Billy P

I have a couple of the Craft-Japan tools from HC's too. I have found them to actually be a better tool than the Crafttools, but funny thing is from what I have heard/been told, Craft-Japan is at least partially owned by Tandy/Crafttool. I don't know this as fact, but like I said have been told this by at least one good source. I also have some tools/stamps that came from stleather.com in St Louis that I have found to be at least as good as the Crafttool stamps, if not better. They are marked IVAN. I have been told and have seen it advised on another group that I'm in to get a magnet and see if it will stick to the tools and how strong it seems to hold on. If this is and indication of a better tool then the IVAN's do have a better metal in them. The Ivans that I have, have given me pretty decent impressions and you can't beat st's price. Order one tool and $3.79 order 3 to 9 and $3.59, 10 to 49 $3.39, ya'll get the picture. I am not connected with St leather in any way, but I do order some stuff from them, and as I can't afford alot for tools and such right now, quality wise and price wise I like the tools that they offer. Sorry to ramble on so and that's all for now. Billy P

Wishing you a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY, you leather carving little devil. Hoping you had a really good one and wishing you many more. Billy Perdue

Hey Freak, wishing you a happy Birthday. Like the YakLady said someone might with you some messed up thing. So how do you like this one "WHEN YOU GET OLD AND LIFES LAST DECK, MAY YOU FALL THROUGH THE LOOP OF YOU ASS AND BREAK YOUR MOTHERFREAKIN NECK" being real Happy Birthday and wishing you many more. Billy P

Hey Everbody, I use the Gum Trag on the edges of just about all my stuff. I tried burnt down daubers, small pieces of rags, Q-Tips, and all kinds of other things that embarass me to tell. The absolute best thing I found to apply to the edges of belts, etc., is my finger. I just get a little out and dip the tip of my finger in it and put it on that way. Best control of anything I tried. I also don't really do enough stuff to really need a power slicker, even though it would be nice to have one. I use one of the old Tandy made, with a 3/16 bolt and nut in a drill. It's not the best setup but it works for now. Anyway wishing everyone a safe and happy day Billy P

Hey Barra, hopeing you had a great birthday and wishing you many more. I always enjoy reading your post to the site. Best wishs From S.C. in the USA, Billy P

Hey Troy, I don't know jack-crap about building a saddle, and if I were a saddle maker I'd have move from S.C. or starve to death. I do know good work and what I like and I just love that saddle. I've just started to really look at the saddle section and learning a lot that I can use on the little stuff that I do. I sure envy you and all the other people who have the knowledge and talent to make those great saddles. Here in my section of S.C. most people want a deal, that being whatever is cheapest. I saw a fellow recently that I've known all his life, he told me his oldest daughter is into barrel racing and they have several horses. He said that he had just bought a custom saddle for her from Louisiana. Nothing wrong with saddle makers from Lousisana, just that he paid a little over $400.00 for a custom saddle for her to use barrel racing and the horse already had what looked like the hair rubbed off, and possibly a sore starting on both sides of it's shoulders below the withers. It didn't seem to me that the saddle was fitting the horse right, but he got a deal on the saddle and the poor horse got sore spots. Somehow with all the saddle building talent out there it ain't fair to the horse. Anyway good work on the saddle and you and the rest of you people keep showing them because we all appreciate it a lot. Billy P

Here im my section of S.C. in one town it's 2.39, in another about the same distance from me it's 2.79, go figure that one now. I can remember when I was a young teenager my Dad buying gas for .18 cents a gal. When I got my drivers license I could get gas then for about .25 to .30 a gal. I sure miss those days, LOL, things have changed. Billy P

Hey Bruce, just got through looking at everything on your new web-site, and I do mean everything. I even listened to Adrien sing on the links part. One of the best I've seen, from my end no problem with anything. All of your work looks really good, but it always does. Congrats on getting everything up and running, Your buddy from S.C. Billy P

I need help from some of you guys. Do any of you know anything that can be bought at an ACE HARDWARE, Wal-Mart, or the like that I can use to thin contact cement? I have a qt that needs thinning some. I really don't use it that much and if I can find a way/something local that I can use to thin the cement at times it would be a big help to me. Thanks in advance for any and all replies. Billy P PS the contact cement that I have is WELDWOOD original in case it makes a difference, which it probably will. brp

Hello Hides, just a quick question, is the Billy B that you mentioned a store manager in Charlotte N.C.? dIf it is you are right he is a pretty good fellow and I do most of my business with him. Billy P in beautiful downtown Patrick, S.C.

