DwightT

Interesting. I have a knife with the Newark stamp that I inherited from my grandfather. Photo below. I knew it was old, but I didn't think it was that old. I'm by no means an expert on knives, but I do strop it whenever I use and generally try to keep it sharp. Is there anything specific that I should be doing to take care of it properly? /dwight

Thanks. With as easy as that turned out to be, I'll probably be trying to figure out what other tools I can make. Good call on the finer-tooth bits. I mostly just went with what I had in my tool drawer, but if I do any more I'll be making a trip to the hardware store first. I should probably also run the rotary tool at a higher speed. I had it set pretty low thinking that it would be easier to control that way, but the "chatters" from that slow speed probably made it worse. Good point. I think it wouldn't hurt to make the letters a little deeper in general, but I can see where adding a bit of a taper would help too. I'll have to play around with that and see how it comes out. Thankfully I still have lots of material on the head to play with. /dwight

About a month ago, @MarshalWill did a post on making your own Basket Weave stamp: https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/113743-make-your-own-basket-weave-stamp/?tab=comments#comment-736819 That got me thinking (dangerous thing), and I had some spare time today, so I went out to the garage to see if I could make my own rather simple Maker stamp. I started off with the largest bolt that I could find in my scrap bin and took it too the grinder to flatten the surface, round off the head, and remove the threads. I marked my pattern (just my initials - I said this was simple) with a marker, then used my rotary tool with a small ball bit to carve it out. It's a little rough and possibly a bit bigger than what I would ultimately want, but for a first pass I think it turned out OK. The whole process only took a couple hours, so I may try to do another one on a smaller head if I can come up with a better way to hold the rotary tool steady. /dwight

I agree. The stamp that I used was interesting, but I had a heck of a time keeping my line straight. Cutting a couple lines with a swivel knife first would have helped a lot. It actually bothered me enough that I went and did another one for him, but used a rope boarder instead: There were still a couple problems with it, but I think it looked a lot better. Thanks. I don't have a problem with you using the images. I guess the forum admins will have to weigh in as to if they want you to include a link back here. Thanks /dwight

I would say you need to get your mind out of the gutter, but it's nice to have some company.

One thing to keep in mind is if anything gets caught under the leather (dirt, bugs, etc) then it can act like sandpaper and actually do more damage than if you didn't have the leather protector. I have a leather bra on my motorcycle and I have to take it off periodically to make sure nothing is trapped under it. /dwight

I blame it partially on the impersonal aspect of the internet. I know many of us like to think of posts on this site as a simple conversation between acquaintances, but without the direct face-to-face interactions it's easy to forget about the personal and just fall into treating it as a general information dump. So I'll agree with Jim and apologize both belatedly and in advance for any unintentional insult. /dwight

Personally I find it interesting that you are having problems in getting your humidity down to 50%. I have a whole-house humidifier that is struggling to keep the humidity above 40%. I remember reading once that people who would buy antique furniture on the east coast and ship it to our area found that the wood would dry up and split out on them. Makes me wonder if shipping leather goods between moist/dry regions would run into the same issues. /dwight

Hannibal Lecter?

So, you did this to learn. Learn what? Your work has already always been phenomenal. What more is there that you could possibly need to learn? Absolutely stunning work (as always). Was the eagle your own design or did it come from some other artwork? Either way the detail work is fantastic. /dwight

Great looking apron. And I wouldn't be too quick to make the straps fixed length. I don't know about others, but I know that I'm not the same size that I was a couple years ago. /dwight

Man, every time I start to think that I'm starting to get a handle on this stuff, along comes a post like this that shows me just how much I don't know. I hate you. Awesome work though. /dwight

When I first tried to use mine it was doing that too. It had been sitting out in the garage for the last 15 years or so after my wife's first husband passed away, and who knows how well it had been taken care of before that. I did a little searching around the internet and found a couple sites that said it could be a problem with the needle. I took it apart and discovered that the needle was slightly bent right at the tip. I took some 2000 grit sandpaper and pulled the needle through it a few times, and now it seems to be working just fine. Now I just have problems with keeping my hands steady enough to control it. Dunno if that will help, but you might give it a try. /dwight

My son let me know that my granddaughter needed a wallet to keep her lunch money and ski school ID in, so I knocked out this zipper wallet with a pocket for the ID. The main body is Crazy-horse leather, and the pocket is 4/5 veg-tan. I got the monogram a little off center, but I still think it turned out OK. The thing that I think is cool about it though is when I was finished my wife pointed out that I had made something for my granddaughter, using tools that I inherited from my grandfather - her great great grandfather. Something nice about keeping the connections alive. /dwight

That's pretty awesome! Way back in the day Tandy used to have a kit for a bellows. I made one for my brother. It had a tooled leather piece on the topside (opposite side from the valve) instead of carved wood, and while it was probably easier to build than yours it didn't look anywhere near as cool. Nice job. /dwight

Beautiful work. The feather detail is awesome. My hands start to cramp just thinking about how long that must have taken. /dwight

Fantastic looking apron. I know a couple farriers around here that would love to have an apron like that. /dwight

Looks pretty good to me. I don't really know much about laser cutters, but can't you just have it do multiple passes to complete the cuts? /dwight

Thanks. I was just a little concerned because when I got this air brush it was totally clogged and I don't want to go through de-gunking it again. It belonged to my wife's late husband and sat in the garage for many years and no clue what went through it then. /dwight

What they said. I just picked up a box of 100 7-mil gloves at my local auto supply shop (O'Reilly Auto Parts in my case) for about $30. Harbor Freight has them for a couple bucks less, but the auto shop is closer to home. /dwight

FWIW: I've used Super Shene over Fiebings Pro Dye without noticing any problems. Question for @chuck123wapati on the M&G or other floor wax products: any concerns with using an air brush to apply it? The only thing I could think of would be that it might clog the nozzle but I would think that if I clean it thoroughly it would be OK. /dwight

FWIW: You can also use an arbor press for the same results. You just might have to be a bit creative in getting your chisel mounted in the ram. You can get a sufficient press from Amazon or Harbor Freight for $50-$70. /dwight

I think it looks fantastic. Yes, you probably should have stitched all the way around, but that's a minor thing. Since you did cut the groove all the way around, you could probably go back and add the rest of the stitching if you were so inclined. In all this gives me some ideas for some wallets for my kids. If you don't mind my asking, where did you get the clip from? /dwight

Thanks. My late wife loved roses, so I've kind of adopted that as my goto when I don't know what else to do. As for the weight, I went out to my junk bin in the garage and pulled out a bunch of old nuts and bolts. After 40+ years of collecting that stuff it was good to finally use some of it for something. Thanks. Time to get to it. I kept putting it on the back burner too, but I finally got tired of chasing my projects around the slab. Time to just get er done. /dwight

Some time back somebody posted some photos of some tooling weights that he had done. I liked the idea of having something to keep my projects from sliding around on the slab while I'm walking the beveler or shader, so I decided to make myself one. Plus it would give me an opportunity to do some wet molding (something I don't have much experience with), along with a chance to try out the air-brush that I got a while back. I still need to work on my molding technique (and associated stitching), but for something that will just live on my workbench, I'm happy with it. /dwight