chuck123wapati

that is cool as heck man I love it!!

https://www.amazon.com/Fiebings-Golden-Mink-Leather-Preserver/dp/B000HHQ42Y

nothing would happen to s30v if you etched it unless maybe you clay tempered it the Hamon might show up. I've done one blade with that technique and it didn't appear very well. the difference is one is a lost art done by master craftsmen who spent a life time learning how. the other is done by just about anyone who can weld, buy a forge and power hammer and can get high carbon steel they have no idea where or how it was made lol. A lot of modern "Damascus" is simply steel cable forge welded so not a lot of learning involved in the process. Get it the right color, hammer , repeat. I love the look of the blades made from whatever you want to call it and have a couple myself but i also cant tell any difference in how they perform over a regular blade forged and tempered to the same hardness. Its use is a matter of looks now days not so much for flex and strength. here is some interesting info along these lines.https://knifewear.com/blogs/articles/the-truth-about-damascus-steel

you nailed it. Where did you find that picture? its awesome lol.,

i make a few knives and your right about most of it. Damascus knives stay sharp longer but require much more work when they get dull. the reason for this is that they temper it to be very hard steel. There are dozens of new age ways to make Damascus but not many compare to the original technique. The process originally came about to make not so good steel into really good steel that was both flexible and strong. We don't have to do that now we have good steel and other ways to do that. For a round knife it isn't needed at all but it does look cool, it wont make your work better but you can lay it next to your projects in photos for interest and folks will think your an expert or somethin. What you want in a good round knife IMO is a straight grind blade in 1095, d2 or something tempered easy to sharpen but still hold a good edge. Its not so much the steel type but the temper and grind that makes a good knife. Last variable of all is some folks like a hard blade that wears a long time some folks like an easy to sharpen blade so you will get different answers.

Its nice to see your work again and its as good as ever. Wonderful looking tooling and construction I would have hard time using them for the first time. lol.

I prefer to believe you underestimate your abilities. start with something easy like a ottoman footstool for example find one that just needs to be recovered so not much wood work to do.

you made out like a bandit. leather works for furniture also, Restore some old chairs or make some new ones.

lol i worked with both too but in a prison setting, they were all sober and clean by then but some were still vipers. By grip i meant stuff or belongings, lol, like the leather bags and pouches and such that folks of that era would have used. Brain tanning is a different way of tanning leather using the brains of the animal as the tanning agent. Native Americans used the process. The leather is much softer and flexible than veg tanned leather.

so I'm dinking around today making this doodad and am trying to find a way to harden the tip a bit. I decided to try some of my floor wax ( pledge future) full strength i just used my finger and wiped it across the leather hoping to do a few good coats. It dried almost as fast as it was applied with almost zero soaking into the leather. SO that is why it is diluted!!!! I tried another piece of scrap with a 50/50 mix to prove my theory lol. and yup the dilluted took longer to dry and so it soaked in about twice as far. Next test was with super sheen which I could tell is thinner and has much more water added than the 50/50 mix. The sheen soaked in about twice that of the 50/50 mix. So an even more diluted mix would be better imo than 50/50 to get the sealer into the leather more efficiently. Another thing I realize is if the first coat dries then your done anything else is only topical and could chip or peel. As before always test before using your leather may take it differently. My doodad lol.

oh yea you could sleep outside on the ground in a snow storm and stay warm. I would love one on my bed but the cost stops me lol and my dogs would probably try to eat it.

if they are tanned correctly yes they are pretty soft what is hard to get used to is the weight of it.

Thanks for the link i look forward to reading it. lol in the last 50,000 years or so of people using leather I'll bet almost every thing has been tried once or twice times a hundred thousand. Conditioning leather isn't a new science, its a forgotten science maybe for sake of a better definition. Done by every race and society on earth each with their own ways of tanning, their own oils and their own greases and their own environments that the leather has to survive. Here is how you reduce the smell of your tallow, its good for making soap also so dont just throw it out.https://www.faithfulcarnivore.com/post/howtorenderandpurifyodorlessbeeftallow I don't usually make my own conditioners for the above reason unless it for my black powder grip which I use fats and greases that a fur trapper may have access to. There is nothing I could make any better or unique enough to waste the time and most of my clients don't care either. I don't use it as an advertising ploy which seems to be the norm lately after all its gotta have those "new age" buzz words to sell to some groups. I really don't think Monks would be that petty would they? lol. I apply neets foot oil then use a product from feibings called golden mink oil. I can tell it has a base of petroleum jelly, smells great and works great i have no idea what ratios it is made from. then a sealer if needed a good deal of the time I use clear shoe polish. It is highly used and has been around for many many years, used personally by me so I know it works, pretty well for at least 30 years. If were to make my own i would do just as you are doing and find an old recipe to start with. Now that is for veg tanned leather. I also brain tan my deer and Elk hides and i use an emulsion of ivory hand soap neets foot oil and water to help tan and condition the hides before smoking them.

