JDTagish

Thanks much. I thought that a more generalized overall look at getting started might have use. I know a lot of people go all over the web trying to learn how to do things, and I spent the most time on the things that were hardest for me to lean, like casing. It's just so subjective, and yet totally not if you want it right. But I couldn't find anything visual that said how much water, was enough, and when to start. I'd try to do what some people say, like dipping it in water until you stop seeing bubbles, but then the leather would be so bleeping mushy that it would be days before it dried enough to tool,. and of course, I was too impatient to wait that long, so I ruined a bunch of stuff. Of course, I linked to this site as well, it's invaluable as a resource.

His work and explainations are excellent. Fortunately, you can only win once, which leaves a bit of room for the rest of us, lol!

I've written what I hope is a good beginners guide to leather working. Tandy is sponsoring a contest on Instructables, which I have entered with this Instructable. Should you happen to be a member there, and would be able to vote for me in the contest, I'd appreciate that. Even more, I would love any feedback regarding the Instructable, should you have any. http://www.instructables.com/id/Introduction-to-Leatherworking/

I think you need to head to the baking section at Walmart or Target and get cookie cooling racks. They're stackable and will not take up a huge amount of room, and let plenty of air circulate to dry your items.

I'm going to have a go at this... I think I get what you mean about taking project on, so no need to get into that. Personally, I'm having a hard time imaging a "death eater" in BDU's, but that's my issue. All the death eater wizards in HP wear robes that are black, rather than capes so you wouldn't need clothes under them at all. (Which is a recurring joke in the books, btw.) You can take whatever artistic license that you want to and are comfortable with. However, a bracer with a sheath attached with a stick in it (or wand) sounds like a recipe for poking your own eye out inadvertantly when moving your arm, but again, that's just me. You're taking enough creative license with a death eather character, that making your bracers away from how other people do it shouldn't really be of concern. If you want them with laces or buckles, then do so. I think one of the basic tenents of leatherworking is that leatherworkers all bring their own style and preferences to their designs. You're not making something to sell, so it doesn't have to appeal to the masses, it needs to fit you and you alone. As for the "ends" and edging leather, I looked at your pictures. It seems that you got some advice about how to burnish, as it appears you've burnished at least one of the edges of your bracer. When I hear "end" I tend to think of the end of a belt, or strap versus an edge of something. Are you trying to finish an end or an edge? If it's an edge, then burnish as you've already done. You can use water and your jeans to do it, a bit of wax and canvas, or really anything to wet or slick the edge of the leather and rub it hard enough and fast enough on denim, canvass or wood to create friction, and you'll burnish the edge. You can dye a burnished edge just fine, and it will seem "finished" enough for you. I know plenty of hobbyists who never do anything at all to an edge and are perfectly happy with their creation, so it's all a matter of taste. Really, I'd suggest more that you talk with the people that you're cosplaying with sand ask them how they've put together their costumes, and if THEY are comfortable with your designs. They're the ones you'll be standing next to or interacting with, so it's really their opinions that should matter regarding the appearance.

Thanks for the tips! I've never tried wetting the leather slightly before skiving. I do have both the super skiver and the safety beveler, so I'll try both with the new hard surface under it and hopefully that will help get better results!

Thanks to you all for the welcome! There are some places were new folks are sort of ignored, so it's very nice to be welcomed!

HI Bob, thanks for all the great ideas! One of my big issues when I actual do travel is that I rarely take 1 of anything...LOL. I take 2 chargers for everything, and sometimes more. Trust me, I'm the one you want to be sitting next to if you run out of juice, because I'll have at least 3 ways for you to charge anything you brought with you. It's a little OCD, a little force of habit, and a lot of having had people rely on me to be able to fix their problems from wherever I happen to be. My issue really isn't that I can't organize myself, I'm actually pretty good at it. I think my hope was that if I could build myself 1 ideal bag or system, then I could stop being on the hunt looking for a new "just right" bag. I think it's a form of sickness really...my wife rolls her eyes whenever I stop to look at a bag, or worse, buy one. There are no fewer than 10 decent quality bags and backpacks sitting in my closet right now, some of which have not seen daylight in years, but that I can't bring myself to actually get rid of, yet I keep adding more to them. I sort of convinced myself that I could make the one that would end all that, and now I'm knee deep in a new hobby, LOL!

