Bob Blea

Brian, you are motivated and now you have tools, so that's a good place to start. Here's some advice I was given when I was starting off carving. Start with a simple carving pattern and some scrap leather. I was using a craftaid floral corner design. Carve and tool that design, then take a good look at what you've made and decide what you like and don't like. Then, make another of the same thing. Repeat that process five times. You will find your work has improved tremendously by the time you do it the fifth time. Also, in case you haven't run across this recommendation yet, make sure your swivel knife is sharp. If yours is a Tandy knife they don't come from the store as sharp as you need. Good luck and post pictures, we'll be glad to help you out. Bob

Hello Sjohnsone, I think I can describe how to do this, at least how I do it. Measure your book and find it's height, width and thickness. Each cover will be the height and width plus some margin for sewing, lacing, etc, plus the thickness of the leather. Around the top, bottom and side you will want to allow 1/2 inch to (preferably) 3/4 inch on each side for sewing or lacing. Along the spine allow 1/8 inch for the thickness of the leather. This is how you make each side of the cover. To make the spine use the same height as the front and back cover. The spine part width will be the thickness of the book plus 1/8 inch on each side to allow for the thickness of the leather. Add that all together and you have the size of the veg tan cover. The liner pieces will be the same size but if I understand what you are doing, you will make pockets in the front and back to hold your book. Hope this makes sense. I don't have a picture handy of this but could make one if it will help. Bob

Very impressive for a first project! That's jumping off the deep end. My first project was a checkbook, and it didn't look that good. Bob

Nice saddle, I like the border you used on it. Bob

Great looking saddle bags! Bob

Thanks gentlemen!

Thanks Jazznow!

Thank you Benlilly and keplerts, I enjoyed doing it. I'm going to start making other clutch purses, this one went over so well. Bob

Hello all, This was a clutch purse I made for a customer recently. She had a floral belt that she liked and wanted a similar design on the purse. The belt was just a flowing design with leaves done in the Sheridan style, so I came up with a purse design that was the same kind of leaf. The interior is a Tandy kit. She had seen a similar purse my wife had made and wanted that specific interior, so I ended up using the Tandy kit guts with my own leather exterior. I also used round holes for the lacing just to match the ones pre-punched in the interior. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and my customer was thrilled with it. She was raving about all the detail. Thanks for looking and any comments or critiques are welcome. Bob

Hi Dave, I've never made a seat myself so I am not talking from experience, but I will take a stab at this. I would dye the seat and then buff it until I was not getting any more rub off from the dye. Then I would apply the acrylic paint details, then I would seal it with Resolene. Once you have done all that I don't think you will need to worry about dye rubbing off, but maybe I'm overlooking something. Bob

The most recent issue of the Leather Crafters and Saddlers Journal had an article on resizing cowboy boots, though I'm not sure it will help you with what your after. In that article the boot maker took them apart and made them smaller, I believe. Bob

Those look great! And congratulations on all that business. Having repeat customers is the best sign of success! Bob

Where are you located? In the US, Springfield Leather or Sheridan Leather Outfitters (both sponsors here) can provide whatever you need. Bob

Thomas, I can recommend visiting either of the trade shows put on by the Leather Crafters and Saddlers Journal: http://leathercraftersjournal.com/tradeshows.html I have taken classes the past few years at the Sheridan show and found them very helpful. They have many options for classes on different specialties by some of the best in the business. Bob

Hello Sassy1, and welcome to the forum. I have heard the same thing and I knew I had seen some discussions on here regarding using chrone tanned leathers around metals. I did a little searching and found a couple of discussions in the holser making groups. This one seemed to have a pretty good discussion of the issue. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=14710&hl=+chrome%20+tan%20+lining%20+leather#entry90483 Since you are likely to store a knife in a sheath, sounds like the chrome tanned leather would be a bad choice long term. Bob

I'll throw in a plug for Barry King tools. He has a recommended size list on this site: http://www.barrykingtools.com/sizelist.htm. Bob

Thanks for the compliment, but I've still got a long way to go. My carving skills are starting to get good but I've got a lot to learn when it comes to construction! Posts like this really help me learn too. Bob

