Ryan Barto

I absolutely love the smell too. My day job is in a shoe store, and every day I hear ladies mention the smell as soon as they walk in the door. The funny thing is, the shoe store smell is much more rubber than it is leather smell (the store doesn't sell synthetic leather shoes, though). Every time I get a new shipment of hides, the first thing I do before I even unroll it is take a big whiff of that amazing aroma. Also, I found these a while ago, but I never bought one. I wonder how close the smell is to real leather. It is a candle company called "Man Cans." They make candles that would appeal to men. The leather one is called "New Mitt." http://man-cans.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=55

I prefer to use diamond stitching chisels to punch the holes and then saddle stitch. I did use a stitching awl to individually punch the holes in the past, but I had a real tough time getting the back of my stitching to stay as straight as the front. The chisels improved my stitching greatly. I have a lot of respect for those who have taken the time to learn to keep their awl straight though, and some day I'll be able to teach myself. For now, I'm able to get the results I like with the chisels.

Nicely done! I'm glad my post got the gears turning on some new ideas for these.

Thanks everyone for the compliments. Bluesman, I agree with you about the knob catching the string. I'm not concerned about it, since as you said, it wouldn't be much of an issue with shorter items like wallets and that is all I plan on stitching right now. I don't have any plans on selling these as the cost of shipping would skyrocket the price, but they are extremely easy to make with a miter box, saw, and electric drill. Parts list: 1x4 Pine board - 6 foot 3" brass door hinge (item 308904 at lowes comes with the perfect length screws and is the cheapest one I could find) Utility compression spring #224 5/16"-18 Bar Knob (found in the "hard to find" drawers in the nuts and bolts section) 5/16"-18 4" Carriage Bolt 5/16" Fender Washer 5/16"-18 hex nut 2" wood screws (I needed 6) 1" wood screws (I used 4) Pack of .75" upholstery nails 2/3 oz leather cut to 3.5" x 9" Find out how tall you want the arms of the clamp. I'm a relatively tall guy and made mine 18" tall. (Much taller and you may need to buy an 8' board). The Base is 16" long, the two pieces between the arms at the base are 3.5" tall each and the angled pieces that make the clamp at the top of the arms are 3" each. The spring goes over the bolt in between the arms and the hex nut gets screwed the entire way down the bolt before sliding the bolt through in order to have the right length sicking out for the handle to clamp securely. The hole for the tightening bolt is about 7" up the arms from the base. I think with those measurements, everyone should be able to figure out how to put it together. Just remember that the arm with hinge the needs to be able to swing, so only attach it to the unit through the hinge. Everything else is glued down to the base with contact cement (what I had available) and then screwed down. The angled jaw pieces at the top of the arms are screwed to the arm with the 1" screws. Screw them in through the outside to keep the screw head from making marks on what you are clamping. The best part about this is that you can make it exactly the height you need to keep your back from hurting. I hope this info helps anyone who wants to make one and if any of it doesn't make sense, just let me know. Thanks, Ryan

Finally got around to making my own stitching pony. The small one that I bought from Tandy a few years ago just wasn't cutting it anymore. This one is just the right height for me, so I can clamp it to the top of my work bench and stitch standing up or sit with it under my legs and have it right at chest level. No more sore back from stooping or hunching over. I bought everything in 1 trip to Lowes (the leather was 2/3oz that I had lying around). Total cost was less than $25 and took me about 2 hours with a hand saw and miter box. I chose not to seal it because I'm lazy.

For the awl: I use an Osborne straight awl blade (1 3/4") that I bought from Springfield Leather, inserted into a peg awl haft, also from Springfield. It does well for me, but I did feel that it just wasn't sharp enough when I first bought it, so I sharpened it real good and now I just polish it. I have heard a lot of people on here say that Bob Douglas makes the best awl blades you can buy. I don't have one, so I can't tell you how they are or how much they cost. I do plan on trying to get my hands on one eventually though. As to your two requirements (versatile and simple), I don't think it can get more simple than than the one I'm using. As to versatile, I just can't get a clean stitch without it, and I use it when I stitch everything. I've been testing out using my awl blade in a drill press (turned off, of course) to keep my stitches straight on both sides of my project. I stacked up a couple sheets of cork to keep the blade from hitting the drill press table. So far it has worked well, but I've only tried it on one project. For sharpening your edge beveler, I use the method that is shown here: I have only sharpened one size of beveler so far, so I didn't glue the lace down like he does in the video, I just put jewelers rouge on a piece of lace, and hold it down tight to the table between my thumb and pointer finger and strop with short strokes (make sure you don't rotate the handle up or you'll mess up your edge, but he explains that in the video). I'll need to make a strop like he has in the video now that I have multiple sizes of bevelers, I just havn't gotten around to it yet.Hope this helps, Ryan

