BlackDragon

I'm using chipboard for making hardcover books. What I'm using is about 1.8mm but it comes in various thicknesses and sizes. Its a good stiffness and doesn't lift up as I'm trying to mark the leather. I draw a pattern on a piece of paper then use an Elmers glue stick to attach it to the chipboard.

Just got my Xtreme #20 in the mail and it's some fine enginering. You do great work.

I treated my snake skin wallet with several coats of Resolene diluted with water 50/50 mix. Its been holding up for 2yrs so far.

Thanks everyone Yup I did hammer them down. It's a little difficult to see in the pictures because of the low resolution.

I made a quick minimalist wallet. I used 2oz veg tan, Fiebind's Russet brown, Ritza tiger thread .6mm.

I'll have to check it out. Thanks.

I recently acquired a Manufacturers Supply Co. 10a skiver. The previous owner kept it in great shape and there's little I need to do it besides wiping the dust off. It came with an extra bell knife, grinding wheels, two presser feet and an extra drive belt. I was hoping to find a manual on the machine but so far no luck. Does anyone here have one or one from another manufacturer that is close? I'd also like to get a couple more presser feet but not sure what will fit this machine. I appreciate your feed back

Thanks everyone for your input. After a lot of back and forth and back again the choice really just fell to shipping cost. I found a local dealer, ZackWhite.com, through another thread and called them up. I opted to make the 3hr drive to them so I'll save on freight costs. Instead of $430 shipping I'll be spending about $90 in gas plus some time. Unfortunately once I get there I'll probably wind up spending the money I saved on toys I my find.

Looks great! Can't wait to see the completed piece

Craftool flower stamps available $10 each plus shipping

I have various leaf stamps I just listed here. let me know if you're interested

Craftool leaf stamps available $6 each plus shipping

I made the 7hr drive to pick up the skiver, brass, tools, and some of the vegtan. They had plenty of embossed leather that I didn't take.

I've been reading sales sites, watching videos, and reading the threads here (I really appreciate this forum and the people that have so much insightful knowledge) I'm struggling to decide on a machine. I've narrowed it down to either the Cobra class 4 or the Cowboy cb4500. I decided on the standard package with a roller guide. I'm pretty handy and have supplies to make myself a worktable to fit the cylinder arm. I will be contacting @RockyAussie and @Patrick1 about their accessories. Do these machines run on 220v or 110? I need to run 220v for a skiver I just picked up. Which of the two roller guides would be better the drop down or swing away? I like the idea of the drop down and was curious as to it's sturdiness. Is there any slop to it? The big question is, which of the two machines should I pull the trigger on? If you have a cobra do you wish you bought the cowboy or if you have a cowboy do you wish you bought the cobra. Should I just flip a coin and pick one? I have a feeling this question is like asking which is better Chevy or Ford. I appreciate any information yall can help me with.

Ingenious! Now it needs a autoshut off switch

Wow this is really great work!

This is my current setup for tooling. I used scrap pieces of wood cut to various sizes for each type of tool. This way I grab just the ones I need from my side table and set them on my worktop.

This is what I came up with for my marble. So much better than the foldable TV table I've been using.

I had to run a few errands yesterday so I decided to stop off at a countertop store and try my luck at getting a small piece of marble or granite to tool. I introduced myself to the supervisor and let him know I did leather work and roughly the size of slab I needed. He took me over to his scrap pile and picked a piece bigger than I asked. I asked him how much he wanted for the piece and he said "No charge, in fact you can have the whole pile if you want it." I thanked him profusely and I took the piece to my car. I then went back and grabbed a bigger piece and I'm going to make a table top for the shop. The smaller piece will be put on another desk for cutting or drawing. The small piece is 10"x 22" The big piece is 20"x 25"

I'll second what others have said. You have to first decide what is a defect. What is a defect in one person's eye is just part of the character to another person's eye. The purses I make sell for a high price and the things that the big names say would be a defect my customers love about leather. Do you remember when Microsoft created an AI to detect and ban nude images and the AI kept banning images of sand dunes? Once you can define what a defect is then you can ask others if this would be considered a defect.

I had an issues with all delivery companies. We're human and mistakes happen so I try to take things in stride. What I don't like is when they mess up and blame others. Look you messed up, it happens, take ownwership of it and lets fix it. UPS delivered one of my packages to the wrong place. The bad thing was the contents, it was ammo. Not a good thing to lose. I called UPS and they said they would look into it. When I hung up with them I called the ammo company. They sent out a new shipment and would deal with UPS. The UPS driver contacted me and said he messed up and confused the address and dropper it off at the wrong place. I respected him for owning it. While chatting he asked me what were the chances of picking up the ammo from the other address. I told he could try but the guy is a hunter and knowing him he'll just say he never received it.

Really great work! Do you put padding in between the leather? What kind of leather are you using for the inside?

Ok that makes sense. I was thinking of making it so it's removable but doing this would make it a lot weaker. I'll have to make some test pieces to see what I could do to make them removable(maybe I'm over thinking this lol). But it would have to wait until after the holidays.

The chicago screws failing is exactly what I was thinking but couldn't think of a way around it. Wouldn't cutting a slot big enough to hold the handle also create a weakness in the collar itself?

These dogs are very well trained and do not bolt, not for cats, not for squirrels, or anything else. They wait for a command. That said, I understand some dogs aren't trained properly and do bolt or pull. I'm having my nephew put the collar through serious stress tests to make sure it'll work for his needs. In the mean time I'll come up with a stronger solution.