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Hey! I wrote here for a long time ago. Aaand i just finished my latest project! I'd like to present you our newest armguards. This is the "Bulcsú" armguard. We made this by leather. Its contains many layers of diferent leather, a hardened one too! They are reliable at fencing and its has a great resistance. This armguard made by a with hunnic - hungarian pattern. We used a many historical elements when we designed it. I hope you like it!

Hey folks! Thought I would share a custom quiver order I took last month. I really enjoyed the way it came out. This was for a repeat customer, but they wanted a hip quiver with adjustable angle and the option of adding a shoulder strap for a walking quiver. I also put together a matching black and green arm guard. On the quiver I tried what I thought was the technique for getting a gradient transition between colors, but I think maybe I need to use a lighter green or thin it out. I've seen some quivers on etsy with very striking color transitions but I haven't nailed down the way to do it yet. Thanks for lookin'!

I finished this full-length armguard last week; just in time for Missouri's archery season. I will use it when I wear my ghillie suit. Now if it will just cool off enough to put them both on! The body of the armguard is made from Honduran caiman and backed with vegetable-tanned cowhide. The trim is lambskin and I carved the lace hooks from deer antler. The whole thing was sewn up by hand using artificial sinew. Darren

Just finished my latest, and possibly last(for a while) leather project. Sorry for the long post, this is as much for my future reference as it is to let you all know what I did. Archery armguard pattern designed by me to offer more protection while still allowing full articulation of wrist and elbow. Pattern is an adaptation of the Ardre III runestone from Gotland. No pics of the inside, but it's lined with deer skin with snaps to allow for a removeable wool liner/sweat rag. This is only my 4th carving and 2nd dying project, so feel free to offer any critisism. I don't offend easily, so be harsh. My process: > Case > Carve > Cut out pattern > Oil > Glue/stitch liner > Dye > Spray deft lacquer > Wool applied lacquer > Antique (fiebings black paste. Applied with wool, buffed with flat paper towel. Wool buffing pulled out all the antique... It works for other people I guess but not for me.) > 2 spray coats of lacquer (I was afraid of lifting the antique, due to the problems from the first coats) > Wool applied lacquer > Punch eyelet holes > Add a coat of montana pitch blend and buff with wool (actually my own formula, but same 3 ingredients) > Attach eyelets Things I didn't like or would do different: > I need to find black shock cord and a nicer bead... > Make sure dye on figure goes "over the edge" as the antique doesn't always cover the "sides" of the carving. > Next time I will try 2 spray coats, as the wool applied coat lifted some of the red and made the eyes more orange than yellow > First wool applied lacquer step unnevenly darkened the deer liner. I think I would only spray the liner next time. > Lacquer crackled/spiderwebbed when armguard was wrapped around my arm for the first time. > Next time I might try 50/50 resolene/water instead of the lacquer, due to the crackling problem. > 3/16" eyelets are inefficient for attaching lacing hooks. They are barely attached, and I had to replace two of them already. Sorry, for the poor cell phone pics, still waiting for my camera to ship...

So I reached a point with my 'messing around with leather hobby' that someone wants to pay me for a leather armguard. Hooray for me. Let my OCD kick into high gear! I've gone through pages and pages of the forum looking for advice on finishing projects and it seems that the consensus is different projects require different finishing techniques. If there's a link to an appropriate answer for this question I haven't found it yet and I apologize if this has been answered before. Right. So, considering the amount of sweat (and possibly rain) this piece of (tooled, vegtan, ecoflow all-in-oned and super sheened) leather is going to come into contact with I'd like to know your opinions on how to finish it so that it will last the longest both in the sun and with the sweat. Oh yeah, and the rough side will be against the skin. Thanks!