Like Iron Pounder suggested, I also suggest trying Inkscape. It took me about 4 hours to get through the learning curve, but now I am designing wallet patterns with it. I absolutely love it, and I can print them out, tape down the paper to my leather and cut along the line. Its working really well for me, especially when prototyping a new design. I build a paper version of the item before I try cutting the leather. The link is: Inkscape.org -Ryan

Not sure how many you need, but Tandy offers them in their 2012 catalog on page 108. Looks like there are a few types to choose from, but they all have minimum quantities. They list them as "Name Plates" and "Maker's Plate." -Ryan

Hopefully this can help you a bit. Springfield carries a 6 hook one here: http://springfieldle...%2C6-Hook%2CGp/ Ohio Travel Bag shows the same one as Springfield, but with options of either 6 or 8 keys (found on page 63 of their hardware catalog). The picture you've posted looks pretty close to this key holder, and I'd imagine that you would mount it upside down, with the hinge of the plate at the edge of the leather, and then flip the hooks back down on the hinge to lay inside the case. I hope this is what you were looking for. -Ryan

This is awesome! My favorite pair of shoes (the Desert Trek) looks way too similar to this "Oldest Leather Shoe." -Ryan

I thought I had purchased a veg tanned shoulder, but it turned out to be a piece of hair on hide. Its no wonder I can never get any work done. -Ryan

Thank you so very much! It'll be awhile until I can get set up to work on leather again, but someone at the Tandy store in Austin, TX told me to just call around to all the Tandy shops to see if they still had a copy of this pattern (which was unlikely). I got tired after calling a handful and couldn't find a digital copy online anywhere. This is awesome! -Ryan

I purchased the small skin, and am very impressed with it. If I had use for it, I'd buy the larger one too, but I figured I'd come back on this topic and let everyone know that the smaller skin was great. With the quality, the larger one would be an excellent deal. -Ryan

I'll take the small one off your hands. Pm me with the price with shipping and how you'd like me to get the money to you, and I'll send payment quickly. Thanks, Ryan

I have looked over the forum for quite a while to make sure that this wasn't already posted, sorry if I missed it. I recently purchased a few latigo leather straps and am probably going to go back for some more soon, but I'm wondering really how cost effective it would be to purchase a side and cut it myself. I'd need to buy a strap cutter, but even when not figuring cost of tools into the equation, I'm guessing that a full side is the best way to go, but if it only saves a few pennies to a full strap, I'm not sure the hassle would be worth it for a small hobbyist. Hypothetically, lets say a side costs $175. 1" Straps are $9 for 72". So $175 worth of precut straps would be less than 1440". That's 10sq ft. Looks like the side is a pretty sweet deal to me, but I'm not sure how much of a side is "belly" leather, which I have read is too stretchy for straps. I know the belly could be used for other projects, but for this scenario, I'm just assuming it being waste. What are you guys' take on this? For anyone who cuts their own from sides, how many straps and what total length would you average from a side? Thanks, Ryan

I know I'm bringing back an older topic here, but i gotta say these instructions were awesome. I've got everything done except the turkshead. I did have one about 3/4 completed, until I hit the end of an 8 ft. piece of lace and realized that I was using 3/32 instead of 3/16. No wonder it was taking so long to braid, lol. It'll be awhile until I get to place another order of leather, but when I do, I'll make sure that I post pictures. Thank you for the great instructions for this.

Thanks for the info, I'll let everyone know how it goes. I'm sure it'll be awhile until I can get the funds for this project, but once it's done, I'll post pictures and info on the fur.

Can anyone tell me if there is an easy way to dye fur? I'm mainly looking at dyeing rabbit fur to black. Has anyone had any experience with this that they could share? I was thinking of trying either Rit fabric dye or hair dye, but I'm not sure if either will work. Thanks.