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Old 09-06-2007, 01:41 PM
Dave Kelly Dave Kelly is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 494
Robert, I'm listing what I feel is the minimum amount of tools required to make the practice pieces that I've shown. Because of the style carving that I chose to do I needed to modify some of these tools. You could get away without modifying but at the very least you need to cleanup/refine most of these Craftools from Tandy. They're plated and most of them are kind of rough so I carefully file the grooves, polish the recesses then lightly buff. If you're too aggressive with this you'll remove parts of the very thin plating so you need to maintain with oil, wax or something to keep it from rusting. I heavily modified a number of these and I just make a habit of keeping them maintained. If I absolutely knew I was going to do this and could justify spending the money, I would buy custom made tools from Robert Beard, Barry King, Procrafter, etc. but instead of paying $4 - 6 ea. for Tandy you'll pay between $15 - 100. ea for the custom.

Everything I'm listing can be purchased from Tandy http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/ but I would recommend if you have a local Tandy, going in and hand pick out all of these. It's not uncommon to have 2 tools the same # imprint a slightly different pattern or not a well defined imprint.

Background
66104-22, 6104

Beveler
6935, 6203, 6201, 6202-01, 6202-02

Camouflage
66432, 6431

Figure
6934, 6941

Stop
6907, 6359

Flower center
6820, 6816

Pear shaders
6233, 6972, 6703, 6206, 6367, 6368

Seeder
6932, 6631

Mulefoot
6851, 6853, 6855, 6858, 6859

Modeling tools
88031-05, 8031-00, 8032-00, 8033-00

The main thing in choosing a swivel knife is comfort and a smooth, free spinning yoke but you can get by with an adjustable non-bearing type, I just applied plumbers grease so it turned smoother. As a knifemaker I know you already have a way to set/maintain and strop the blade, very important to keep it mirror shiny sharp. You can spend $$$ on a free spinning bearing custom made swivel knife or,
Swivel knife
8003-00 comes with a 3/8 straight blade, additional blade I use the most 8019, 1/4" hollow

Marble slab
32228-00

Poundo board
3461-01

I prefer using a 16 - 24oz. maul but you can use a mallet (some people prefer a mallet)
Mallet
31821-00 11oz
31822-00 20oz.

Other items you'll need
Desire. Pattern transfer film / vellum, Sponge, spray bottle for the water. Plastic wrap or baggies, paper bag to help case the leather. Straight edge, ruler and square. Sight (magnifier) and good lighting. Solid work bench or table. Comfortable stool or chair. Finishing dyes/stains, resist and top coat of your choice Optional: rubber cement and compressed cardboard or thin fiberglass sheet, (I use thin Masonite) to glue leather down so it won't stretch while you're tooling.

That's about the minimum you would need to do what I've shown, less if you choose a different style carving.

If you or anyone else is interested I would be very happy to share what I've learned so far.

Thanks,
Dave
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