Unfortunately I'm seeing this trend in American business more and more lately. It's a drive to increase profits or increase share price at the expense of all else, to the point of destroying a company in the pursuit of short term gain for a few individuals. It's a trend I hope to see come to an end in the near future, but it probably won't end soon and won't end well.... Bob

Thanks, I see why now. It's still wet formed. That would be tough to burnish. Bob

Forgive my ignorance and I don't have my copy of the book handy, but would it be possible to trim the flap before assembly? That way you could trim it on a cutting surface while clear of the bottom part, and probably burnish it easier too. Not sure if that is possible here or not... Bob

I can recommend Jerry VanAmburg, http://vanamburgleather.com/leathers/. He's a great guy to work with. Bob

Hi Robert, Speaking as one of those with shrinking arms, I can understand what your dealing with. A couple of suggestions. Move your overhead lamp so it is located behind your head and (if you are right handed) to your left, so the light can get in under the hand holding the stamp. On occasion, I have used a led light on a headband to get light right on the tool so I can see exactly where it goes. I do this when I have a stamp (like a box stamp) that is really tricky to line up, when I'm making my very first row of angled basket weaves, etc. When you are making a row of basket stamps, how do you orient yourself to the stamp and the row you are stamping? I try to always orient my work piece so I can see the longest side of the basket weave stamp but also see the short end. I place the stamp, and then take a good look at how it is oriented compared to the one next to it (on the side) and the one behind it. If I like the way it sits, then I hit it, otherwise I try to tweak it a bit till the angles look right. I'm not very fast this way, but I can usually get a big basket weaved area to look straight. Another thing I suggest, don't completely overlap the legs of the basket stamp with the previous stamp. I don't know a good way to describe this, so I drew a crude picture: This shows the second stamp (in red) spaced just a bit away from the center bar of the basket weave. This gives you some wiggle room as you stamp, so you don't end up having your rows of stamps compressing in on each other. If you try to put the end of the leg of the next stamp right up against the bar, you will end up having rows that are too tight and won't fit. It's just not humanly possible to stamp that precisely. The little extra allowance lets you adjust things if you start getting out of alignment or get too close together, and stop it before it becomes a problem. It's your room for error. The trick is to always try and stamp with that same little bit of extra allowance. Hope this makes sense. Also, when I first start off making that first row of any kind of geometric stamp, I take lots of time and make sure that row is straight. I always have a guideline down on the leather as a reference, and I make sure that first row lines up it as perfectly as I can. That first row will be a baseline I reference all other stamps to, so I want it to be a good as I can get it. As I work, I take a break and look the whole thing over again, and sometimes put a straight edge down so I can accurately tell how I'm doing. If I am getting wavy, I try to use my wiggle room (as mentioned above) to straighten it back out. I haven't quite mastered that yet, but I'm getting there. Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have questions. This can be a really hard thing to do and make it look good. Bob

Looks like he's got a new way to convert a leather sofa into a saddle.

No problem, I didn't think you were saying I was doing anything wrong. If there is difference in how we go about casing, I think it's slight and we probably both end up at the same destination. Maybe my way is a little quicker, but it might not be. But we both end up with a well cased piece of leather in the end. I'm no expert, that's why I hang around here, so I can learn. Thanks again. Bob

I don't know that I buy the argument that you need to soak it in water until all the bubbles stop. The idea is to get the fibers of the leather rehydrated which takes time, hence why you case leather. The bubbles just represent air trapped between the fibers in the leather, but they don't mean that there isn't already enough water in the leather to fully rehydrate the fibers. To my thinking if the leather has already reached the wet noodle stage and is dripping water, it has enough to fully rehydrate everything as it sits overnight and the water fully soaks in. I get bubbles coming out of the leather even once it is out of the casing bath, which suggests to me that the air bubbles are a result of the fibers swelling as they take on water not just water pressure forcing air out. The fact that we have to wait many hours for the leather to return to normal color tells me that there is more than enough moisture to fully hydrate the leather. At least that's my theory. Like I said before, there are many great leather workers out there that do dip them till the bubbles stop, and they do great work. Bob