chuck123wapati

Over the top Beautiful work!! Tandy has a lot of free ebooks to download, there are three on making leather cases that may help with your problem of hiding the seam, Me I would just turn it towards the wall lol. https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/category/85/patterns-free-leathercraft

I agree and try to do my best! I live in Wyoming, its really friggin cold here right now, really deep snowdrifts and average wind speed all this last week of 25 to 60 mph, and there is a herd of deer in my front yard, but most folks don't believe there is a Wyoming anyway. lol But I do post my location just in case someone gets stranded on I-80. I think social media overall has these problems because people from all over the world are on here and cant always converse well in the English language, some have been scared by all the online weirdos who want to steal your id or your property and some just don't want to, people are funny that way. I joined to learn from others as well as pass on any help I can but also to communicate and enjoy the interaction. We can all do better and it would also be nice if when someone posted a question they then responded back to the answers in a sensible timeframe.

I think your 'feeling ' comes from the negative space behind the name that makes it appear unfinished as well the lack of finish work. I can see that you may want to end the tooling in some way as it just kind of peters out maybe a border of some type so the shading and designs will have a stopping point. I don't think you would need to add more tooling, flowers, leaves, etc., if you don't want to around the name it looks great as is, but you could also add an oval or some type of border around the name then carry your background across the rest of the area so the whole pattern ties together. Just my thoughts It does look great as is and we always tend to forget that if your not completely done including the finish work, dying, antiquing, burnishing then the project always looks like something is missing lol.

yup red green and blue are is essence all of the three primary colors with extra blue for making the green value. mixing red yellow and blue depending on quantity creates different hues of grey, brown or black depending on amounts of each color. I can see this as the starting point you also have to realize the color of the leather will add to the mix as most color mixing programs rely an a white background or an opaque color combination. good luck I would love to see the outcome!

Both a very well done, I love a flat grind blade.

lol no more saddle sores shaped like pretty flowers! Great job there that clean up job is fantastic.

Well if you ever do another I'll help you out.

your welcome, darn if I knew you were going to buy one I could have made one I can collect all the willow a person would ever need. I guess I forget how free and open Wyoming is still is.

you take apart your old seat covers and use them as the pattern.

Welcome friend.

That's a beautiful tool.

awesome thank you!

Here are a few pictures for those interested on the construction, This thing is a tank and built for a couple of lifetimes lol, all of the attached leather pieces have a piece of leather also on the inside. The thread is huge and appears to be natural fiber, the leather is at least 3,5 mm thick with the shoulder straps at 4mm + The canvas which is extremely thick ,I measured a hem of three layers at 3mm, was sewn onto the leather band at the bottom then both pieces sewn onto the floor piece from what I can see, then sewn up the sides of the pack, You can see this in the pictures. I'm trying now to design a smaller daypack just like this bad boy lol.

That is going to look so friggin cool! That's great work friend.

Every one yo do is a bit better keep it up!!

Here ya go folks this is my great granddaddy Isaac Montgomery he homesteaded here in Wyoming from Ireland back when the state wasn't even a state lol. What is important to know is this is a staged picture and very common of the time those guns and the costume as well probably weren't his as was also common in the day. You can see the bullets in the belt don't match the weapons. Back then photographers would go to community gathering, barn dances and such and set up their props, they would bring costumes as well as firearms for the people to wear and take their pictures with. I am lucky enough to have found other peoples pictures with the same set at the museum where he lived, it was taken around the turn of the century, 1900,. He was every bit the true west cowboy he started out by moving a herd of cattle from Illinois to California, yes not all cattle were herded from Texas then some how found Slater WY on his way back. lol. and raised Percheron Horses as well as cattle, and carried mail to and from Slater Wy. to Hanns peak colo. By horse or snowshoes depending on the weather, about 30 miles. His ranch still exists today in fact, He didn't wear a pistol and he didn't dress like that in real everyday life. As well if you ever peruse old photos in museums you will see most folks didn't carry and women back then didn't wear dresses that show their boobs, all that is tv! I will add those are real weapons and clothing of the day as well as indian items and I'm sure my granddaddy wore clothing similar to work or carry the mail but not on a daily basis the gloves and chaps for instance were winter gear. I guess my point is we really cant judge how people acted or what life was really like just by looking at a few pictures especially in books or articles as they cherry pick what will sell the book and it may not be correct as this photo shows a stereo typical idea but not really who the man was. Don't you wish you could make out the tooling on those chaps lol.