Bro Luke, you did a good job explaining what hog maws, wash pots, and spiders are. I have not been on or active for a few days and got behind on things. Thanks Luke for helping me out on that. I'd sure love to be able to come up and meet you some time and you're always welcome down here in S.C. as are any other members of the forum. I saw something about hog jowls on here. We usually have smoked hog jaws around New Years Day now, but we used to have them all the time. We used them for seasoning and a lot of times for the meat of the meal. Fried out sliced hog jaw is some fine eating. Bro Luke I love grits too, and I eat em a lot. I tried the instant kind, add water stir, heat in microwave, stir again and eat, but they make my sugar go up so bad I quit them altogether. Now use nothing but Quaker quick grits and sometimes cream of wheat basically the same as grits. When the grits get done, add some extra sharp or pepper jack cheese and let them simmer for another few minutes until the cheese is melted good, with some fried hog jaw or sausage and over medium eggs and that is a meal that is hard to beat. I want to wish everyone on Leatherworker.net a good weekend. Bye for now Billy P

Wishing a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jordan, Rawhide 1, and the Thumper. I hope we all have many more, on the leatherworker.net together. With the best of wishes Billy P

Hey TwinOaks, had some craklin cornbread today with a pot of beans and some porkchops, and If the crick don't rise too much, towards the end of the week My Mamas gonna cook us some chitilins and maws. Down here where I live we boil the chitilins and maws and when they get tender we cut them up and fry them in a spider until just a little crispy, take them up and then fry cornbread fritters in the oil left over from the chitilins. Something to kill for down here in my neck on the woods. In another part of the state they boil the chitilins in a wash pot and then cut them up in pieces about 4 or 5 inches long, then plait the short pieces and deep fry in another wash pot until real crisp. I like our way better, but like their way too. Billy P

Hey Jordan, great looking rig. Man you're getting better by leaps and bounds. Keep on practicing and doing the great work you're doing now. I love to see the things that you come up with. It seems that you really are doing what we all talk about and that is making the next project better than the last was. My hat's off to you, Billy P

I may be wrong, as I often am, but it seems to me that the purpose/goals of the LeatherWorker.net/Forum from the start was not so much selling, but a place to get and share information about leather stuff. Shit, there are thousands of places to sell stuff, but I personally, don't know of anywhere else like the LW. I am sure that there are some that are only interested in how much the can sell/how much money they can make through LW, but the most of the active members are just wanting to learn new things and to help other leatherworkers if they can. MattMatt's member # is 7517, and I'm not picking on him, but he really, like most of the newer people have not been members long enough to know what the LW is all about. Sure just about everybody on here wants to sell their work at a good decent price, but that's not the main reason for being a member here. I feel that if the only reason that a person is a member on this forum is to make money then they need to look other places and they will be better off and we, the people that have been on here just about every day will be better off with out them. With over 7500 members and only about 100 to 125 maybe dedicated and active where are all the other members at. Johanna if I'm wrong for what I said you can scold me and I'll take it, but I'll still be here anyway. Billy P

Hey 827, I fully agree with you about S-T Leather. I have been ordering from them for years and infact just got a package last Friday from them. They sell a pretty good product for the dollar spent. Their carving tools are the IVAN line from Japan, but mostly the Crafttools are from Japan or Tiawan too. I still buy a good bit of my stuff from Tandy, but also realize that S-T Leather has a lot of what I need and most of the time at a better price. dI have never ordered any leather from them, but I have be really satisfied with the tools, hardware, buckles, etc. that I have bought from them. I too am in no way associated with this co., just a satisfied customer who hope them the best. Billy P

