Bob Blea

Mike, you've come an amazing way in just three years. I've been at this seven or so years and haven't come as far as you have. For my part, here's a few items. The first is a checkbook cover from a Tandy kit that was my first leather project, and I still use it. The second is the back of a notebook that was one of my first attempts using a geometric, and it wandered a bit. I got much better at those by the third picture, and a lot better at floral in the last two. The purse was just earlier this year and was my first attempt at building one of those from scratch. I still have a long way to go and this site has been invaluable in my learning and development. I too am very thankful for all the help I've received from others here over the years. Bob

Very impressive!

Excellent! They look great. I've wanted to make myself some type of leather armor for a long time. Someday..... Keep posting as you go along. It will be very inspirational to see this come together.

That looks first class Chief!! Nice work!

It looks great Mike! I love the detail in the folds of the clothing. Background looks great too.

I think only the fires of Mt Doom could destroy the Robert Beard tools.

You made an incredible find. I'm thankful you were there to keep these from being scrapped. Keep them all. Your grandkids will inherit those Beard tools and they will still look as good as they do now no matter how much you use them.

I'm pretty sure you can get the hemostats / clamps at Harbor Freight. I know hobby shops usually carry them because they are very handy for building models.

Very nice work. I love the blueprint case.

I should have mentioned, if you use Fiebings Antique, you can do the same thing by wiping it with Tan Kote. I've seen it remove darkened streaks in antique very easily and leave a finish just like you your picture. So whichever product you use for antiquing, there is a way to wipe it back off and get a very smooth effect on the untooled leather. Also I should add that both wallets in my picture are a little darkened but that is mainly because the leather I was using had a bit of russet coloring to it plus I oiled them with Neatsfoot, which darkens them slightly.

I can get this kind of effect just with a couple of coats of resist (Wyosheen) and a coat of Eco Flo gel antique that I quickly wipe off. I've started wiping with unscented baby wipes to remove excess because it seems to do a good job removing streaks. The two wallet pieces below were both antiqued that way.

I guess you now know the next area of bag construction you are going to work on!

I think those all look very professional. I'm sure your wife is very proud of that bag.

That looks great!

I remember your original post too. Thanks for taking the time to post these pictures. It's great to see them.

For a first time stitching I don't think your work looks bad at all. You might be right about too big of holes, it's a little hard for me to tell. Thanks for sharing the pages from the home course. That looks like a treasure to me but then I love old books.

I always put a very light coating of oil on my notebooks after tooling. I don't find that my leather gets noticeable softer unless I put a lot of oil, and since I keep it very light they seem to hold the same firmness over time. I just put a little warmed neatsfoot oil on a cotton ball and gently rub it over the piece and then let it set, usually overnight. The leather returns to nearly the same color the next day. If the leather darkens significantly and stays that way, you've used too much.

Bob Park sells refillable pens that are basically large felt tip markers. You can put your dye in the pen and use that to dye the edges. I don't do this very often (read almost never) because I lace my items but if I was to do this often it's probably how I would do it. There are times that I want to darken the leather under the lacing so it doesn't contrast with the lacing when/if it shows through and to do that I use a sharpie. It works well and I find it very easy to control.

Hello Joanna, and welcome to the forum! A general rule of thumb is that you was to cut about half way through whatever leather you are using, so on thin leather you can't cut very deep nor can you get the deep tooling relief that you will on thick 8-10 oz. leather. I typically tool on around 4 oz. leather but I have done a little thinner. What weight of leather are you using? The knife does make a big difference. It needs to be very sharp to make good cuts. If it is a Tandy knife it likely didn't come sharp enough to cut well. At the very least you will want to strop it regularly to keep the cutting edge polished so it will cut better. The Leather Tools section has some tips on sharpening in general and there is some very good information there. Keeping a swivel knife sharp is a definite skill and one worth learning, but it does take effort to learn. Bob

Something else to consider: You could go with a softer leather to get a more luxurious feel if you use a stiffener behind it (say a thin sheet of plastic or cardboard) and then line the inside with another layer of leather.

Hi Andy, It would be hard to select a leather like that for a project without having a sample to gauge the feel and firmness for it. Have you tried contacting Tannery Row or Wickett and Craig to see if they can send out samples? Usually they will have small pieces of leather they can send that you can use to decide if it meets your requirements. Springfield would probably be happy to do the same. And of course if you have a Tandy nearby you can visit them and inspect the leather, though I don't know what they have that would be like this. I make notebooks like that but I've never tried to use that sort of leather, just veg tan.

I would be curious how to do this too. Do you need to remove the decorative trim around the edges to secure the leather beneath them? Springfield Leather probably can provide the leather you need. What kind of leather are you looking to use? Will it need to be tooled?

It looks very good! I like how you finished your edges. May I ask how they were done?

For all the struggles I think it turned out very well. You're right it was a great learning experience.

Nice collection! I think the tool you were asking about is a Tandy stitch groover, but a close up picture would help. That home study course looks amazing. It would be cool to see what is inside.