chuck123wapati

It's 6:39 here, and I have just finished putting some cinnamon rolls together for the family when they wake up...you know those real gooey upside-down ones lol.

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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.

the good two tones lol. been wearing these for two days, and they are so comfy I forget they are on. Just 11.5 oz each. you can see the vamp on the dark shoe is kinda wonky, that's the third attempt, and really, when I realized you have to stretch the vamp into place. You also have to trim very close at the toe and heel awl holes and even cut out a V between the stitches in the toe and heel areas. Anyway, I have found my answer to sore feet and plastic garbage!!!

So after throwing a perfectly terrible pair of nearly brand new 100+dollar Chinese shoes in the trash. I set out on an adventure, or maybe a quest is better.. To find a pattern i can make and use daily until I die or until someone in the USA makes a damn shoe. I am so tired of the living by buying cheap plastic garbage mindset that we have been led into i could puke, especially when your feet hurt after ten minutes. Any ways i decided that a decent moccasin pattern is the answer, but I have tried and failed miserably in making my own pattern. I have about six patterns downloaded and even looked at the steampunk dudes driving moc pattern as an option. I looked at several mocs on the net and decided on the basic shape of a chukka-type moc with thicker soles. I decided that Genes pattern could work, so I set to work. First off, most moc patterns call for softer leathers than veg tan, usually moose or bison, so I knew the challenge would be to utilize the heavy veg tan for soles. I figured a form would be the answer, so I cut one out the basic shape of the insole, then also an outside form slightly bigger, double the leather thickness. So I glued in the insole, then wet-formed the sole. I used 2mm leather for the vamp and set about sewing it up as close to the exact pattern I could and followed the instructions. What I learned!!!! You need flexible or softer leather, the vamp started tearing at an obvious weak pointso was ruined before finishing, but i finished anyway to find all the bugs. There were holes in both sides at the tongue edge and there were wrinkles inside and out at the toe and heel so uncomfortable, also to small and just ugly. I also learned that you need to stretch the vamp as you go in order for the stitching holes to line up properly or your stitches wont be tight. The stitching holes were so far from the edge that big wrinkles were formed inside and out. Plus the sewing just looked like s@#t. What i did Changed the vamp from a one-piece to a three-piece design, widened the tongue so there would be no open holes in the sides of the mocs As I formed the sole, I took a ballpeen hammer and pounded out all the wrinkles and bumps on the heel and toe section. Then, after drying, I trimmed up the sole evenly all the way around. After forming i doused the sole in NFO as well as the vamp to get some flex, skived the edges of the sole, burnished, then used a round awl to punch the stitch line up closer to the edge like 1/8" or so. I did the same on the vamp, moved the holes to 1/8th inch from the edge that gave me enough room for my foot plus i lost all the insde bumps and wrinkles. Stitching was the key to a nice loking job, and i now understand why the particular stitch was used. The process to sew these is simple: but not explained in the pattern!!!! you do about six stitches, then go back and tighten them up, then do a few more. There are places where the holes get way funky but if you use a needle as a lever and stretch the vamp as you go then they all line up and the shoe forms perfectly. Any way, here are some pics and my two-toned shoes lol, I used a piece of hide that had been partially sunburned, so after screwing one shoe up i had to use the lighter stuff, which will darken up with time lol. I now have a usable pattern, and my next pair will have a gusseted tongue as well.

whats interesting is understanding why a certain stitch was used and how they work in that situation. It's rarely mentioned in patterns why the pattern maker used the stitch and how to sew the stitch correctly. In my case, the holes seemingly were way off, but as I tightened the stitches and stretched the leather into place, the holes made sense and the moc formed perfectly.

Heck yeah, treat yourself !! Merry Christmas, friend!!! You know i have studied your work to death its simply perfect every time.

That's a nice set!!! They are better than anything on the net. It's really pretty easy to make a lot of the tools we use. It's too bad more folks don't do it. Back in the day, it was a requirement for most tradesmen apprentiseship was about making your own tools as you learned to use them. Nowadays, folks can barely push a button to order them without two hours of internet research and reading 500 reviews. I made mine from stainless all thread, scrap leather and brass nuts. Chuck up the all-thread in a hand drill and turn it against a belt sander to get the profile and size you want then just polish the tip. Tighten down the brass nuts dope it up with resolene, let it dry, and do the same with the handle, and you're done. I have two double-ended lifters and also a double modeling tool/ stylus i made pretty much the same way. Can you imagine paying 30 40 bucks for a tool you can make in minutes for less than a couple bucks? I also use d2 rod and a map gas torch to forge smaller cutting tools.

Yeah, you should be able to machine sew that. That's the problem with my pattern theres no way for me to sew the sole on other than by hand, and it is a bugger for sure. i found that to get a good-looking stitch i had to take about 6 stitches, then use my needles as a lever to stretch the vamp into place, tighten the stitches, then do 6 more. My poor needles went through heck and are bent from the process. Stuff they don't tell you in the instructions. I got it down to about an hour for the sole with the last one.

Those are nice as well, they look really comfy and warm. That steampunk pattern dude has a nice pattern for that driving moc style, that's what they call em here anyway. I almost bought it, but my bank didn't like the site and wouldn't process the transaction. Mine are for outdoors as much as indoors I am thinking I'll make it even more of a chukka type moc with a fully gusseted tongue. Now that I have a decent pattern i can continue to enhance it.

I can now make a moccasin. I tried to make my own pattern a couple of years ago and failed miserably, as you can see, they worked but not much more lol. So this time I used a pattern pack from Tandy, "Mountain Man Moccasin Patterns by Gene Noland". I used pattern number three, decided to make it exactly as the pattern, and it was a failure, too. The leather tore out, and the stitching holes were so far apart they looked like crap. The heel and toe had wrinkles that I hate. But the problem I think, was my leather mostly, these moc patterns are made for lighter, more flexible leather than I used, so I had to make a form for the soles, learned that from the first pair. Veg tan won't mold to your foot with time. I used heavy holster leather for both insole and outsole, so the sole is as hard as a decent sandal. I used some 2mm for the vamps, but I still had to oil them before sewing them up, learned that from #2. A good coat of nfo gives the leather enough stretch so you can pull the stitching tight as you go. 3# came together, I think, got the form right, so i dont have puckers , made the vamp three pieces so they dont tear out and fit correctly. Skived the edges of the sole down and moved the stitching up closer and more tidy , took a hammer and pounded out the puckers in the toe and heel. Oh, and changed the top a bit . These i could wear downtown. I used crap leather as these were experiments, but now maybe I'll buy some good bison for the vamps, I kinda like the harder soles now that i can make them repeatable. funny thing the leather I used had been left out in the sun, and part had tanned darker, so now I have a light moc and a darker one lol I guess ones going into the car window for a week or so.