Mulesaw

Thanks, it is a bit daunting to repair a bag like that, but it really couldn't get any worse on the edge. So I braved myself and did it. Pig skin is really nice to work with I think. Brgds Jonas

@Beehive I can see that those would look great on a buckle. I don't know where I'd get a doming block in Denmark.. It is strange, but some tools are just not quite as readily available over here compared to in the USA. But I guess I could turn a piece of hardwood to make the block, and then find a steel ball og something else to help me with the shaping. I just looked in my desk drawer here on the ship, and there are some Canadian coins, one with a caribou and one with a beaver. They could work I think. The Danish 50 øre (half a crown) is a copper alloy, around the size of a US nickel might work, but it is not very pretty. The Danish 1, 2 and 5 crowns look nice, they are silver coloured but the all have a hole in the middle, so I am afraid that would look strange. The 10 and 20 crowns are doubled in thickness and are brass coloured, they'd look good too if they weren't so thick. I think I see a coin doming experiment somewhere in the future :-) Brgds Jonas @jrdunn Thanks a lot :-) Brgds Jonas

@DieselTech Thanks, I don't know how he does it, but his stuff just looks SO good!

GO AHEAD :-) I'd love to see a domed coin.

I was once again inspired by @TomE, but at the moment I can't find the post with his beautiful work. For Christmas I made a leather lead with a stallion chain connected to it for Gustavs girlfriend. She is an incredibly skilled dressage rider, and like all the dressage riders I know, she prefers her tack to be black, so that kind of dictated the colour of the lead rope :-) I have to admit that I have forgotten some of the details since it has been a couple of months since I made it. But the strap is 1" wide, I think the total length is close to 8' including the chain. The lead rope is doubled part of the way and ends up being a single layer of leather near the end.

@Herbie Thanks for the kind words. Brgds Jonas @DieselTech Thanks, the silver soldering could have been a bit nicer, but I doubt that anyone will ever notice unless they look at the back of the buckle :-) Brgds Jonas

@Beehive Thanks for the nice comment, I would like to accept the dare, but I have absolutely no idea where I'd get hold of a Mexican coin :-) I am a bit curious, do you mean like just solder it to the front of the buckle, or should it be used to connect the buckle to the belt? (I'd love it if you have a picture of something like it) Brgds Jonas @chuck123wapati Thanks Chuck, I always find it is a good indication of a decent job if I kind of want to keep it myself :-) Your friend Jonas

The farrier that shoes the horses in the stable where our oldest son works is into western riding. He is a really nice guy and our son asked if I could make him something for Christmas, just as an appreciation. I agreed and decided that making a western inspired belt would be a nice gift, and something that could actually use. I find that a 1.5" wide belt fits most pants such as jeans etc, so that was the size I ende up making. My idea was to buy a non decorated buckle that I could engrave with something farrier like, but since I couldn't find a buckle like that I ended up making it myself from scratch. The sewing on the belt itself was done on my old Singer class 7. The finished buckle mounted on the belt. The decoration of the belt itself. The leather isn't black, but rather a dark brown. The belt buckled up. Below are som pictures of how I made the individual pieces of the buckle. Silver soldering the part that attaches to the end of the belt. The belt attachment part and the buckle and prong now silver soldered to the buckle itself Front of the buckle with a light sanding and cleaning. Straight from the pantograph engraving machine (I used a picture as model, I can't do free hand engraving so it looks good) Buckle polished and slightly curved

Hi, Would you ship it to Denmark? Brgds Jonas

I think the reason for the state of the long shuttle drive is that it is a homemade piece. My best guess is that someone made the rack themselves and soldered it on. The original one was probably hardened, and the homemade one wasn't hardened the same, that's why there is so much more wear on it, and also the shape of the gullets in the teeth are different from the short rack. But the good thing is that if you are a bit handy with a file, you could make a new one yourself again, just like the previous owner did. If you only use it for an hour a day, it would most likely last several years. I would use the short rack for marking the new teeth to match the correct profile. If you purchase a small propane torch for doing silver brazing, then I'd use that one to heat up the needle bar before trying to straighten the bend out again. I don't know where you found the Adler, but I just checked Kleinanzeigen.de and searched for Adler 30-1, and there's a bunch of them. Including one vendor who is selling parts. If you have a car it might be cheaper/easier to buy an extra machine to get the parts from compared to getting the parts individually. (It looks as most of the vendors won't ship the machines they are selling). Good luck with the repair. Brgds Jonas

I got a lot of really good tips after I made my first set of chaps. If you look at this thread: There are a lot of good suggestions, from how to orient the patterns to get the least amount of wrinkles, to video suggestions etc. Have fun making them. Brgds Jonas

The closest from the top of my head would be a hydraulic oil like Castrol AWH32 or something similar with a viscosity of 32 cSt. But I know it isn't exactly what you asked for. Another alternative is synthetic lubricant for refrigeration compressors. Hanseline produces a fine sewing machine oil, it is made in Germany, and you can get it in 0.2 or 1L bottles (I don't know how much your machine needs). I have used it for my sewing machines and been very satisfied with the performance. Nadel24.de sells it for 2.98 Euro for a bottle of 0.2 L, I normally buy a bottle or two whenever I stock up on needles for the sewing machines. Grüsse aus Dänemark Jonas

