chuck123wapati

there is alot of good info on the net. look up Brain tanning or just hide tanning. Basically you have to flesh/scrape the flesh side of the skin free of all meat and fat . then wash and soak the hide in a water and lye solution to get the hair to slip then you have to wash the hide again to get the lye out and scrape the hair and epidermis off and then apply what ever tanning solution you choose the skin then needs to be worked as it dries to break down the fibers and soften the leather, this last step is for brain tanning i haven't done any other type. there are more than one way to accomplish each of the different steps so a bit of study is needed to pick which you want to do. If you want leather to tool you will have to veg tan it. Brain tanned hide like Deer is really soft and makes awesome clothing. Its all hard work lol and some times stinky.

Hey all you folks down in Texas hope you are doing well also Frodo and friends in that flood / Hurricane Ida area. Haven't heard from Frodo i hope all is well. I am always looking for preparedness things easy and cheap, it may not flood to much here but the power does go out and in the winter can be deadly as well. So i found another great thing to have on hand in emergencies, outdoor solar lights, they will go next to my Colemans and kerosene lamps lol. I was just at walmart and found that the outdoor solar lights were on end of summer sale, i picked up a few of them for emergency use for just $5 a piece. The larger spot light ones are great you can use them as house lighting or flashlights they are very bright and they have a solar charger built right on top. Even rig them to charge other things as well if you are smarter than me lol.

and possibly a modeling tool for the real tight spots.

i use fiebings golden mink oil water proofing on most of my holsters and sheaths after a small touch of NFO. It darkens the leather a bit however. Smear it on and use a hair dryer to soak it in then buff it. Haven't had a problem with spotting yet.

just went to a local store Bomgaars to buy some stuff. they overcharged me according to the price on the shelf. The gal there fixed it but we got to talking as it happens on almost everything i buy there now. She said there just aren't enough people applying to work to even unload the truck let alone repricing everything. Almost every place in my town is crying for help for the same reason so that's probably happening most everywhere. Jeez i wonder why no one wants to work when they are getting free money can someone fill me in?

lol i have to use both for the small stuff

Both are very good work, i'll bet you will be making more once those get around a bit.

thank you!

excellent basket weave and an awesome little piece of iron.

traditionally they used horse hide i believe. yes just use the paper dry

Nope I don't strop my knives, none of them, hunting fishing butchering, leather or wood carving and i dont use a straight razor for shaving lol I use the 2000 grit for leather and my wood chisels and a butchers steel for butchering and the rest. i actually use a 2000 grit oiled belt on my sander for my finished edges on the knives i make. Here's my take for what its worth. Polishing compound that you use on a strop is for polishing, i use a lot of it in making knives so i am well aware of its use and also how long it takes to polish tempered steel. Stropping with it is like pissin into the wind IMO just to fine to do any real good because the steel is tempered so polishing is not easy and yet not hard enough like a straight razors steel to prevent rolling the edge, as well during stropping you can see the leather roll up from under the blade if you look closely that will make a good straight edge convex in short order as the leather pushes up around the edge. I use the 2000 grit it works well and much quicker to replace the edge that leather takes off, veg tan is hard on edges for sure, being glued on my pounding board it just takes a few strokes, wont round the edge and is handy right there. i have found there is a curve for sharpness that a cutting tool has to fit, to sharp for the job and it dulls quickly to dull and it doesn't cut, all cutting tools fit in that curve but axes don't fit the same place as leather tools or kitchen knives in that curve each needs it own edge, edge angle, edge grind etc.to meet its potential. As for the leather type if i was to make a strop it would be with the right stuff not whatever is laying around or you may be doing more harm than good IMO. Either way you decide to go what is important is that you learn the art of sharpening and learn your own tried and tested techniques because there have been pages and pages of sharpening opinions posted here as well as online. You know the old saying about opinions lol same with sharpening. All i know is what works for me. good luck and god bless.

I use a simple piece of 2000 grit sandpaper spray glued on my pounding stone to keep up the edge. No flex no mess and much easier and cheaper. To soft and the flex of the leather will round off your edge. Use the hardest leather you can find if you want to make one i hear horse hide fits the bill best.

That is amazing, portraits are hard especially when they are of people everyone knows.

excellent work !

air brush it.

i've done elk deer rabbit and such. Braintanned.

That is very nice! i love that clean straight design that matches the 1911 perfectly.

thank you thank you if i only had the dough. those are nice tools indeed.

i dont see why you cant use veg tan, neats foot oil will soften it and darken it. if you use neats foot apply it a little at a time so you dont use to much. Try it on a piece of scrap to see if it will work for you.

Friend I'm not going to play Fakebook you tell me first games with you. You simply wanted to know what i use in an effort to show me i don't know what is in what i use to make some point. I don't know what the point you wanted to make was or even care but I'm sure it was to prove my "misconceptions" wrong to some degree. The relevance of my life was equally simple to understand and you know that also, don't play dumb i know your not! I do know what i use and what's in it I don't need your help with that others may but I don't. You came on here telling everyone that there is a misconception about vegetable oils going rancid there is no misconception vegetable oils go rancid period end of story. I'm not going to use them on anything i make period end of story. yes you can make them work if......... blah blah blah I'm not into if.....when making something for other humans. You like it, you make it, you use it period end of story. That is how i learned what I like and I am sure that's how you will learn what you like. Good luck to you friend. We do agree that everyone should know what is in everything they use so we can leave it at that. BTW msds sheets contain info about the product created not only the products used in its creation, Clorox and ammonia don't mix for example and create something much different and deadly when mixed so no aggregation doesn't always work in creating an MSDS. msds for neats foot= https://www.springfieldleather.com/sds-sheets/Fiebings/Fiebings Pure Neatsfoot Oil.pdf d-limonene msds =https://www.bulkapothecary.com/content/SDS/D-Limonene SDS - BA19.pdf . I'll use neats foot thanks.

i use a mix of beeswax and boiled linseed oil much the same way, its an old go to for a variety of things from clothing to furniture. carnauba works great on my antler knife handles i have a can that is decades old.

welcome and good luck to you friend.

good luck down there friend stay safe. i was wondering how you were doing.

#98 i would use a tightly formed sheath with maybe a chape on the end of the sheath or just a copper rivet or two to prevent any push through at the welt.

OK let me answer in a different way. Friend as a physical plant manager in a prison i had an msds book set that had literally over a thousand different products that i was personally responsible for keeping up and knowing about. Yes i do know what i stick my hands in, breath and or use on my tools and products. It was my life as well as the lives of about 250 employees, 30 of which were under my direct supervision and 896 inmates. MSDS are not a new concept to me by any means. But you missed the point i made or ignored it ,not all leathers necessarily take the same conditioning! BTW do you have an MSDS for your product?