I just wanted to say that for what most of us on the LeatherWorker.net Forum does with our work, anyone who is interested should go to J L Powell's website and look at the shabby quality of the belt that Bree posted. At a couple of hundred bucks that belt is over priced. It is not lined and the chicago screw heads that hold the conchas on are visible in one of the pictures. The whole kit and kaboodle of things are over priced in my opinion. I know that some of our people on here have sold some high dollar stuff, but they did sell a quality product. The belt that Keith S. posted a pic of awhile back, for what about $16,000, or so, I'd bet anybody that Keith didn't make anywhere near on his belt what the Powell Co. is making on their's. One last thing Keith's belt was a one of a kind hand tooled, custom made conchas, lined with finger cut decoration, custom made buckle, etc., while the Powell belt has conchas and a buckle that we could get over the counter probably, no lining, and if it even was hand stamped just one stamp used that I can tell, with my worn out eyes. Just high dollar, shoddy, shoddy work tha most of us wouldn't put our name on. So now to my point about pricing, get all you can, when you can because if we don't someone like the Powell company will. There is with out a doubt, a market for those belts or they would not have them in a catalog or on their website where they are selling. Someone once said "THERE IS A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINIUTE" not meaning that all customers are suckers but there are people with more money than good sense. I'm done for now and thanks to everybody in this forum, all of us together are what is making it the greatest leatherworkers site in the world. Billy P

Hey Brent, looking way good my man. Keep it up. Billy P

A while back Smilin Jim designed and made a lace cutter and beveler that works really good for me. He sent me one and while I haven't used it as much as some of you might, I have really been pleased with it. It cuts good and is pretty quick to setup and change the blades in. Billy P

While I've never used the exotics, never had the call for them or the money to buy them, just to make whatever with. However I would not have a problem using them or don't mind anyone else using them as long as they are legally harvested. I have a lot more of a problem with the snake roundup's in the South West than I do with you using the Elephant hide or gator, croc, ostrich, or whatever. I harvest some Eastern Diamondback Rattlers at times, but only one or two at a time. I won't even make a belt with the ones that I get. It takes too much skin and I can make belt buckles and small cases and make more on the same amount of hide. I used to fish a lot of Bass tournaments with out club at work, and at some of the bigger lakes we fished there might be 4 or 5 tournaments going out of the same landing. Sometimes there would be tree huggers and pita's there in a fish costume, we mostly ignored them if we could, but when they started getting close to us we would tell them to back off and leave us alone. Down here in my part of South Carolina there was a law for a while about hunting White-tail deer, no does and only Bucks of a certain size. Now they are everywhere and are getting stunted because of not enough feed for them all. Another thing is there are probably 15 or20 cars right here in my small home town that hit deer and kill them every year. Anyway my thing is use it if you got it and if they don't like it screw em. Just my .01 worth. Billy P

The last Rebel Flag stamps that I know of were made by Baron Tool. As far as I know they are out of business now. I have seen some on E-Bay, but usually pricey when they do show up. I have one, but am not willing to part with it. I bought it in the early 70's and want to keep it as a reminder of "back in the day". If I can find one and I do know where another might be I see what they want for it and get back to you. Billy P

Hey Hilly, wishing you a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I guess that getting the Muzzle loader, has already made it a great one. Good luck on the deer and the fuzzy little critters. When we get the little ones around here we take some rabbit and squirrel and boil with salt and pepper to taste, until done. Then we debone the meat and put it in a casserole dish and add some mild BBQ sauce and bake for about 30 to 40 min. Around here we cook up some beans and biscuits and have feast with it. We also love some deer cube steak too. My wife and I take the backstrap/tenderloin and cut it into butterfly steaks and marinate it in Zesty Itallian salad dressing and then cook it on the grill, LOL, it's so so good. Anyway happy birthday, I'm gonna go eat. Billy P

PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE, Happy Birthday to all three of you, and hoping you all had a good one. Billy P

Wishing ya'll a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY and hoping ya'll a good time and wishing many more for you. Billy P

Hey Holly, very nice I really like the flasks. I like doing them too, although I haven't done many lately. I guess that with Christmas coming on strong, again this year, I'm going to have to do some to sell and for gifts. Again very nice and thanks for sharing with us, Billy P