find that before you make the items for your MC, you will go through a period of getting better and better before you make a "definitive piece". That is where the term "masterpiece" came from. John Morton

Thanks everyone! If the "half tan" is what you described, you can add Cairo, Egypt as a source. We went there this past week and I hunted down a tannery. Didn't get to go inside, but the owner was very friendly, and gave me several "samples". He said it was sheep and buffalo (water buffalo, not bison). Have not unpacked it yet, but plan to give it the "Tandy Tool Torture Test" in the near future. My first impression is that the buff. double shoulders are thick, red and gnarly, while the sheep and baby buff seems better than the English Meadow at Tandy. The color is sort of a creamy rather than the reddish of most of the Tandy Leather. he said he gets the veg material from Argentina and locally in Egypt. Thanks for the Info. John Morton

A few years ago I bought a piece of leather at a Tandy store that was called "Re-tan" it is almost as slick as plastic, the manager told me that it would not be good for tooling, but it would make good purses and similar things. A few days ago I was given a piece of "Half Veg tanned baby buffalo". This baby buffalo leather has a wonderful feel and looks like a soft veg tanned calf skin. The seller had no idea about its suitability for tooling. Can any one shed any light on this stuff? Thanks! John Morton

I think that the answer is to put as much SOLID mass under your granite slab as possible to give you a really "dead" surface to work on. Then put your sound absorption material under that. For instance, if you could have a second slab under the first with a sheet of newspaper between them, and then several sheets under the bottom slab. Use a table that is as solid and heavy as possible and then put some poundo material between the table and the bottom slab and between the table legs and the floor. This "Dagwood sandwich" approach will tend to cancel out the different frequencies of sound. If this still doesn;t end the problem, I suggest that you build a lightweight sound hood from a very large cardboard box such as a refreigerator came in and then hot glue some of the 12X12 acoustic tiles inside it. If all this fails then I think you need Maxwell Smart's "Cone of Silence". Hope this helps, John Morton

Clair, I have never used these dyes, but I a very interested in how well they work for you. I am fairly certain that the smell you notice is due to vinegar being used as a mordanting agent in the dye. This is what locks the dye into the leather. Thanks, John Morton

I am not an expert, but hopefully this thread will take off when more knowlegeable folks set us BOTH straight. (1.) A little, tiny accident involving a large drive punch and a dining room table convinced me that a slab of granite beneath the largest, thickest white cutting board I could find was a viable way to best back up for punching. The juice groove on the cutting board is also a good place to lay your punch. (2.) Sand paper is too coarse, I have better luck with crocus paper and emery cloth. Any good hardware store has these in the sand paper rack. Get the finest they carry. An 8X10 sheet of each will go a long way. (3.) As sharp as you can get them. After sharpening them, use the above papers to polish them. Please be careful! I understand that Braile was invented due to an accident with an awl. Hope this helps, John Morton

leather After using my adjustable swivel knife, my wife prefers to use the "Easy carve knife" that Tandy sells/sold witht he old nature tanned stamping tool kit. perhaps your daughter would like to try one of these? I think that ST leather in St Louis selle them for $3.50. I hope this helps. John Morton

Johanna, Is there any possibility of re-running the traffic stats by country? I am feeling like the Lone Ranger here in Kuwait. I realize you cannot connect me to other members, but if there is anyone else over here, I will start a thread. Thanks, John Morton Name: John Morton UserName: jmorton IP Address: 78.89.1.204 Email Address: jmorton04@yahoo.com

Barra, I think I get the idea! Once when I was a little boy, I hit my head on a pole. As the lump raised up, the baby sitter took a spoon and rubbed the lump back down. Hurt like the dickens, but there was no lump for my parents to see! I wonder if a 1/2 gallon glass jar full of sand or water would work for the smooth, slick & burnish functions? Thanks, John Morton

Greetings from the Arabian Gulf: I another thread, I saw a reference to using a bouncer to help prevent wrinkles in a lining. I looked in an old HC catalog and see that a bouncer may have various shapes, they seem to be made of smooth dense wood. But what are the for, and how do you use them? do you rub things with it or whack'em? How do you pick the right one for your needs? Thanks, John Morton News report from Kuwait - yesterday we had an 18" rain. I found the muddy drops on the windshield and measured the distance between them. Yep, 18 inches! It was accompanied by about 1/4 inch of new dust from Iraq/Saudi Arabia.

I don't know if these have been posted before, but I ran across them today. The first was a page listing tool manufacturers from several years ago. http://pslac.org/iilg/background.htm This is to a Japanese site that seems to have a lot of the same things that TLF carries, but some other things as well. http://www.kyoshin-elle.co.jp/ The second is in Japanese, (Sorry, I only speak Okie and Tex) but if you look around, there are 4 pages of tools to gawk at. I do not know anything about the catalog or the company. This may be obsolete or OOB, for all I know. Hope this is of interest. Thanks! John Morton

Trevor, When you looked him up, what was he listed as? An engraver or something else? This seems like what I have in mind. Here in Q8, I see a lot of geometric patterns, but they sure are different from the ones in the TLF catalog. I was thinking about making a few items with indigenous designs and see if there is any interest. If it makes any money, I am thinking that having a roller or a plate will make life much easier. The roller you have looks like the way to go, if I come up with something that "goes". Is the Brass roller durable? Thanks, John Morton