Littlef

Thanks Dan! Last weekend and I went and shot trap with my friend. He was super happy with it, and it worked great. I had a lot of people looking and asking about it.

Thanks Tom. I did two needles. I’m no expert. I think this was the first time trying a baseball stitch. I watched a couple youtube videos, and went for it. Since this was an odd shape…. It’s not round, it’s more oval. And it tapers, being thicker at the handle, to thinner right before there’s the wall around the brush head. I wetted the leather, and took binder clips and pulled it as tight as they would hold. About every 15-20 minutes I’d look it over, and see where it was stretching and getting “baggy”. Then I’d pull it tight again, and do a little trimming, if need be. Once it formed and quit stretching and contracting, I punches the stitch holes, and did the baseball stitch. and I just used regular straight saddle stitching needle. I bet with ,correct curved baseball stitch needles, you could get a tight more precise stitch line…. With practice.

Thank you very much. It’s what I call, good enough. It’s certainly better than just a white piece of plastic. Just trying to make the tools blend in with what “could be” period correct.

That what I do. I save little condiment cups any time I get take out, or cut the bottom inch off a Togo cup so I don’t cross contaminate. - I also thin it with water, so I use the little cups to thin it out however much I need.

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.

Thanks. I like it too. For the thread I used Ritza Tiger thread in Colonial Tan. I think the thread contrast pops against the Spanish brown. I saw Chakotay made a video on youtube using this color combination, and I really dig it.

Thank you very much. The main pad is Spanish brown, the cover over the magnet is Cordovon. I applied a resist, and antique. The antique bled a bit when I applied tan-kote, so its a little darker then when I started. I also think my Tan kote went bad. Its way thicker than it should be,. Its almost a gel. Which is odd, cause I bought it in the last year.

I made this little Shotgun Rest with an imbedded magnet for a friend of mine. This gives you a place to rest the shotgun muzzle for a couple minutes while waiting for your turn, during a game of trap. In trap, you rotate shooting positions after every 5 shots. When it comes time to rotate, the magnet sticks to the muzzle of the shotgun, so you don't have to bend over and pick it up. Then, you just step on the front of the pad, and pull off the barrel when it's your time to shoot. I wet formed around the magnet using a paper creaser. When I got it shaped, I dropped magnets around the perimeter until it dried. I backed it in suede to give it some grip to minimize it slipping around. I sealed it in tan-kote, and then I used Fiebings spray water protector on the suede. Wworks pretty slick.

I remember doing this in geometry. - Probably did this in a drafting class also, but that's been many many moons ago.

I use mine far more for wood working than leather, but it comes in handy to find the center of a circle, regardless of the medium. - the center point is far enough out , that I can see on a quick glance that its off. But I worked out the process and I explained above to get the actual center. (or at least close enough that it works for me.)

I think any attempt to bend this would just warp or crack it. The red base is 1/2" thick and the ruler is steel. At least I worked out a process to make it usable.