DwightT

FWIW: I've made a couple guitar straps for friends and family. I used Crazy Horse leather for the liner, then just burnished the edges as normal. The Crazy Horse and Veg-tan burnish together just fine. /dwight

Well since fire conditions are decades in the making, I seriously doubt that it's any one administration at fault. Thanks. It's actually glazed pig skin. Makes for pretty decent wallet liners. It's kind of stiff at first, but loosens up over time. I made a small wallet for my wife entirely out of the stuff and it's working out quite well for her. /dwight

Great idea. I'm going to have to make one for my son since he never finishes anything. Just as soon as I get one.... /dwight

Thanks. Thanks. We have a fairly decent air filter on the house HVAC system, so if I keep the fan running to circulate the air through it we typically aren't too bad in the house. However the Air Quality Index hit 202 this morning, which is very unhealthy for everyone. It may be time to run away and try to find some cleaner air. /dwight

Hi all - Been gone awhile dealing with life stuff. But with the heat outside lately combined with the smoke from the wildfires all around us, my wife and I have been fairly cooped up inside for a while. To keep from going completely stir crazy, I decided to make myself a new wallet since the one I did last year didn't quite have enough card pockets. I took the pattern from that one and made it a little longer, then added an insert to hold my license and insurance info. The nice part with that is that I can pull the insert out and only take that if all I need is my license and insurance.

If you are only going to do a few things as a hobby, my recommendation would be to just learn about hand stitching. It's really not that difficult, and there is a bit of a Zen aspect that comes once you get in to it. /dwight

Wow. That is just phenomenal!!! So this was originally posted 7 years ago. Do you still it? How has it held up over time? How about a couple of current photos if possible? /dwight

I would imagine that a holster that incorporated RFID fabric would only have the fabric on one side between the phone and the body. The phone would still be able to receive signals from the uncovered side. However I doubt how effective that would be. The radio waves from the cell phone would still spread out around the holster, so the protection would probably be minimal. /dwight

Perfect. I can run with that and make one specific to my phone. Thanks. Wow. That went fast. They just announced the availability of the mesh less than a week ago. If it went that quickly I'm sure they will be bringing in some more, so you might want to keep checking back. /dwight

Personally, I use a Champagne cork. The bigger knob on the one end is easier to hold on to. /dwight

I'm not sure how well it would work for cell signals, but Rocky Mountain Leather Supply has some RFID Blocking fabric that might be worth looking at for this: https://www.rmleathersupply.com/products/rfid-blocking-thin-fabric-0-1-mm-self-adhesive-back?_pos=1&_psq=RFID&_ss=e&_v=1.0 /dwight

Those are gorgeous. The tooling is excellent and I love the design of the holster itself. Any chance that you would have some patterns available? /dwight

To make my tools more comfortable, I've been using wine corks (I have an endless supply). I just drill an appropriate sized hole through the center and push it onto the tool. Usually that is all I need, but I have had a couple where I had to add a drop of glue to keep it from sliding down. /dwight

Welcome to the forum. Where in Idaho? If you are close to Meridian I may have to come over and let you show me your Singer. /dwight

The only dumb question is the one that isn't asked. So ask away. And welcome to the group. /dwight

I've been wondering about him myself. Haven't seen anything from him for a couple months. Hope all is well.

I had some spare time yesterday (crappy weather meant no yard work) so I went back and incorporated the suggestions. I went out to the hardware store to pick up a burr with a smaller ball and finer teeth, and I ran it at a higher speed. This made it easier to control the rotary tool so that I could get a cleaner line. I also tapered the base away from the letters a bit so that I don't get the shadowing anymore. Next up will be to do it again on a smaller head. /dwight

Looks great. And congratulations. /dwight

Beautiful work. You'll sell out in no time. What is your source for the metal clips? I have several granddaughters that would love a grandpa-made gift like that. /dwight

I've considered that, and it will probably happen sometime in the future. But while Delrin may be easier to cut than steel, it's also a lot more expensive. A quick look on Amazon shows that a 1/2" thick 6"x6" slab would cost $25. For this one I was able to use materials and tools that I had on hand so it didn't cost me anything to go play. But yes, I can definitely see a Delrin version in my future. And after playing with steel for a while, I should be able to get really good at controlling my rotary tool. /dwight

That's beautiful work. How did you make the stamp itself? I can't imagine that you did that by hand with files or a rotary tool. /dwight

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