Edgydave

I’ve been playing around making saps. Here’s a pic of my first attempts. My tooling has improved since then! Dave

Very cool!

I recently tried gum tragacanth and it worked beautifully! I don’t know how it will last but I don’t foresee any problems, it’s been used to burnish edging for ages. Another thing I do to improve the flesh side is to put it on my bench sander, lightly, to remove the loose fibres. Works great! I work mostly on small things, so it’s super easy for me but I’m sure it could be done on larger pieces if you were careful. I like 120 grit that is brand new and sharp. Does a great job for me. Dave

Very light pencil marks help too. And they can be easily erased! Use a softer lead if possible and don’t press on the pencil. Just use the weight of the pencil and draw the line a few times until it’s visible. Another trick I use is painters tape. It leaves little to no residue. One tip, I always stick the tape to a piece of paper first, peel it off, and then stick it on the leather. Great for lining up letters and so on, anything you want in a straight line. Any residue can be removed with an artists eraser, the white ones. Dave

I purchased another unit made by Weller which seemed to be better but after about an hour of work the same problem developed. I was unable to remove the tip. I looked up reviews for a bunch of different manufacturers and they all seem to have the identical problem: after working on high for a while, the unit and the tip fuse together. So another one is going back and there doesn’t seem to be a quality alternative, at last that I can find. I was planning on buying a Razor system, but it’s out of my price range at the moment. Sigh... I was enjoying it so much. Dave

Hello Everyone, recently I purchased a pyrography set from Tandy for leather burning. The first set I got developed problems as soon as I used it. The bits didn’t seem to fit quite right anymore. After I used it for a while one day on the hot setting, I could not extract the bit. After some twisting, it sheared off but there was enough sticking out that I was able to extract it, but it took a while using penetrating oil. I figured the set was defective, you could clearly see that the bit was cracked already where it sheared off. So I exchanged it for a new set, went home and tried it out. I’m new at this so I’m working on a practice board. Once again, after using the hot setting for an extended period, I could not extract the bit. This time I left it to cool to room temperature, put some oil on it, and extracted it a mil at a time. It was quite difficult and time consuming to get the bit out and when I did it looked like the bit had fused itself to the handle portion. In any case, it was ruined, totally stripped. When I took it back to complain, the manager told me that “Tandy has sold hundreds of thousands with no complaints.” Have any of you used this product? Has it worked for you? I feel that this is an inferior product but Tandy is standing by it 100%. Thanks, Dave

Hello leatherworking community! My name is Dave Lewis, sometimes known as Edgy Dave! I’m new to leatherworking just started about 6 months ago. I’m a woodworker at heart, a carver and whittler as well as having done carpentry and some furniture making, cabinetry and so on. But I was diagnosed with lupus a number of years ago and the physical stress on my body for woodworking has just become too much. I stumbled into a Tandy store near where I moved and was instantly addicted! I can still do carving, tooling and so on, make functional, satisfying, projects, and keep myself occupied. I live on disability so I have nothing but time on my hands and as a recovering alcoholic, I need to keep busy. I’ve finally reached a point where I can start selling some of my stuff. I’m an avid knife collector so knife sheaths are my specialty, but I’m also making a few other things like belts, card wallets, wrist straps, heavy duty cell phone holsters and so on. Things I’d actually use myself. Well, maybe not the wrist straps but ya gotta make a buck, right? And they are cool, I carve skull and things on them for practice. I’m not much of a photographer but I have a few pics I’m willing to share. I’m really looking for criticism, where to improve, what’s good, what’s bad, that kind of thing. And I’d like real criticism, be tough! Fair but tough. I need to learn and am self taught, I even have made a bunch of my own tools from dental instruments, nut pickers, old carving tools and so on. Personally, I feel that if you can make it, you should! Just a personal thing. Thanks for taking the time to meet me online, Dave P.S. - damn photos are too big! Have a look at mightytoughsheaths.ca but the site’s not really ready for public consumption yet, I’m doing that myself as well and my web developing skills are way out of date!