Well, I learned something important about skiving tonight. After posting my question and reading the anwsers, I decided to give it a go again and see if I could figure out the angle I'm missing, and I found that I was improved incredibly. My technique hand't changed, but what did is that I had previously been using a plastic but sturdy card table to do my cutting/skiving. etc. on. But I recently found an old wood desk at the re-use it store and also got a 2.5' x 3' piece of heavy quartz to sit on top of it as my primary work surface. Now, with a very hard surface UNDER the piece I was attempting to skive, I got much better results! Not perfect by any means, but certainly about an 80% improvement from any previous attempts I'd made. I figure the other 20% is in practice, practice and practice. But a HUGE amount is the surface upon which you are attempting to skive, and how hard it is under it. Thanks so much for all your suggestions! I'll check into other options and suggestions if there are more to share, especially now that I know that it's not actually impossible for me to do!

Thanks all! I'm not trying to skive anything except for veg tan, I guess I didn't make that part clear. I'll check the skiver for anything that may need to be filed down to get better contact. I've seen a few videos on how to cut leather with a round knife, but my worst skill is in sharpening knives in general, so I've been hesitant to invest in one, simply because once it became dull I'd have to take it somewhere to get it sharpened again, which can be costly. I can never get the angles right when I try to sharpen and wind up making them worse than before when I try. Another one of those things where the angles you use make all the difference and that my hands and brain cannot seem to connect properly. I guess I'll keep trying...I just cannot figure out what part I'm doing wrong, since I've never gotten it right. I did ask for demo's at 2 different Tandy's with their tools, hoping for that hands-on, but they couldn't get any better results than I could! Maybe it is the tools then. I dunno, I just dislike feeling incompetent at something for so long...LOL! Thanks again for the input. I'd love to hear of any other tools that may help, if anyone has links to something that they think would be better, or a place somewhere in the lower half of CA that I could visit for a hands on.

Skiving is absolutely my weakest area. I've watched a million YouTube videos, and for everyone it seems like you pull the skiving tool and shave off bits of leather to get that "feathered" edge. For reasons that I don't know, it NEVER works for me. I have the "Super Skiver" and Safety Skiver from Tandy. I'd be happy to invest in a better tool, but they all seem to work essentially the same way, and I'm assuming that it's operator error, even if the tools aren't the best they should do something more than just rough the surface of the leather, so I'm hesitant to spend a bunch of dough on a similar but higher quality tool and not get any better results. I'm mostly using it on between 3-5oz veg tan, and trying to get to a super thin edge. Very very rarely, I get a clean cut, but 99.9% of the time even with a brand new blade all that happens is that it sort of roughs the flesh, and winds up something like trying to use a sweater shaver to take off "pills" from a sweater, rather than getting small even pieces skived off of the leather. I wind up attempting to use a dremmel to sand off the leather then, which give me inconsistant results at best. I'm generally decent with a knife and have been handling knives and other small items since I was a kid, so I'm not afraid of a blade, and have used knives and planes in woodworking before with a decent result, although it wouldn't be my best skill. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, or if there is a way to explain or demonstrate without someone literally standing over my shoulder, but I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions regarding technique or tools that would help me. I'm in the LA/OC area if anyone here happens to be in the same location, I'd be thrilled to compensate for a hands on lesson as well!

