Draconias

In my post above, I was just saying that I will be putting the magnets on the exterior side to hold the needles. But I have to admit that it is a cool idea to use magnets to hold the clamps together. If they were strong, you might have to use some kind of lever to pry them apart

I also came across this on etsy, and really like the modular design. I have made a couple of the bases out of maple, and have bought the clamps (for the base) from a local woodworking store. Currently working on a couple of shorter (7") clamps that will be 3" wide for my wife and myself. I don't care for the plastic handles, I tend to strip them out. I plan on just using a regular bolt through the bottom with a flat washer on both sides and tighten it down with a lock nut where it will turn for me but not be loose. I have rare earth magnets from my model airplane hobby I plan to insert on both sides of the clamps, and pickup one of the cam levers from Rockler for tightening the clamps. This is currently a work in progress, I'll post more pictures once I have finished it.

I decided to modify a dental pick into a scratching awl after reading one of the posts here. I just used some 240, 400, then 600 grit sand paper, and it turned out great. Nice control, kind of like using a pencil to trace the patterns. It leave a nice mark in the leather. I am happy with this new tool Ron

Howdy all, First post, I have been lurking, reading lots of post, watching videos, and coming back up to speed. I did leather work back in high school in the mid to late 70's. Mostly just various kits and belts from Tandy, doing the tooling and then double stitch lacing wallets and purses. Picked it up again when my oldest was in scouts about 30 years ago. I got laid off a month ago, and decided a few weeks ago to pull out my leather tools and get back into leather working. My wife is also excited about doing the leather work. She ordered a half hide of chrome tanned leather. I have modified a dental pick into a scratching awl (read about that in one of the post, and it works great). I have cut out 5 different wallets and purses from pdf files I have found on the interwebs. That is something new for me, cutting out the projects from a piece of leather. We also ordered a bunch of stuff from Tandy, replacing the old finishes, and getting sewing supplies, and some other stuff. Looking forward to punching my own holes and trying the sewing instead of lacing. It does seem strange to not tool the leather and sew instead of lacing, kind of like cheating and not doing all of the work I remember doing in the past, lol. I am also working on a couple of modular stitching pony for my wife and me. I'll post pictures once they are done. Thanks for listening to me ramble, Ron