chuck123wapati

Here is a bit of history from my area of Wyoming and probably a little unknow history of the leather trade for you folks to ponder. The leather work of prisoners, I live in the same town as the state penitentiary and it had a long history of leather work reaching back to territorial days. In the early years the prison system was very self sustaining, in that the prisoners would build or make almost everything they used. There was an honor farm that was an actual farm growing all the food and meat for the prisoners. They also made their cloths and of course their shoes also. the prison had a complete shoe shop and the trade, all the trades, was taught to inmates by other inmates as back in the day there were no people working for the system unless they were guards all the work was done by inmate labor and a lead man was appointed to run the various shops, he was in charge of teaching the help and running whatever shop. In the inmates off times they could do hobbies to sell so a lot of them would do leather work or braid horse hair, make small wooden projects etc. Local people could buy this stuff at the front gate of the building, you can google our frontier prison to get a look at it if you like. As a kid I can remember seeing and hearing people talk about the leather work done, I remember the saddle shaped purses were the cats meow back then. Anyway in about 1985 a new prison was built and I went to work there as a maintenance tech, one of the first as prior to this all the work was done by the inmates. Anyway there was room for a number of hobby shops in the new facility so the old timers who had hobbies got the shops, there were buckle making shop a couple leather shops, horse hair braiding, silversmithing, fly tying as well as many inmates still did art and stuff in their cells. There were also trades taught to the inmates , there was an upholstery shop, welding, machine shop, auto mechanics and carpentry shop, employees could take a vehicle in for example and have it totally rebuilt, painted and reupholstered for pennies above the cost of materials.. The frontier prison had a gift shop that was kept open then to the public for selling the hobby work as well many companies hired inmates to tie flies, I could buy a dozen of any type of fly for three bucks and as these boys tied thousands they were GOOOOD flies indeed. The leather work had by that time become very well known as through the years word of mouth made it place to stop if you were traveling through. One fellow, I cant remember his name at the moment had one of the shops and had five or six other inmates working for him, he made thousands of belts bags purses etc, as well as horse hair items hat bands, halters, yes even holsters. They were taken to the gift shop in town and sold there. One of my jobs in the summer was to run a yard crew at the old prison in town so I saw first hand the amount of goods this fellow made an sold. Once a month people would come down from Jackson hole and literally buy every piece of leather and horse hair in the shop. This one shop made over 50 k a year and the inmate owner would send the money to his wife. This all came to an end when three inmates killed an officer trying to escape. All of the hobby shops were shut down and all of the inmates had to ship their stuff out of the prison or have it destroyed. That happened in the 90s and still years after people would call the prison to ask if the leather work or horse hair was still being done. If you google Tom Horn , he was an "enforcer" for the cattle companies, there is a picture of him braiding a rope out of horse hair while in prison.

I have a really nice singer 401 a I know it wont do thick leathers but am wondering if anyone can give me an idea how thick of stuff it will do. Its in perfect shape and I don't want to ruin it on something to thick for it to handle. Any advice is greatly welcomed as I was thinking about a daypack made with leather and oilcloth.

That's one nice rod there for sure ! I may have to get in touch for some pointers on re doing that rod of mine. I love throwing a fly on the miracle mile.

beautiful work on that case but I don't see the handmade rod? Cmon now give us a peek. Just an off hand question I have a couple really old bamboo rods can they be re wound with new thread?

That's a cool old machine now i'm wondering how my old Royal would do. I've restored it but never tried it on leather I do know it'll do about 3/8 inches of fabric. gonna have to give er a go.

lol where I live in Wyoming on, I-80, I have had packages go through my town twice before they get delivered, ups has a main hub in Colo. so any thing goes there first, if its from the west coast it goes through town to Colo. then back. Sometimes UPS will get it here then drop it in our towns mail which now gets sorted in Cheyenne then back again and delivered by USPS. If its fed ex they have a place in SLC so if its from east of me it goes right through town and then back again, once it went from the east coast to Salt Lake then back to Cheyenne then back again to me. Tracking systems are great but life was less stressful when you didn't know this stuff it was just the old 4 to 6 weeks and you were elated when they got to you sooner.

looks to be southwestern or even from Mexico Yes looks to be south western or even from Mexico, the designs in the center are hard to make out but it sure is a cool old wallet. DOH just noticed it says Mexico right on it next to the initials doesn't it?lol.

I like how you created depth in your work. Very nice job!

change the pic keep the memories my baby girl is 38.

nice stuff!! I haven't seen any brown ones if you can find them with no finish and they are plain steel then there is a product called plum brown made by birchwood casey, I believe, for black powder rifle barrel blueing. Very easy to use and makes a nice chocolate brown finish.

you can upload them if you resize them smaller to be under the 1.46gb.

That will be interesting getting it down that low of rpm, is the patcher 1 to 1, one turn of the handle to one stitch?

If it is for real use in the field then a single removable adjustable strap that can be thrown over either shoulder or worn however she likes, and a belt loop as well would be my choice as there is no real problem for the wearer to remove it from her back if necessary to remove the machete. It would be more functional I think for her in a daily work situation. Most of the on the back knife or sword stuff you will google has the ninga mentality lol if you will to make them look cool or "tactical" but not really functional in a daily work process. You may also google traditional arrow quivers to get ideas as they are used much the same way either slung over the back or worn on the belt.

very cool reuse!

I see that motor has a variable rpm knob. Can you adjust that to a max speed then use a foot pedal also for variable speed up to that set point? Very nice motor for the price!

yes! and why civil war holsters were worn on the right side but made for left handed cross draw, they used their strong arm, right, for the sabre and the left for the pistol lol, not that it has a darn thing to do with this. lol

Yea that's nice!!!

Those are some nice tools indeed!

use a welt so the blade doesn't cut the thread. I think how she were to wear it would decide that, the strap could do either shouldn't be a problem.

I think because thats why they joined this awesome forum. They get real life people with real life experience, like you, instead of the possibility of someone that just was hired and doesn't have a clue, says bring it in, send it to us, etc. if its a simple fix like a misaligned belt they may not tell you that, they may sell you a new motor. When you fix a problem yourself you then have gained valuable knowledge and understanding , when you have someone else fix it they have the knowledge and you have a bill every time it breaks.

That's a nice design gotta make!!

WOW if I had a wallet like that I would have to wear it around my neck on a string so everyone could see it!!!! It surely would never see my ass pocket. You are an amazing artist!

purdy!!! fix er up!

Thank you , its my own pattern, I only had two buckles at the time and haven't found any patterns that use less than three so I came up with this. The stamping is only two stamps, a veiner and a small mules foot, matches my suspenders lol, oh and a background tool on the breast plate. I've been thinking a bit and have a better idea for the buckles to set in the middle of her back instead of on the right side. An H shaped piece that has 4 slots for the belts to go through so the buckles can be centered on her back and she would be protected from them and the leash loop also. I'll post another picture soon when I finish that piece.

Looks great ! I would have run the stitching up around the curves of the frame and trigger guard a bit closer, it may loosen up there a bit.