JDFred

Good job I like your deluxe versions.

Thank you, he was pretty excited when I sent him the pictures. As to the construction I used side cutters to remove the rivets on the binder rings that attached them to the cover. There were tubes that the rivets went through that I used a Dremel to trim them flat to the bottom of the binder assembly. Then I put it together like you described, but with leather and plastic instead of plastic and cardboard. The cover on the donor binder was a heavier single sheet of plastic so I cut it into 3 pieces a front, back, and spine. I trimmed the edges of the plastic to be about a quarter inch from the edge of the leather, and left a half inch gap between each cover piece and the spine so it would fold easier. Then I glued them to the leather cover with contact cement and then glued the liner to that. That is part of the wrinkle problem was the same size liner as the cover and glueing the liner completely to the cover. I used #9 copper rivets to attach the rings to the cover. After I folded it, which was challenging I covered it with a towel and left my smaller piece of marble on it overnight then did the same thing to the other side the next day and mostly won the battle the keep it closed. Yes it is 8 1/2 x 11 paper sized. I figured you could get rings by themselves but I’m not sure where. Forgive my run on style of writing I hope this answered your questions and helped.

Thank you for the kind words. I only started carving leather about 8 months ago and building anything from leather about a year and a half ago. This was my first 3 ring binder so the learning curve was steep. The next one I’ll have to try making my liner shorter and only glue the edges instead of glueing the entire liner to the cover. That may also help with the keeping it closed trouble I had. Thanks for the advice.

Very nice work. I really like red and black together.

Thank you

Thank you. What color would you have used? I’m always looking for suggestions for my next project. Thank you. My wife picked that out and I really like the color of it and have enjoyed using it. Thank you. I’m glad the contrast stands out it was what I was going for, I was a little worried that the colors were too similar. I probably should’ve antiqued it for some more contrast but I need to practice with it some more before I try it on a large project. Thank you

A truck driver friend asked me to build a binder to keep his registration and paperwork in. He wanted his brand on the front cover and let me come up with the rest. Here is what I came up with. I used 6/7 oz for the cover and lined it with 2/3 oz. I used some thin chrome tan, I had left from a purse I made, for the overlay and the inner pockets. I used the rings out of a plastic binder and used the plastic from it as a stiffener in between the cover and the liner. Then I used twisted poly Maine Thread to hand sew it together. It is finished with neatsfoot oil and leather balm whit atom wax. My liner got a little bunched up by the rings when I folded it but other wise it turned out good. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Very nice work. Your stitching is perfect. I’ll have to keep that foam trick in mind if I ever build a holster.

Very cool

Very nice work!

If you had some checkered ones I would be interested. I started using a lifter in my oak leave and the slicking bothers me, tried to clean it up with a small bevel with no luck.

That is what I noticed last night when I was using lifter and the basketweave stamp. I was able to touch the areas up but it started getting darker than I wanted. So I decided to do my tooling first then dye after. Thanks for the response. I was more curious if it was a cardinal sin of leather work or ok to do. It seems to maybe be ok in some cases but not real great for reagular use.

Thank you for the help. I’m going to do some more testing as I got to thinking about using lifters and it may leave a spot that will need touched up and look odd.

I think pastorbob on this forum started making acrylic templates recently maybe ask him

I’m building a 3 ring binder and I’m using some cheaper leather that doesn’t burnish well when tooling but accepts dye really well. I’m worried about my light brown dye turning to dark brown accidentally when dying over the tooled areas, and it might be more controllable on smooth leather. So I had a thought about dying first then tooling. I tried a test piece last night and the impressions I got seemed to be decent. I typically use Angelus alcohol dyes with a dauber. For this I was thinking of using a sponge to apply the dye. I’m trying to do a good job on this as it is my first commissioned piece. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you. I may try a spray bottle I can see where it would give a more even coverage than a sponge.

Don Gonzales has a you tube video and a free download to go with it for a folding money clip it needs no hardware and is simple. It could be modified to have a snap if you wanted. You can stamp a geometric pattern in it or some initials or find an embossed crome tan you like. I was thing it would be a good project for our 4-H club. Good luck.

I'm sorry to hear about your wife. The sling is beautiful. I really like the simplicity of the tooling. What did you use for the backgroung for the initials?

I’ll preface this with my beveling is not perfect but it is much better than when I started. Practice consistent hammer blows so some impressions are not deeper than others that will also help you with the rest of your carving, especially backgrounding. Also like Bruce said moving the tool over a 1/3 or less at a time will help prevent the chatter. I’ve also found if after I finish a line I go back over it a time or two a little quicker it helps clean up some of the chatter and deepens the burnish. The tool stays in the beveled line better than on the first pass so you can go quicker. At the end of the day practice is the only way to get truly good at it, a cliche I know but the truth non the less. Hope this helps.

Craft Japan make decent stamps i would put them on par with 70s vintage crafttool stamps. the ones I have I got from proleathercarvers.com

Thank you for the input, you’re probably right about my casing technique. I’m one of those that wets it with a sponge and goes to work in 15 mins. The reason for that is I try to fit leather work in the evening if I have some spare time so I don’t get to do it every day. I have tried to case leather in a bag in the fridge and by time I got back to it a week later it was dry and I had to start over so I kinda abandoned the method. The time thing is also why my antiquing and finish never turns out great I get in to big a hurry trying to get a project done and don’t let resist dry enough or let the antique set long enough, but that is a me problem I’m trying to get better about. Thank you for the kind word about the stitching and the basket weave, straight lines and geometrics appeal to my meticulous nature which is one of the reasons I don’t like floral carving as much but I’m trying to expand my abilities. Thank you again for the help.

I like to use a straight edge or wing dividers to scribe a line then use stitching chisels to punch the holes. It gets a pretty good result on my stitch lines.

Very nice. That probably took a month of Sundays to braid.

I was cruising YouTube last night and found a video with Joe Meling put on by Weaver. It had a free tooling pattern with it, so I printed it off and made one. I added the basket weave to the original pattern. My scrolls need a little work but my antique and finish is the best I’ve done to date. Let me know what’s right and what’s wrong. Thanks

Beautiful, your quilting and letter turned out awesome.