TomE

Thank you! The pad is 1/8" thick neoprene wrapped with 3-4 oz. chrome tanned leather. The pad is assembled with glue then glued to the crown/headpiece and sewn. Can see the process on JH Leather Youtube videos for padded dog collars.

I would begin with a light coating of 100% neatsfoot oil (not compound) and let that soak in for a day or two. I would then condition, working the conditioner in with fingers. If you don't make your own, some popular conditioners are Bick's 4, Blackrock, Aussie, and Lederbalsam. The key to longevity is to maintain the leather during use. For tack, that includes regular cleaning with saddle soap, applying conditioner as needed, and periodically oiling (but not over doing it).

You have 2 leather resources in PA. Wickett and Craig of America, and Keystone Leather. I would call them. I previously mentioned Hermann Oak Leather Co, which is another well respected tannery in Saint Louis with good customer service.

Saddle skirting (unsplit hide) is typically up to 16 oz thickness. The Hermann Oak Leather Co (tannery) is very helpful and could advise you based on your specifications. If you're new to leather, download the Springfield Leather Co catalog and read the introductory material about choosing leather for your project.

I think the problem is biological; there are no 20 oz cows.

Just ordered size #21 needles from Leather Machine Co for my Cobra Class 4. Previously hadn't seen anything smaller than size #23 in 794S. Going to try lighter threads with the adjustments described in @Wizcrafts blog. https://www.rw-leatherworks.com/blog/2019/02/dumbing-down-a-cowboy-cb4500-cobra-class-4-or-similar-harness-stitcher.html.

Beautiful work! I'd need new spectacles for this realm. What is the tool used for creasing?

That's a work of art! Look forward to seeing more of your creations.

Nice work, @Klara and @Tugadude. It looks like that shape would be tricky to sew.

Thanks, @DJole and @Klara for the tip about Inkscape for vector drawings. Thinking about escaping the tyranny of the Adobe subscription. I mainly use Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat and Lightroom from this expensive package. Any recommendations for a less costly photo cataloging software?

I sharpen them by hand with oil stones, working the flat sides and rolling onto the ends. For this 1/2" Osborne punch, I spent some time with a coarse stone reshaping the flat sides then making a ~20 deg. bevel. The cutting edge remained flat and I didn't touch the inside. Worked the bevel with medium and fine oil stones, polished on a buffing wheel, and finished sharpening on a fine stone followed by stropping. Alternatively, you could hand sharpen by attaching wet/dry abrasive paper to a smooth surface like plate glass using 3M #77 spray adhesive. This punch isn't razor sharp but I am happy with it.

Good tip, @tsunkasapa. Been using my fingers but this sounds better.

Beautiful design and craftsmanship. At first glance it appears symmetric then I see all the asymmetries as I look more closely. Neat!

Highly recommend Stohlman's book on hand sewing leather, and Neil Armitage videos. Using an awl will give you lots of flexibility in constructing and repairing items.

Looks like a very solid job on the strap. I can't see the thread along the edges but it looks like it is marked for sewing? That's an impressive varmint gun - a big upgrade from my .223 ranch rifle. Hope you enjoy leathercraft as much as I do. Lots of good folks with expertise on this site.

I haven't used GIMP in a while, but I see it has a "Fuzzy Selection" tool that functions like the "Magic Wand" in Adobe Photoshop. The Magic Wand selects a group of pixels with similar color/intensity values from a contiguous area, or noncontiguous areas, enabling a background to be distinguished from artwork. The stringency of selecting "like" pixels can be changed to improve the selection. The invert selection command toggles between the magic wand selection and everything else (the artwork). Once the artwork is selected, an outline can be created by editing the selection to add "stroke" and "fill." I would guess that the GIMP has many of the same commands to work with the fuzzy selection tool. ADDED: Gabor Pinter wrote a 3 part article on "Digitalizing Patterns With Adobe Photoshop" in the 2022 March/April, May/June, and July/August issues of the Leather Crafters and Saddlers Journal. He is tracing the outline of a digital image using transparent layers and the brush tool in Photoshop.

I'm in the same boat, @DwightT. My patterns are strapwork with repeating curves that I find easiest to match/repeat using a vector graphics program. Also, I resize curved portions of the pattern to fit different horses. Used to run the GIMP on prehistoric UNIX machines back in the day. Impressive how far the GNU programs have come. Now I make patterns in Adobe Illustrator and print to PDF with scaling set to tiled, so I have a series of overlapping pages that can be taped together.

Beautiful work! Batz Corp sells stainless steel and brass trigger snaps that are a step up from zinc diecast, but maybe not with the slide for the elastic band.

Nice tip on using twine coated with rouge. Will give that a try for stropping inside the curve.

We've had great service from UPS in rural Missouri. Smaller packages shipped by an economy UPS rate are delivered by the USPS to our mailbox. Fedex or UPS (don't recall which) photographs the package on our doorstep. I'd try the help line again.

Vector graphics programs like Adobe Illustrator ($$$) and the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program; free) are useful for line drawings, especially if you can't draw (like me).

https://www.springfieldleather.com/SLC-Pro-Beveler_3

The inline feet are listed among the accessories for the CB4500. https://www.tolindsewmach.com/cb-acc-pack.html

Thanks, Wiz. I'm fiddling with proportions and getting used to the look of the machine stitch but I think it's headed in the right direction. Thank you, Mulesaw. I still haven't worked out a method to machine sew swells that taper continuously to a thin edge. That might be a hand sew only option. Thanks for your encouragement!

Taking a break from hand sewing to practice machine sewing raised leather straps (again). Think I'm making progress with inline presser feet from @CowboyBob on my 441 clone. I've been able to sew tight to the raised filler and maintain a 1/8" border. Took me a while to adjust the presser foot timing to my liking, but now it's a quick change over between the inline feet and the regular center/side feet. Very happy with these compact feet for sewing tight to an edge. Took a little practice to smoothly back out of the corners, so that the rear foot has a place to land. The raised pieces are made from 2 pieces of bridle leather, split to 3 oz for the cover and 7 oz for the back. I use a veg tan filler piece 1/4" or 3/8" wide on these straps, and figure about 1/4" (2 x 1/8") of additional width for the cover wrapping around the sides of the filler. I glue the cover and shape it with a glass slicker and bone folder then sew and trim the edges before finishing the edges. I will use raised leather for bridle nosebands/browbands, dog collars, and belts. I've been sewing these by hand, but getting closer to production by machine sewing.