chuck123wapati

Heck yeah, nice work!!!!

Let's see the blade and how you hold the tool. Why do you put it in the fridge? It will stay too wet All you have to do is mist your work, then put some plastic wrap over it and seal it up. You don't have to rewet it to the point of soaking it, nor keep it that wet when not working. The idea is that you get it moist and keep it moist enough to work when you want to work it, not supposed to be a process of overwatering then waiting hours for it to dry every time you want to work. PS, it takes years to learn to tool well. youre doing fine. Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

BBQ season is the perfect time of year to be off for a while, enjoy every minute of it you can! I'm in charge of Christmas dinner, the son and I are surprising everyone with Crab, lobster tails, shrimp, either boiled in beer or beer-battered, oh, and fried oysters for Christmas Eve. Yeah, sadly, here in Wyoming. In cattle country, it was a cheaper option than a beef prime rib roast. its still blowing and forecast for at least another four or five days!! Jeez, this has been a long one. A weird, sad fact for our small community is that the suicide rate has always far exceeded the norms of the world, and it's been blamed on the isolation, unceasing winds, and bitter cold of the area. It looks gorgeous outside, but when you go out, the wind just drives any warmth right out of you. Blows so hard you can't catch your breath lol. It's also why I have about a hundred indoor hobbies lol.

I'm not trying to be negative, I'm just trying to understand how this would be any type of self-rewarding process. A guy can save pattern files and print them easily enough and trace them out pretty quickly, so that's not much advantage. Actually, using a swivel knife does take longer at first, but you also learn your pattern and how to use your knife in the process, a skill thats is required for any decent tooling. It reminds me of those old paint-by-number kits they used to sell, lol, you ended up with something painted, but gained no actual artistic knowledge of why or how you did it. A disadvantage IMO, ten years down the road, you still don't know how to do it by hand, and your skill level hasn't improved. Might as well just buy clicker and embossing plates if precision and time are the goal. The elephant in the room? Many of the very good toolers we try to emulate learned almost from the first to draw in and layout thier pattterns free hand. Patterns and tracing were simply a waste of time to them.

i dont see any improvement over doing it by hand. Am I missing something? How long did it take? I make these too. I can trace that and cut it out and be ready to tool in about 5 minutes by hand.

Haven't heard from you lately. Are you lost under your AC?

I agree you can't make 'em all, but you can make the easy ones with simple hand tools, save a bundle, learn a new skill, and have unique stamps no one else has.

A plastic bag works for me, or even plastic wrap but my biome is in a very high-altitude desert environment. Plus i have a sealed box that is for acrylic paint palette that I use for large flat pieces. And not in the fridge, just leave it on the worktable.

yes they did, they look great.

yeah good job!!! I buy all the old books I can find.

Thats a cool build indeed. I take it you made the knife also.

I've been told the difference between a journeyman and a master is that the master can hide their mistakes. I would redo the strap if i couldnt make it totally invisible. I'm no master by any means. youve prolly spent more time and energy on this post than it would take to redo the strap. A gift should be perfect. Not something you couldn't sell, especially if you plan on getting more work from it.. Good luck to you and Merry Christmas.☺️

Thank you !! Now that I have a working pattern i can do some tweaking to make them even better. Right now I have some nice thick merino wool socks that work really well in these.

Thanks dwight, I'm thinking a good long while on the soles they are 10oz and the insole is also 10 oz. I'll know soon enough I'm sure. What is nice is they can be resoled pretty easily i think. I'm also going to make a pattern for sandals, and the Roman type of sole is a great way to do that for sure. I I've been thinking what kind of leather crafter would i be if i couldnt make my own shoes lol.