Tag along to work with a Gnome builder.
Disclaimer: This is not a how you should build thread, I find that I am often told I do things a bit different, backwards etc than what some may consider normal, or the 'proper way'. There are many ways and this is just my way of doing things.
Apologies in advance, The shop is in a bit of a mess. Getting things ready to move in June so things are a bit disorganized and it's driving me nuts. Well, more nuts.
Seatbelts fastened? Sweet, Blast off meatball!
Leather:
I could go on and on about it. I'm picky, seriously. Off the shelf stuff just doesn't work for me. All of my leather comes from Hermann Oak directly and is split from thicker hides down to one size so it is uniform from one end to the other and then I have the backs sanded so there is none of that fleshy crap like you will find from Tandy or low grade leathers.
In addition to that I only get the choicest part of the hide which is the bend and basically the center of the hide. The rest they just scrap, this saves me on shipping weight. 40 or 50 hides is heavy, Just ask my UPS guy, He hates my guts.
Smooth as a baby cows butt
Grab a few hand tools and...
A few bigger tools
One row of dies, I do not make one sheath at a time I would never get anything done at that rate. I do about 30 because that's about all the pieces I can remember what goes to what at any one time.
Chop, Chop, Click Click for a few hours
Hey Warrior...Progress. Currently drying a snake for you
Then we triple check all the pieces for each sheath and then segregate everything for dyeing the right color.
Suit up for battle, I know alot of people have that ah I don't care about no fumes attitude. I'd prefer not to be on a ventilator when I'm 60. Just weird that way.
Gotta dilute this stuff otherwise everything is basically dark brown when it's dyed. I dunk dye everything for uniform color throughout, Yes it uses ALOT more dye that way. Some people use the dobbers, I don't because that just surface dyes things and if you get a scratch later then it just shows white underneath.
Dyed and Drying
While they are drying I grab some clean gloves and a very tight knit rag and dye the edges of the smaller parts. This part takes some time and patience to do right.
Once everything is dried I give every single thing a good coat of 100% Neatsfoot oil, The alcohol takes alot of the natural oils out so gotta put it back in. It also deepens the color and makes it more uniform.
I usually do that at night so it can soak in all night and be ready to go in the morning, In the meantime I go play with other things.
Disclaimer: This is not a how you should build thread, I find that I am often told I do things a bit different, backwards etc than what some may consider normal, or the 'proper way'. There are many ways and this is just my way of doing things.
Apologies in advance, The shop is in a bit of a mess. Getting things ready to move in June so things are a bit disorganized and it's driving me nuts. Well, more nuts.
Seatbelts fastened? Sweet, Blast off meatball!
Leather:
I could go on and on about it. I'm picky, seriously. Off the shelf stuff just doesn't work for me. All of my leather comes from Hermann Oak directly and is split from thicker hides down to one size so it is uniform from one end to the other and then I have the backs sanded so there is none of that fleshy crap like you will find from Tandy or low grade leathers.
In addition to that I only get the choicest part of the hide which is the bend and basically the center of the hide. The rest they just scrap, this saves me on shipping weight. 40 or 50 hides is heavy, Just ask my UPS guy, He hates my guts.
Smooth as a baby cows butt
Grab a few hand tools and...
A few bigger tools
One row of dies, I do not make one sheath at a time I would never get anything done at that rate. I do about 30 because that's about all the pieces I can remember what goes to what at any one time.
Chop, Chop, Click Click for a few hours
Hey Warrior...Progress. Currently drying a snake for you
Then we triple check all the pieces for each sheath and then segregate everything for dyeing the right color.
Suit up for battle, I know alot of people have that ah I don't care about no fumes attitude. I'd prefer not to be on a ventilator when I'm 60. Just weird that way.
Gotta dilute this stuff otherwise everything is basically dark brown when it's dyed. I dunk dye everything for uniform color throughout, Yes it uses ALOT more dye that way. Some people use the dobbers, I don't because that just surface dyes things and if you get a scratch later then it just shows white underneath.
Dyed and Drying
While they are drying I grab some clean gloves and a very tight knit rag and dye the edges of the smaller parts. This part takes some time and patience to do right.
Once everything is dried I give every single thing a good coat of 100% Neatsfoot oil, The alcohol takes alot of the natural oils out so gotta put it back in. It also deepens the color and makes it more uniform.
I usually do that at night so it can soak in all night and be ready to go in the morning, In the meantime I go play with other things.
