A Stitch in Time

For Roy:

This is my Sunbody hat I'm wearing these days.

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This was couple of weekends ago when we were processing the cattle on our ranch.

This is my horse Spud:

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We were changing saddles here. My wife had been using him as her horse was laid up with a foal:

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After we swapped saddles back on him I used him for roping the calves that needed branding:

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I really don't like his name Spud but that what he was being called when my son bought him 4 years ago. Its bad luck to change a horse's name. I traded my son his horse Spud for my horse Lil Sis, shown here with my wife riding her:

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Couple of years ago I'd a told ya the horse didn't live that could turn faster than I could ride. But ya slow down when ya get old and I found that horse. No buck in her but she'd turn faster than I could ride and I'd end up on my head, or other parts. Last time, my daughter who works in the ER down to town, thought the old guy had broke a hip. Heck the old guy thought he'd broke a hip. Here she is after branding a calf. She's got a Sunbody hat on too:

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Anyhoo!
 
A post for prosperity and a time stamp of sorts.

I picked up a cheap side for all of us to practice tooling and carving on. I cut up a bunch of 4"×6" squares so whenever the kids and wife wanted to they could grab a piece and go to town.

The swivel knife has been one of the hardest tools for me to manipulate. It takes a more delicate touch than I'm used to. The kids took interest in it a while ago and I figured I better get to practicing more. I have a standard straight blade and a 1/4" angled blade. They were sharp but the bevels were an uneven mess so I took them to a stone and sharpened things up. What a huge difference that made, no more drag. Should have done that a looong time ago.

I figured a good way to practice was with simple line art. Mind you, I can't draw a stick man to save my life but after looking at a ton of line art I somehow sketched up a kind of abstract dog and carved one out. This is probably the first thing I've carved that I haven't thought "🤔well that's total shite", usually it looks like I cut the lines with an axe!
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The motivation was this little turd.
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Those guys need to be polished up well. I seldom sharpen mine but they get hit with a buffer a couple times a day when I'm using them. Sometimes ya need that axe cleave so don't lose it completely. From half way through the leather to barely breaking the surface and everywhere in between. Good job on your pup!
 
Horsewright said:
Those guys need to be polished up well. I seldom sharpen mine but they get hit with a buffer a couple times a day when I'm using them. Sometimes ya need that axe cleave so don't lose it completely. From half way through the leather to barely breaking the surface and everywhere in between. Good job on your pup!
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Thanks Dave, I got them polished up and gliding pretty smooth. I realize how much I was fighting too much drag before. I was having s really hard time with tight curves and after looking at the blades up close it's no wonder!
 
Redmeadow Knives said:
Thanks Dave, I got them polished up and gliding pretty smooth. I realize how much I was fighting too much drag before. I was having s really hard time with tight curves and after looking at the blades up close it's no wonder!
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Good deal. Are you slicking your leather?
 
Horsewright said:
Good deal. Are you slicking your leather?
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I very recently found out about that and starting using a glass slicker. It seemed to cut down on the 'pebble' effect of the grain in the untouched portions of a basketweave stamp. Haven't tried it with carving yet I don't think, does it help?
 
Redmeadow Knives said:
I very recently found out about that and starting using a glass slicker. It seemed to cut down on the 'pebble' effect of the grain in the untouched portions of a basketweave stamp. Haven't tried it with carving yet I don't think, does it help?
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Absolutely, probably there more than other places. It really helps to make your leather more uniform and so then so are your cuts as well as the stamping later.
 
Looks good John swivel knife is not easy for me to use
my next attempt I’m checking my blades and taking Dave’s advice to slick the leather
I do slick before I stamp so it makes sense to also do with the knife
 
Was thinking about this lil conversation yesterday while I was.......well slicking some leather, the belts for a pair of shotgun chaps. Anyhoo if its veg tan I slick it these days regardless, whether its tooled or plain veg tan gets slicked.
 
Good to know Dave, that makes total sense. Can't tell you how much I appreciate the pearls of wisdom you spread all over this forum.


On that note, and I think I've mentioned it before but leatherwork had a long learning curve for me. I was compelled (reluctantly) to do it because I wanted to be able to do everything in house when it came to making a knife. I never enjoyed it until many years later when things finally started to click. Now it's incredibly enjoyable for me.

Back to my point, I've spent a lot of time researching leather work over the years and though there are tons of books, hours of videos and tutorials everywhere, it's not a strictly technical process. Most things are like this but with leather so much about it seems to go by feel and experience. Knifemaking is similar but the process is more of a mechanical one.

I've been able to pick up a lot of little things reading conversations throughout Bladeforums. Places like Instagram are a good place to see great examples but nothing beats a platform like this to actually be able to discuss things. As the worlds attention span gets shorter and demands instant visual satisfaction, the value of a brief conversation is priceless.
 
I'm not the smoothest operator yet, I'd call this 6 footer stitching. At 6 feet away and it looks pretty damn good, any closer and they get a little drunky. These curves take a lot of manipulation that I don't quite have the muscle memory for yet. We shall get there

Two tan gunslinger on brown bison and one with grey border and black gunslinger stitch on black bison.
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Redmeadow Knives said:
I'm not the smoothest operator yet, I'd call this 6 footer stitching. At 6 feet away and it looks pretty damn good, any closer and they get a little drunky. These curves take a lot of manipulation that I don't quite have the muscle memory for yet. We shall get there

Two tan gunslinger on brown bison and one with grey border and black gunslinger stitch on black bison.
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Well your one up on me as I've never even tried to stitch that pattern. Heck looks pretty darn good to me! Use to know a guy that would use a brass ring to lay out that stitching pattern. Better saddle maker than a belt maker. You using that template from Maker's? I keep meaning to pick it up and just haven't yet.

The wife makes some purses with what she calls boot top stitching:

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Heck she's even done a self portrait. Heck now that I see it full size looks like she used her embroidery machine on that one. Still cool!

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Ya wanna go !!@##$$^&&%%$ crazy crosseyed? Check out these boots that were made for me by Ozuna Boot Co many years ago. They didn't get the measurements right and didn't even send me the first attempt. So the guy called and said sorry gonna be about another month and we'll get them to you. So what he did to kinda make it up to me was he did the ten row stitching on the tops, (I forget what I ordered but it was normal stitching nothing extravagant like 10 row) and a sharkskin heel cover to hep with spur wear.

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Just crazy! The quality and craftsmanship on these boots were just outstanding.

I've said it before and I do mean it with sincerity. If I can ever be of help to anyone chasing this dead cow stuff, I'm just a phone call or a type away. I've been doing this stuff for a long time now and there aren't any secrets, I'll tell ya what works for me. But if ya want to stitch like them boot tops you're on your own!
 
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