chuck123wapati

You made great use of your time! That is a nice belt.

the Al Stohlman books are great info, he has at least two on belt making and they were free on the Tandy site. https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/category/79/ebooks?pagenum=1

excellent!

Nice job I really like the color.

have you tested this for any length of time?

Well yesterday it was 85 degrees and not a cloud in the sky the temp started dropping about 4 pm and by dark it was only 45 today there is about four inches of snow on the ground 45 mph winds and all I80 closed. Had some dandy fried green tomatoes last night lol.

The number of holes wasn't the issue. I can do ten holes through multiple layers quicker that a chisel also.

LOL i shoulda sent some bandages. Yes i too found out how sharp they are the same way. Take everyone's advice and drink a bottle of wine or offer it to your wife as an apology then use the cork instead of your finger.

LOL before i made a good awl i used chisels now i can make 6 holes with my awl through three layers faster than trying to wrestle my 6 prong chisel out of one layer. Dont get me wrong i'll use chisels also when needed but that is getting to be less and less with awl practice.

I hold the awl still and polish it with 2500 sandpaper glued to a popsicle stick. You only need to get the tip sharp about 1/4" or a bit past the radius. I tried neils method but its very hard to move that small of edge evenly over a strop . paper or stone imo and keep the shape. Hold the awl still and the blade sideyou are working on flat then polish with the paper away from the spine& toward the edge. then turn the awl and do each four sides. The tip is the most important part if you dont get the tip sharp it wont push through no matter how sharp the edges. Use a magnifier of some type.

You hit the nail on the head with your comment about ppe Its not just that secretive trade deals are what set the course for the Chinese to take the ball and run. now they own the un and the WHO so it isn't going to get better anytime soon. A fancy haft is no big deal to me a lathe cant tell if its turning beech, pine or walnut imo. Its all about self satisfaction, what i like, what you like maybe two different things but neither is wrong. I own some really expensive firearms but guess what i use em and abuse em and don't care a bit if the finish gets scratched i have no problem doing the same with my awls without concern.

your right friend they aren't worth 40 or 50 bucks and is why no one here can compete. tariff and trade agreements by dishonest politicians has created our chi chi dominated manufacturing world. The only way we could have kept in competition with a country of slaves is if our politicians wouldn't have sold us out for the Paris climate agreement. I'm just glad I don't need to buy one lol i can make one anytime i want.

Read the Paris climate accord you will understand why your manufacturing is in China. And why your politicians are rich. They gave away your prosperity for their own. China gets a free pass on pollution for 20 years. Trade deals by your politicians made that happen. Setting up world trade dominance by china utilizing their socialist slave labor. Our president has brought all this to the light for everyone to see. One example Canada paid 50% lower prices for drugs than the US at least that was the case until out president got a fair trade deal its a fact look it up and its why China wants him out!!

yes i can make another set, i will post them here when i get them done. But warning it may be a week or two. Thank you!

dont know why not its about using scraps and remnants so probably doesn't matter much at all. Pretty cool idea indeed.

lol how true!

The drill was only an example in a more complex thought.

Nice skinner!

I agree with this Making "good" steel is much like baking a cake. different recipes of steel produce different types of steel but its mostly in the baking how well the recipe turns out. In the case of awls you can easily, due to the small size and exactness needed in annealing and tempering of the blade make one to brittle or to soft from the exact same piece of stock. Hardness also affects how easily the tool can be sharpened, I prefer to have a tool i can sharpen as well as one that wont break when dropped or snap when it gets in a bind for any reason. The difference from old tools and new tools is a matter of quality control of the product. old tools = more hands on, smaller production rate is more quality control. New tool + mass produced less hands on less ability to find mistakes in any one of the many processes that go into making "good" steel.

I have to disagree plastic won over simply from a manufacturing cost savings and profitability. Find any tool you have thrown away or is broken and if there is plastic used its usually the broken part. It was "sold" to the public as better and many believe it because it is all they have known but in reality was a way to switch to disposable to sell more product cheapr. Its all about money simply if a drill will last a lifetime you only buy one.

they are replica firearms used to build holsters.

you could make a wooden one similar to a stitching pony then add the brass jaws and form the teeth easily with a hand file. Its very cool indeed and the spring would make it quicker to use but I'll bet it replaced a wooden one sometime during the industrial age.

What I do when I think of these things. Go for it, build it and give it a try!

Here is the set i made , both are stainless steel. The 1 oz solid silver border tool not included lol.

The joke here in Wyoming is we have two seasons, winter and construction season lol The hiways are worked on all summer then closed due to weather most of the winter.