Antler and copper rivets look SO good in my opinion, and the size and shape of the blade seems to really complement the entire knife. Well done!!

great looking bag. The Celtic braiding decoration looks really good. Brgds Jonas

@BlackDragon I am looking forward to the result :-) I think those black ones on your picture look like they could be a winner. Brgds Jonas

I like the brown layout better too :-) Like @AlZilla says, it looks kind of sterile now. And the brown look just felt so cozy :-) Brgds Jonas

I like the pencil holder suggestion. If that one is too small, I guess one could make a bigger one out of either wood or leather. I'd cut some squares of waste leather, maybe 1.5" square. Punch a hole in the middle that corresponds to the size of the shaft of the stamp. Glue up a bunch of those and glue them to the stamp sort of on the middle of the shaft. The top of the stamp would still be left as it is to hit with the mallet. But there'd be a big leather grip to hold on to. The drawbacks would be that it takes time to make this for all the different stamps, and afterwards the stamps take up more space.

My initial thought was FUDGE!!! Someone has hacked LW.net!!! and I started to curse and stuff. Then I looked at the screen and saw that it was still the well known categories and just the colours that have changed a bit

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you too. And I hope you'll get well soon :-) Brgds Jonas

What a beautiful machine :-) Congrats. My only comment is that the old mashines I have, it seems that a lot of people are good at lubricating the head, but sadly often forget the drivetrain. There's a lot of links and shafts etc. down my those pedals, and oiling or greasing them will help ensure the next 100 years of service. Brgds Jonas

@Abdo Regarding 2) personalization. When I do something like that (I engrave a brass plate and mount on the item), I choose to look at it like some extra sort of advertisement. I might not make as much money out of that little thing as I should, but potentially it will give me extra business. If people get a really nice customized item, they are more likely to show it off to some of their friends, and if the thing really look the part due to a personal touch, there is a better chance that the friends would want to buy something form you. At least that is my theory. Plus it gives a me a sense of pride when the item that I made look so good that I would like one myself. If you should invest in a hot embossing machine is hard to say. It will probably make the task faster, but if you don't get much more business, then you'd have to think it was interesting to do or necessary due to reasons like e.g. health or something similar. It also depends on whether this is your day job where you need to make every penny count, or if it is a hobby where the income is just an added bonus on top of working with something you find fulfilling. Regarding 3) Like @DoubleKCustomLeathercraft says: expand. How about making key wallets? That is pretty close to what you are making now, small items that can be personalized and they compliment your existing product range. I make some dog leads for working dogs that I like making, but it fits very well into my customer segment which is 95% horse people. Good luck :-) Brgds Jonas

@FrenchMich A bit late, but the yokes and chaps look absolutely gorgeous. Attaching the back belt with those "conchos" really look good. Not that I am opposed to attaching them with braiding, but it just looks so elegant with the silver buttons. There is a potential western chap build in my future to a friend of my oldest son, so I am tempted in trying to do just a little bit of carving thanks to your excellent tutorial. Thanks for taking the time to take the pictures and explain the process. Brgds Jonas

As far as I know the leather needs to be vegetable tanned (veg tan), if you use chrome tanned, it won't work. I am not sure if something with a lot of oil in it like an oil infused leather is good for stamping either. So the leather has to be the correct type for you to be able to do any stamping. So that is my best guess. Brgds Jonas

Sorry for your loss. I think that selling the machines is a good starting point. The hand tools look good to me, but I am in no way an expert on those. I sold off much of my dads old woodworking tools, and it is a big job in doing it online. pictures of each thing, accurate description, and still people ask about each single chisel and plane iron. I did get an OK price in the end, but it took a lot of time. So I would suggest trying to sell all the hand tools to someone like Bruce Johnson (Note that I am not affiliated with him in any way, he is just one of the only persons I have heard of who deals in old leather tools). I ended up selling the bulk of my dads hand tools to one guy who does some online selling, and I was totally OK with him earning a bit on each piece, because it takes a lot of time to do so. specifically to your pictures: Picture 7577 and 7573 looks like they are Gerstner Tools chests out of Dayton Ohio. Those are items on their own. Depending on the model or the year, those thing are collectibles. Good luck with the sale Brgds Jonas

V 2.0 looks more secure, it also looks more elegant given that the blade section of the sheath is narrower compared to the first version. It looks really good that the lower stitching line flows so nicely, and fluently divides into the two parts that goes around the elongated hole. I guess if you sew in a straight line from the tip of the blade/sheath up to the rounded portion of the sheath, it would fit the profile of the blade better since it is kind of a pointy knife. But I am also afraid that it would look weird/ugly since none of the stitch lines would be parallel. An alternative could be to continue the curve for the tip maybe just 1/2" upwards, so the upper sewing line would go straight from there. But that would probably make the sheath even deeper. As a side note, after looking at it for a bit of time, it looks to me like the profile of a greyhound, (which is very positive), and any of the above mentioned suggestions would destroy that. So V 2.0 is a good suggestion I think. Brgds Jonas