Hi there all! My name is Deni, and I'm new to the forum. I've been dabbling in leatherowrk for about a year or so. I've always loved leather products, especially those that were well made. There is nothing like walking into a leathergoods store and just inhaling that amazing smell of leather! I wanted to start leatherworking because my desire for leather products and my wallet to buy them weren't matching up, and it was my hope to be able to make personal items for myself that I could do and save on the cost of purchasing high quality leather items. All you experienced people are sure to be laughing about now, because of course, that was a fantasy at best! Between not having a clue how to do leatherworking, the cost of the tools and the leather itself has been significantly more than if I had just broken down and bought a few of the high ticket items from Saddleback and others that I had drooled over. But, even with the drooling, I wouldn't pull the trigger not only because of price, but also because I always would want to change something. I have a million bags, some even nice quality leather ones, but there's always a hunt for another one. The "ultimate" goal for me would be to create for myself a modular bag system, that would allow me to add larger sections / bags together as needed. Sometimes I want to carry a leptop with me, sometimes not. Sometimes I need a crapload of electronics accessories with me, sometimes not. And so I'd like to have a series of bags that would work together and be able to use the sections that I need, as well as the ability to design additional ones as my electronics gear changes. I'm sure that's totally weird, but that's what got me into the whole thing. In the meantime, I've been able to lay hands on some inexpensive but decent quality upholstery leather that is now letting me experiment a lot more than the 2 sides of veg tan I bought when I started. I know the qualities of the different leathers significantly alters how you do things, but the more time I can actually spend constructing things, the more I learn from trial and error, with way more emphasis on the error! But, I've made some things that I've been happy with, and bought more and varied kinds of leathers to use. Having more of a supply on hand makes me more willing to be able to try to design some things. I've done the "usual" for newbies, like wallets & notebook holders. I made my wife a purse for Christmas that she likes a lot. I'm not sure if I love it, but it really matters more that she likes it. I'm just starting to get into tooling a bit (obviously with the veg tan) and found that hot stamping can sometimes get used on some of the upholstery leathers as well, but the results vary widely. I've never been a fan of western or flowery tooling, and I've had a harder time trying to learn on my own, and have spent hours watching YouTube videos and attempting to apply them to some things that I do like, primarily Fleur de Lis and paisley's. I love learning new things, and have lurked here for about 8 months. I made what I think is an awesome find at an antique store recently, and that got me to actually sign up, so that I could post some of the photos of the items I found, hoping to identify them. (That thread is posted in the Leather History section, please check that out if you're familiar with vintage tools) I'm happy to hear suggestions from anyone and everyone about their experiences and areas of expertise, and am looking forward to getting to know you! Deni

Spencer, I've had the same issue with the Tandy Pro Waterstain. It may have something to do with the quality of the leather as other more experienced people have suggested, but I've gotten the same issue with the Pro Waterstains, but did not have the issue with other stains/dyes also cut from the same hide. IMHO, it has something to do with the waterstain, and may be in the application and how "wet" it is to work with the waterstain itself, since it is applied (per instruction) with a lightly damp sponge, but the sponge itself becomes more saturated (wetter) as you apply the stain along the length of a belt. (or other larger item) I wonder if its related to how wet the leather gets during the process, and then how it's dried. I've gotten that wrinkled result after just leaving the item on a flat surface to dry, and in particular anywhere that the item is bent during the application or before it is fully dry. Although using a higher quality leather may produce a different result, I'm inclined to think it's the waterstain that is causing the issue rather than the leather. Unfortunately, I don't think there is a way to "recover" from it (make the leather lay down again) but one thing I would consider trying if the piece is destined for the trash anyway would be to wet the surface that was dyed, and then use a warm (not hot) iron on it and see if that will get the bubbles out of it. I've had decent results using that method, but only on things that were going to be trashed anyway, or scrap, just to see what would happen. YMMV, of course.

This is the LESCO tool I was trying to describe. Can't find anything online about this either. Any thoughts? I'm pretty sure that the handle is aluminum (a magnet will not pick it up) but all but the tools themselves that screw in are steel. (Magnetic) Any thoughts on this one?

The bookbinding suggestion has been very helpful, THANK YOU! I see what you mean now about them being mounted in a wood handle. I've seen several photos now of similarly shaped tools mounted in wood handles. I'm going to have to investigate more on book binding and figure out what makes it different than leather tooling, since many of the descriptions I've seen seem to use them almost interchangeably. Do you know any information as to how they would have been used to imprint on a book binding with a wooden handle? I know with leather and a metal stamp you're supposed to strike it with a mallet, but with a wooden handle, that seems excessive and not they way it would be done. Would it be hand pressure only and just press into the leather? I think most books use such thin leather on the covers that may be all that was necessary. I'm not sure how the "modeling" tools would be used in this applicaiton either, particularly the ones with the balls on the ends of them.