Ragingstallion

welcome to the forums brother. look forward to seeing your progress, and if you ever ride on through Idaho, let me know. Ill jump on my sled and show ya some spots in the mountains.

smooth and sharp, doesnt hurt to strop it though

I am not a fan of black Friday, I honestly prefer to hide up in my cabin in the woods during this time of year. however, Tandy did have a great deal on their pro-craft stainless steel stitching chisels. usually at the Elite membership, they would have cost $399.99 for all 12, but the sale was $99.99. 2.5mm, 3.0mm and 3.5 mm with 1, 2, 4 & 10 prongs. Saved over $300, and im so excited to use them.

Great to have you here, but word of advice. I was given a set of tools from a family member who had no more interest in it, they made a few bracelets with the stamps, and the set they got was from amazon as well. The cheap sets you can get on there, are usually made out of zinc. most of them, when you look at the model number, somewhere on the handle portion of it, will have a Z (ex. Z-x511) which means it is a zinc. these tools are made more for kids and small hobbies. I bring this up because these tools love to bend and warp easily while using them. had one bend to a 45° after only about 30 hits, and not hard either. They are great for starting out and figuring out what direction you want to go, but don't get upset if/when it happens. best way to get into it, is just do it. you may find you hate it, you might find you love it. you could be a natural at it even. If you want to do it, then best way to do it is just start. There are lots of people and topics posted here to help you out. Again, welcome to the forum

Welcome to the forums bud, this is a great place, with lots of great people. you will find a lot of help here, immiketoo is a great person to get help from

so, just browsing CL and this is the first match that came up under sewing machine. what is it? is it worth it to even try it? they are asking $150

Angeles is a great acrylic paint, vary easy to mix, easy to apply. some colors, i think brown was one of them, that you have to add just a tiny bit of water to it so it doesn't streak as much. the pigments are usually pretty good. but the paint does come a bit thick for some of them, not sure why. So if you get some, just make sure to test it out first before diving in. and try watering it down to make it smoother if needed.

means your 5 years ahead of me

well, you have been doing this for a long time....it's experience! im sure at some point in my life I will have the same mindset as you, however....almost all of us here have the artist mindset, where we are our own worst critic.

Every time you post...i can not help but drop my jaw slightly. your work is always looking great, and a positive outlook on leather working. I, like probably many....MANY other here hope to achieve what you have with your skills.

Agreed, best advice is patients! As for other advice and first project, the most common gift, easy to learn for beginners that I come across in not only message boards, but also in person is a belt. you can go as simple, or as complex in the design as you want. you can even just leave it blank if your not wanting to get into stamping yet. Your best friend for learning minus asking the people here on this board is Youtube. I have found several, if not thousands of videos on leatherworking hints and tips. you might find your first project just by browsing those.

well it looks great

heh, not verbal, no...was meaning showing those how to do it.

Great job explaining Mike.

its looking great. love the way you did the wood texture to it.

im not familiar with exotic hides, but my first guess from looking at it would be elephant, and that is just by trying to compare to a good search. http://www.exotic-skin.com/species/elephant-leather/

looks good, though now im curious on figuring out a simple way to math out the dimensions for a curved coffee travel mugs that wont slide down.