Littlef

Good looking Rig!!

My thoughts (for what its worth) are that you probably wouldn't want to oil or grease the strop. When you're stropping a blade, its the friction between the blade and leather with the polishing compound that's doing the work. I would image if you are putting a lubricant in there, it would just decrease the friction, and the polishing effect. - a little piece of leather from your scrap pile is pretty much free, and would give you the opportunity to experiment and see what happens.

That is spectacular.

I always cut my dye with alcohol. I don't really measure, but I cut it pretty close to 50/50. I applied it with a shearling applicator. possibly. I think I bought the dye over a year ago, and jI ust opened it. I do keep supplies in the garage from time to time. Maybe it was out there sometime last year during a freezer.

I brush on 50-50 Resolene. I let the antique dry a day if I can. I use cheap throw away bristle brushes, and brush it as gently as I can. Even then, I still struggle with the Resolene dissolving some of the antique and pulling some of it out of the stamping. One day, I'll get an airbrush. I think that's probably the best way, so there no physical abrasion to pull the antique up. - I think you could build a small table top paint booth (cardboard, plywood, or some combination) with an exhaust fan, and you could get away with small jobs, or breaking up larger jobs into smaller sections. I'd think you'd need to make a set up that backs right up to a window or a door, if you can't actually cut a vent.

Yea, I think you might have misunderstood what he was talking about. --- It's a common process to lightly oil leather prior to dyeing it. It can help distribute the dye more evenly, and prevent some blotchiness. You would do this in a later process, after you have stamped the leather. Casing the leather (with water) is a process to get a proper hydration level so the leather will take the stamping.... and make the nice burnishing marks in the stamping which makes it really pop. You case the leather before you stamp it. When I first started, I remember talking to the guys in Tandy, and they would just overload me with information, and then by the time I got home, everything they said would be jumbled in my head. Like most things, there's definitely a learning curve.

Depends on what you are carrying on your waist. Dress belts are typically nice and thin, cause you're normally not carrying anything really heavy. My more casual Leather belt I wear with jeans its really thick, but I use it when carrying a holster at the range. Lightweight belts deform if they are carrying too much weight. Western style leather belts fall in this category because a person who wears that belt is far more likely to be carrying something on it, ie. a knife, firearm, other types of tools. I guess it kinda depends on what activities you do in your life.

I use Tandy 2mm diamond chisels. I'm making primarily holsters. I also have a stitching wheel I use occasionally, but I mostly use the chisels.

maybe something like this? https://www.darkknightarmoury.com/product/mild-steel-rivets-with-washers-set-of-25/

Thank you sir.

A little practice on some new techniques. I have my little Coehorn Mortar, and I keep adding new pieces to the Artillery Kit. I just finished the bore swab, which obviously started off as a toilet brush. It originally had a grippy rubber handle, and I ripped that off, and fashioned a wooden handle. The remaining shaft is an odd tapered oval shape, and then there's a plastic ridge where the brush starts. This was challenging to get the leather lay right, and form properly over the ridge. I used binder clips to clamp it in place, and then as it dried, I used a paper folder to work the ridge until it held the shape. The stitch line isn't perfectly symmetrical, but the shaft itself oddly shaped. Its good enough for my purposes, and it was a good opportunity to try a couple things I hadn't done before. And now, it more closely matches the aesthetic of the remainder of the kit.

yea, that's nice. I like it!

I always just use an awl. But I have a little led lamp with a long gooseneck. I bend the neck to shine light low and across the scribe line. That makes a little shadow form in the valley of the scribe. The shadow makes it very noticeable. Laying a little flashlight on the leather would give the same result.

I always cut my feibings dye with denatured alcohol. That’s all I ever used. I don’t think I even knew they had a specific reducer.