chuck123wapati

beautiful!!!

I guess I know where you got your need for structure lol. There's a time for everything on a farm, but not much extra time for anything else lol. But I bet you remember some fun in those hard times. We did just that, but with no 100 acres, just our back yard, we grow a huge garden most years, we used to raise meat rabbits, we can everything or preserve everything we grow, and make i also make my own wine. Man, it makes a guy feel good to work in the dirt in the fresh springtime earth. Gardening or farming is a structured life, and when you're retired and don't truly need it for survival is a lot less stressful. I would say it's good food for the soul you would be surprised how much energy it will give you.

Don G has an excellent vid on antiquing.

Tape has its place; I don't use it all the time, but I think it is the right tool for the job in this case.

Find a heating air conditioning shop, they can cut it maby even have something you can use, they cut and bend tin/sheet metal.

lol with tape 1. Apply tape; you can even buy repositionable tape, sew. I doubt it takes a minute to use the tape. And no glue on the grain side!!!!

https://tandyleather.com/collections/adhesives/products/2535-650-tanners-bond-adhesive-tape

use tape

Oh, heck yeah, that would be super simple and cool as heck. With a decent band saw, you could stack and cut several at a time.

I've heard some folks use that metal or hard plastic pallet strapping band stuff, but I have never used it. Never even made one with a stiffener, does it run the whole length or just to the holes?

practice and hard work. You would be surprised at what some folks can do.

Nice indeed!! I like the hidden slots.

You're a master man that looks great and after some use, no one will be able to tell it wasn't original. Maybe the saddle was used for some kind of event or something where the horse turns one way more than the other. Stay warm, my friend!!

I think the difference is that the folks you see mostly here on the forum are making belts for carrying pistols, lol. I don't see many belt maker threads for just everyday work, if that makes sense. I never wore thick belts either until I started carrying then it's just one ply 10 oz. with plenty of nfo to make it more flexable. They just aren't comfortable working in, especially if you're bending over a lot. And thick super stiff gun belts come from Hollywood or the internet, i dont quite know where.

lol that feeling only lasts about a month or two, then you wake up one day with more chores than you had while you were working. I burned out from a very high-stress management job, had the time in, 30 years, so one day I cashed out my sick time and vacation and just retired. My kids were in their teens, so we spent the summer raking lawns and such, then a fellow who was remodeling an apartment building hired us as help. I spent the rest of the summer just doing my thing. I could come and go as I pleased and work as long as I wanted, plumbing, painting, sheetrock, etc., and the guy even taught me how to cut and tile showers; he was a retired contractor. Having a job that required no critical thinking and set no limits was the best thing I could have done at the time; it reset me and got me into a routine, and reminded me that a much simpler and easy-going life was possible. I am still up by 4 and start the day with the forum and coffee.

I know with brain-tanned hides, you get it wet again, then stretch and work it as it dries, but if it works on chrom tan, i dont know, you would have to test it if you have some scraps. Don't stretch it out of shape, but work it until completely dry, or maybe throw it in a dryer with NO heat

It's great to hear that you're on the mend and have returned to the forum. I really am not good at condolences, but as a one-time husband of 40 + years, I know there are no words. I can't even begin to fathom your loss and am so very, very sorry.

Welcome!!! I retired about ten years ago, or more. I do what comes to mind at the moment. I have taken up just learning new stuff, so leather is not the world to me. Last year, for example i deciced i wanted to make clay pots out of local clay, so i did it, found clay, cleaned clay, built a raku kiln, and made pots both in a fire pit and the kiln. I forge and make tools, knives, and just about anything I need. I learn to make lol. Last winter i rebuilt two bamboo fly rods. I still need to make the cases, this fall, tanning leather hair on, and moccasins. I've got two staves of wood drying for making bows this spring, some staves for arrows, also i learned to make arrows a few years back. Just live, man!!!!

cool !!! Bloodknots look pretty good on these as well.

A lesson a person only gets one chance to learn sometimes. Was working as a roustabout. We had snowed in the day before in a small town; it was Thanksgiving week, so in November. Luckily, one of us had a girlfriend there, so we had a warm floor to stay that night. Got up to drifted snow that totally packed into the engine bays of our trucks. Spent half the day getting them running, then the boss says our pump station was offline again, so buy as much food as you need and head out, the station was 30+ miles into the desert lol. No problem, got there, fired up the station just as the storm started, hopped in the truck happy and warm, put it in gear, and it died, wouldn't start... There we sat. A vehicle goes from warm to freezer in about 30 seconds. Then the compressor station died again, so there were no lights or heat even at the location. We just huddled up together and did everything we could to keep awake through the night. All three of us were local boys and friends and knew not to leave the truck, and not to go to sleep, so we just sat there in the dark watching snow blow across the windshield at 40 mph plus doing about anything to stay warm lol. Yeah, it got colder than hell, about two hours in we figured out that all the really good canned food we had bought was frozen solid as well as our water. Luckily, the storm died, and the sun came out. There was about 6 inches of frozen vapor in the truck just from our breath that we had to knock down because it was thawing on us. Anyway, as the sun warmed us up and we felt safe we fell asleep to be woken up about 2 in the afternoon by another crew sent out for us. It took two graders from sunup to blade the road to us out.

Stay warm, my friend, and safe. Ice skating isn't what it's cracked up to be. lol

i carry a complete survival bag in both my rigs, with food and stove plus blankets, plus extra gloves, coats and hats lol. With the wind and lack of trees, the winds could kill you in minutes here with no possible way to build a fire in these conditions. When I was about 18 i was stranded overnight in a huge blizzard out in the oil field with two other guys in a pickup truck. We survived by staying awake all night and wrapping our feet together in a xtra pair of coveralls. Here's a tip: if that ever happens to you, drink as much water as you can before it freezes, and you get too cold to. Also all your food will freeze too. We had crackers that night lol dry with no water. they finally found us and got us out about noon the next day to a small town where we were still snowed in at for another day. After about six hours, the coolest ice circles form from your breath that you have ever seen on the inside of a vehicle but not so cool in the morning, the sun comes out and melts them for your first survival shower.

yup thats nice work.

Make a ranger belt; no hardware will touch her body.

Will Chedder brauts and tater tots work? I don't want to dishonor my clan, Montgomery.