Tracing and Cutting

[PapaWolf]

I bought the Biker Bag pattern pack from Tandy, I just finished cutting all the necessary pieces out but was having a some trouble. I have the Industrial cutting knife that TLF sells, it's sharp but seems to "lose the line" at times. Is it the knife, the cutter (me), or am I maybe cutting the leather when it's too wet, or dry? Also I did not have any tracing film so I went straight from the pattern to the leather. Which of course has put a lot of wear on the pattern sheet. What method do you guys use when needing to trace something that is too big to fight on a lightboard?

[Spider]

No pro here but I sometimes lightly case the leather and then trace the pattern on the leather. It will catch the lines well enough to cut. Stick around though cause the pro's will be on soon.lol

[Beaverslayer]

If I have to trace a pattern that's bigger than an 8 1/2" x 11" shhet of paper, I'll tape however many pieces of paper edge to edge, put small alignment marks on each corner of the papers and then you can trace away each section, then re-tape them together to get the full sized version.

Hope that makes sense.

Ken

[ferret]

For larger patterns I use baking parchment. It's cheaper than tracing film and comes in 16' rolls.

[Hilly]

I've used masking paper that autobody shops use when masking cars before painting. It works well, is cheap, and you get a LOT of it on a roll. You can ask your local body shop to get you a roll, or maybe try at a store that sells auto supplies.