I agree with everything except number 3. Don't give me a chance at 30 yards they are as accurate as any average modern handgun, you just cant load them as fast lol. In fact the sights were built at 100 yards on the early Colts and had a optional Butt stock. The trooper twist came about due to the fact that the gun was carried on the right backwards to allow use of the sabre with the right hand which was carried on the left. People like Hickok weren't the average joe and most folks in the wild west didn't wear pistols all that much simply because they didn't want to get shot or shoot themselves by accident there were few doctors and no hospitals. The bad guys or hooligans, youngsters, etc, were just like todays dumbasses and were buried pretty early in life if they didn't respect their personal safety.

"Beads and beadwork of the American Indians" by William C. Orchard is a good reference book if you can find it as it shows many styles of Indian made and trade/ glass beads as well as how they were sewn on leather goods.

What isn't mentioned a lot and something I find interesting was that the civil war soldiers carried their pistol in a crossdraw covered holster made for left handed use, so they could use their sword in the right hand while the pistol was used in the left hand. The sabre was carried on he left and the pistol on the right. I think there were probably as many self made holsters or stuck in pants as there were bought holsters back in the day due mainly because of cost, the Mr. average guy back then didn't have a lot of extra money but they did have time and i'm sure many pistols for the average came from their life in the war as a battlefield pickup same with the holsters I imagine a lot were war relics with the flaps cut off and doctored up the way the owner felt. From what I have read most folks if they were average bought a shotgun as their first affordable weapon as it had much more use for the family. We all see the good holsters suitable for books and handing down but I think we rarely see actual working rigs that wore out or were so poorly made they were tossed away when newer could be bought. Old junky holsters and self made holsters don't sell books or movies except for lil Mattie who kept her hog leg in a flour sack lol.

true words there friend the forest here has so much deadfall due to the pine beetle infestation a couple decade ago that its just a matter of time, then adding to that the development of wilderness areas has stalled any vehicle access for fighting fire crews. Last year we had one and the fire crews just had to watch it burn, they had no safe way to get in or out. The deadfall is sometimes 6 to 8 feet high with downed trees and impossible to navigate. Good luck and god bless to the folks down under!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great info there! Thanks

Pretty good video showing the proper sewing techniques but I'm still not buying one lol, the takeaway for me = hole size affects the looks of the stitch dramatically , finishing the stitch work with final seating of the stitch via hammer is important to a good looking stitch. I agree I think with a heavier thread the slant would be more natural looking on both sides, the side with the bigger holes was to big for the thread size while the other was marginal. Is there a rule of thumb for thread size compared to hole size?

that's really nice! Nice job of dying and contrast.

LOL its beautiful!! and agree it would take some time indeed no matter how you did it. Your right I do tend to talk to much, its ok to tell me to shut up I get off track easily.

There is a reason they believe that, the importance is what makes the stitch, the diamond cut that doesn't detract from the leathers strength or integrity, the angle of the cut, diamond shape, provides that when the stitch is pulled it seals the hole and provides the tension that keeps the lock stitch locked and the thread itself sewn correctly provides the lock stitch that doesn't fail. Its a micro-system if you will developed over hundreds of years by folks that used leather on a daily basis. Some times we fail to realize that there is much more to such a simple thing as a stitch and why it matters. On a handbag no biggie on the reins of a horse well maybe a biggie ifn he goes off. I an not an expert at stitching or leather work by any means but always strive to learn and understand and am very guilty of over studying the process but for me I have the urge to know why something is the way it is and why it done that way.