GRod

Duuuuuude... Those things rock!

I haven't tried Tokonole yet, but I will. If it really does work as nicely as it appears in pictures then I'm sure I will like it too. And hey, if it helps me produce products like yours, Danne. I'm certain it will please me. At this stage of the game I'm focused on getting better with the basics. I know I can have a box full of stuff to try at my doorstep by Saturday with just a few clicks of the mouse, but I'm trying to avoid that. While Amazon (and other internet sellers) are really great things in terms of convenience, but I also prize the brick & mortar retailer. As I get older I find I'm fond of going to a place where I can pick up the product with my own hands. Thanks, Heydox. That's exactly what I was hoping to hear. There are a half dozen places in town where I can pick up a can of Feibing's paste soap, but nobody has the bar in stock. Sounds like the Feibing's bar is basically... soap.

Presently working on my edge finishing. I've noted a very common approach of wetting the edge with water and hitting it with a little glycerin bar saddle soap (if it's good enough for Bob Parks & Don Gonzales, it's good enough for me). My wife enjoys her crafts as well, including making personalized soaps for use as gifts. Consequently, we already have some plain, clear glycerin soap hanging around the house; the stuff you melt down & add color/fragrance & pour into fancy molds. Something like this. Is using the crafty soap-making glycerin bar instead of the saddle soap bar from Fiebings acceptable? Is the magic simply that it's glycerin (which is my instinct)? Or is it really about the saddle-soapyness causing ingredient that makes it good for burnishing edges? This question is embarrasingly newbie-ish, and I'm finally asking the experts because my mental vacillation the last couple of days has just been exhausting. Thanks all, for making this such a safe place to learn your wizardry.

Fear not. I had a similar thing happen to me when I replaced the timing belt on my wife's Audi a couple years ago. That job required taking apart LOTS of stuff just to get to where the work needed to happen. Not only did I get it back together, I had no parts left over (bonus!) and the car started & ran perfectly with the first turn of the key. Give yourself some credit. After all this time & work, you know the internals of that machine intimately; even if you don't realize it. You'll get it back together without a problem.

Danne, I'm still a beginner and am curious about how you put this together. What thickness leathers are you using? did you purchase these split already to your final thickness? or are you splitting these down on your own? Are you using glue or contact adhesive between the black outer & pink inner layers? Are you skiving the edges of the card pockets? How thin? (sorry for all the simple questions. your work is exactly the kinds of thing I hope to achieve... if I can ever figure out how to stitch a straight line )

I forgot to also ask... are you using an electric creaser? I am very impressed with the the consistent spacing you are achieving between edges, creases and stitches.

Nice work. I'm impressed by the precision of your stitching and creasing. Did you dye the veg tan yourself?

I usually find there to be a very fine line between janky and genius.

I would have assumed exactly the same thing. I'm surprised it didn't work out that way. This also surprises me. Thanks for sharing these notes. I am fascinated by the idea of melting and molding (moulding? ) waste plastic into useful stuff. Since I don't have ready access to a lathe I am looking out for a suitable drinking vessel or tumbler like @heydox used for his mold. I figure if I can get close I can fine-tune it on my drill press. I also found a US plastics dealer, a small shop by the looks of things, who deals in all kinds of shapes & sizes of all kinds plastics. He offers 'rods' made of Delrin (acetal?) and HDPE particularly, which are 12" (30ish cm?) by 2.5" - 3" (6 - 8 cm). I'm guessing that Delrin is a name-brand formulation of something more generically known as acetal. Something like that would be a nice jump start to a maul, but it does reduce the cost-effectiveness of a DIY solution. Besides, a 3" diameter piece of Delrin is really expensive... at least in this format. Regular old acetal and HDPE are pretty affordable, and I would bet one could create three or four mauls from a single 12" stick of the stuff. But I really want to melt down my own scrap. Because... well... fire & metal and all that.

I started down the path just over a year ago, I guess. I was at 220 lbs/100 kilos and felt generally miserable. I'm down to 185 lbs / 84 kilos and life is generally so much better. Clothes are more comfortable, my knees don't bother me anymore and I even sleep better. Didn't join a gym, but I did buy a secondhand dip/pull-up tower in an effort to firm up the details. It was all diet, though I'm pledging to be more active now that the weather in my hemisphere is starting to warm up. No photo evidence of my transition, I'm afraid. I shun the camera's eye at all times. Good on you, @JLSleather. Make it happen. "Decide what to be, and go be it" as the Avett Brothers say in their song. @bikermutt07, MERCY SAKES ALIVE! (as my grandma used to say) No contest, amigo. You win.

Aaaaand, another beauty! You casting your own brass weight from reclaimed pistol cartridges, yes? That's a really great idea! Did you do the same (with a different metal, obviously ) for the first maul as well?

Absolutely fantastic! I'm not sure where on the globe you are, and like Fred, I also know them as 'acorn nuts'. One of the big-box home centers near me (Menards - it's like Home Depot/Lowes, but a midwest regional chain) carries a selection of chrome plated acorn nuts that would finish that off nicely. If that maul works half as well as it looks, you're going to appreciate it for a lifetime. Nice, nice, nice work.

I already own something similar for my wood chisels, but i'm not convinced it can hold my skiving knife blade as securely as needed. This is similar to what I have, but significantly more worn: https://www.amazon.com/ATLIN-Honing-Guide-Chisels-Planer/dp/B07C9X3F98 My head is already so full of new leather knowledge that I can't even sort out the sharpening tools. Brands, grits, materials... ugh. It will sting when I actually spend the money, though I know I'll be glad once I do. That much I already know.

That's a good idea for a guide. I don't trust myself to keep the same bevel on the edge, so I'll have to look around at what I have available to see if I can devise something helpful. I think my knife is nearly sharp enough, but not quite so , because I feel like it takes just *a little* too much effort to skive (but it does cut leather to shape & size quite nicely - hence my fear of messing up a good thing). Stropping alone doesn't seem to be getting me where I want to be, but I only have up to 800 grit wet/dry paper on hand. I need to find some finer grit. I will move on to a set of diamond stones at some point, but I feel like I need to learn how to sharpen my stuff before I drop real money on something like that.