buffalo/ bison comes to mind hair on they are very nice and soft. Folks used them for thousands of years.

and the last, darn good looking holsters, of the year!!! happy New year!

beautiful!! i used to ride a skateboard but it was a looooong time ago lol. Where do you get the buckles?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! YELL IT OUT.

Only to show you it does migrate through leather just as any other light oil will and to test its actual effect on leather over a given time, science remember. I'm not here to argue but I'm also not here to give or receive misinformation. lol Don't say follow the science if you have none to follow and don't pretend I cant understand it or immediately not accept it as your excuse for not posting it. No offence but that's kind of lame. I've read plenty of science studies in my day and have no problem reading more. I also have the ability to change my mind, something my wife taught me years ago. I already am doing research my friend as well as several people on the forum. in fact mineral oil is one or maybe more of the test pieces. I'll post a link here so you can add your conditioners or any solution you would care to add. The intention is to actually learn something our great great grand parents knew as common knowledge. This research is from both side of the "fence" as you call it and is ongoing for years so a couple months between when you started and we did wont bother the results. Pleas add to the conversation and come join for some sciency fun!!!

well said friend. i will add hand rubbed is due to the fact that leather can be cooked and ruined if over heated to much Even high heat of a hair dryer can damage it if left on to long. Good luck with you sandal project and god bless.

i can pour mineral oil on leather and watch it, it soaks in try it.

cite the actual science you reference and I'll read it.

nordic or celtic? I have both dna's in me so who knows which ggggggggg grandaddy helped me lol. he is spot on! Practice and you will get where you want to be. The closest I've made to a puukko is a small patch knife for my possibles bag but I agree they are simple and clean in looks and work really well.!!!

My last tip again with a visual reference, if you cant draw or tool a butterfly as perfectly as you want it to be then draw it imperfectly. Here is a deer I did on a bracer, I know I cant do justice to a life like deer without a lot of practice and any attempt would be wasted leather so I made him un-lifelike. Kinda Celtic but you get my point lol hope this helps.

Good to have all the tools now its a matter then of practice and turning what you see in your mind as a butterfly into something someone else sees as a butterfly. Sorry I don't have butterflies to show that point only roses, both pieces are the same rose only different techniques and a different way of seeing the same thing. As you can also see I'm not great at tooling either. Tooling is about shading or what the light reflects to the eye. I use modeling tools as much as i do bevellers, they are much more subtle and easier to control and get good results when forming the slight variances that make the shadows and also the lifters are a must have imo to complete those shadows. You may want the object to appear to be setting on top of the leather, the fore wings over the back wings etc. and connected to a roundish body You can round your body with a modeling tool for example much easier than with a beveller. You want your shadows to be fluid and show motion or form as it would naturally. I also take and study photos to get a better idea of what I want.

lol I'm sorry to dis agree human skin and leather are two very different things, mineral oil reacts differently to both, one is living tissue is meant to keep unknown substances out of your body and protect you. Leather is tanned and is porous because of the tanning process and has lost that ability it can no longer keep unknown substances out so your comparing apples and oranges. If you don't think mineral oil absorbs completely simply put some on a piece of leather it only takes a minute or two to see that's incorrect. It is however a light oil and that in itself is why it isn't used alone as a liquor for leather, none of the lighter oils are used that way but mixed with something heavier, leather liquors or conditioners are susceptible to gravity, heat and all natures quirks so lighter oils would simply seek natural equilibrium and migrate away if not bound by heavier greases or waxes. The anti fossil fuel/cc industry and food industry has more to do with the bad press of mineral oil than how it actually reacts. It is a natural product produced from "natural resources", that's fact, olive oil is refined as are most any vegetable or animal oils also. If we were truly and honestly trying to be good stewards of nature, like they are training our kids, we would eat the edible oils in the raw unprocessed foods they come from and use the non edibles for leather and lubrication. But instead we buy peanut butter, which is now a waste product from a refining process, with soy bean oil added so we can buy peanut oil for 20 bucks a gallon. The Olive oil BS is even more ridiculous. Sorry for the rant on idiocrasy.