Howdy!
I just wanted to introduce myself and say THANK YOU right off the bat. This forum is such a tremendous resource that I wish I had stumbeld onto an long time ago.
I kind of backed into the whole leather thing because of another hobby I got into a few years ago, SASS cowboy shooting. I was starting on a shoestring and couldn't afford to buy nice leather and someone had given me a box with a bunch of stamping tools etc. Well we won't discuss how my first attempts went ( I used $1 horsebutts from Tandy to make holsters belt and all, I'll leave the results to your imagination) but I was hooked!
I found that I really liked the carving and stamping and I am trying to improve my skills. I love making the projects but I dread the hand sewing of bigger projects and I have really stalled on doing them lately, but I think I am going to take the plunge and buy a Toro 3000 or similar. That decision is what got me searching on the internet and brought me to this board.
Below are pictures of a couple of rigs, one is a B-Western for my son, he is 15 and did all of the basketweave stamping, I did the sewing and lacing (this was my first lacing project).
The other rig is mine and my first serious attempt at carving. Both are based from Wes Ghormley patterns.
Sorry the light in my basement is terrible.
Again thanks to all of you for your willingness to share your tremendous knowledge, and very unselfeshly I might add. I recognize so many of your names and work from the commercial websites I have looked at in the past and I am impressed.
Thanks and God Bless!
Larrupin'
aka Craig