robs456

My view is that outside of school and gambling there is nothing called cheating, just smart use of resources and knowledge... Which you demonstrated here.

No, I'm using the white milky 'glue' type. I did try with using acrylic finisher first, 100% dry then sizing.

Hi All, I'm wondering if you can give me some tips when it comes to gilding leather. Now, I don't mean the way the bookbinders do it but more for gilding tooling as can be seen in the pic below. The way I do it is to use sizing for porous materials and first paint it on and let it dry for 30 mins, then when 'dry but sticky' paint another layer and let it all dry 24 hours. Then paint another layer, let dry for 30 mins (according to the instructions), apply gold leaf, brush it off. Now the problems are that the gold tend to rub off easily from the sized areas, either directly while using the brush or even after 24 hours of drying time. Also, I get A LOT of gold stuck on the leather outside the sized areas, even where I didn't touch. This can be removed with painters tape or hard paintbrush, but is very annoying. Anything I can do to minimize this, except masking? Anyone out there that do this and can share some tips?

73 is a good vintage. As my wife the wine taster would say: Could be rough on the nose, generally sweet, definitely not bitter but sometimes with a sour finish due to the added tannin...

In Sweden we don't have twist-offs, or they're very rare. But we don't need church keys anyway as we all just use our teeth to open the beer bottles...(Sorry, it's Friday and I just used a church key..I mean my teeth...)

Yes, like in the olden times only the most experienced get to choose the leather. From the few videos I've seen they sometimes even have two guys, one to select the leather and one to cut, but it's still pretty 'good' to have a single guy do all the different steps after that. And yes, they use a clicker press so it's not 100% handmade...

You're both right, but it's very rare. Is it done by other companies than Hermès? Here's a snippet from an article I found about their bag makers: Craftsmanship is important to Hermes. It employs more than 2,500 leather artisans - Mr Dumas calls them "the backbone" - in 14 ateliers across France. At the Parisian suburb of Pantin where the leather atelier is located, more than 340 artisans continue to handcraft leather goods the same way it has been done for more than a century. For example, it still takes one artisan about 15 hours to make a bag employing a classic saddle stitch that has been in use since the 19th century. After the leather is cut, each worker is responsible for his bag, seeing it to finish. Upon completion, the inside strap is stamped with the number of the workshop, the year it is finished and the craftsman's serial number. If the bag is damaged in use, a customer can send it to the same craftsman for repair. "We train about 250 new craftsmen a year. It takes about two years to train a craftsman with each one supervised by an existing craftsman. This puts a limit on production capacity," says Mr Dumas. Link: http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/fashion/hermes-commitment-to-craftsmanship-keeps-business-growing Then again, they're pretty expensive AND keep a waiting list.

This. Is excellent.

Clicker press if you also have other stuff to use it for, but for only 3.5x11.75 inch rectangles a strap cutter and knife is quite low in both footprint and cost while possibly being quite fast as well.

Traditional method, I guess. Was my first time so not sure...didn't use the bookbinding method though.But I used acrylic glue/sizing, applied twice with 24 hours in between then on with the gold leaf. I hope it will hold up.

Thanks, I do 30 mins too. After 3 coats I smooth it with a heated iron, then sand w 600 paper, apply another coat, wait 24 hours then sand and apply another coat, then buff.

With the risk of going off topic, which I can do as I started the thread: Kids are no different today than they were 35 years ago, or 100 years ago or 500 years ago. Parents, school, society etc just treats them like the adults that they're not, which messes them up. That's the short version, I could go on about this but this is a leather forum.... Even shorter version: Yeah, you're right.

Yeah, for the Giardini the edges should be rough with no bevels. Then the first layer will stick better. But what drying times do you use?

Here's something I stumbled upon yesterday regarding exactly this: https://theconversation.com/when-hand-crafted-is-really-just-crafty-marketing-47749 I think that's appropriate, and even more in tune with today's trend than 'handmade'.

No problem, it's what I'm here for. I purposely don't want to comment on your posts above as I want to hear from other people, and my views are present in the thread (ahem) anyway. But don't bring up stitching irons, that's another pet peeve of mine...

So the artist made a machine made painting? I'm not so sure many people would agree on that but it's your view and you're entitled to it.

No I'm not, value isn't part of my post, it's about whether we should classify the work/product after how the material was made. The value is discussed elsewhere above.

Does it matter? So a machine makes a canvas, and another makes a brush, is the art then machine made? Most would credit the artist for making the painting. But if the same artist designs something in Illustrator and then print it out on a printer, did he then make a painting?

This discussion has been great for me, as in kind of changing my views on things a bit. Per definition, if someone uses a sewing machine on any item, that item is not handmade. Not to a 100%, whatever you say about all the other steps in the process. But reading the replies in this thread I now do think it might be OK in certain cases. But how to quantify and draw a limit? Is it handmade if machines are used for 10% or less of the SCOPE of a project? Or 10% or less of the TIME taken on a project? Or 49%? Or is it due to the look of it, like mentioned above where a machine stitch was used for all hidden seams and hand stitching was used for the visible seams? Like YinTx says, it's difficult to the point of impossible to set a limit once you stray from the 'all or nothing' mindset. I think it would be up to the customer to observe and understand and to the maker to present and market honestly (like not saying it's saddle stitched when it's lock stitched for example). Personally I think it's OK to say a carved long wallet or MC seat is hand made even if machine sewn, but calling a simple cardholder -where there's four pieces sewn together by machine and then machine edged- handmade is stretching it too much no matter how many hands were guiding the machines.

Yes, that's what I tried to convey above in the woodworking comparison. While electrical tools are used they're still just tools allowing YOU to do the work better, while the sewing machine does the work for you.

Actually, the number one complaint I hear from all kinds of people is that their wallet is breaking apart. And it's always the seams, whether it's a cheap Chinese/Indian/whathaveyou or luxuriuos LV wallet. But I do get your point, it's not safety related like with saddles. Unless you're James Bond or in some kind of a freak accident...

Thanks. That would be great, but I don't know, kids these days have too much going on all the time. But at the moment I'm a leatherworking hero to him and his family...

+1. The 3 Bs: Blade, Boomstick and Bushcraft. To build skills and a respect for nature, should be required in all schools up to college. Then mandatory military service.

Awesome! Nicely done sir, do you have the pattern for download somewhere? Seriously though, the real one is great, good job!

Thanks!