Northmount

I agree, this has gone on long enough, thread is now locked Tom

When tooling, I have found that a good beveler makes a huge difference in being able to smooth out the beveled lines and avoid the choppiness. My best beveler is one I bought from Tandy back in 1961. It has the proper shape to the toe and the bottom. Many of the craftool stuff produced over the past several years do not have the correct shape. So getting a few (how do you stop at a few?) good tools can make a world of difference. A good sharp swivel knife is requisite to making smooth cuts. The knife needs to fit your hand and be comfortable. A simple rolled "U" for your finger is not comfortable. The edges need to be rounded and the "U" shaped to fit around your finger. And you need to learn how to sharpen and strop the knife to keep it cutting smoothly and neatly. The proper method of casing makes lots of difference to both the swivel knife cuts and and to stamp impressions. I learned by myself for the most part. The first efforts at tooling were pretty bad, mostly because the leather was too wet. Once I got past that, things began to improve substantially. And as mentioned before, practice, practice, practice. Buy a bag of scrap vegtan leather and use it up, then go get a couple more bags and make some small useful projects. If you wreck something, it won't be a big loss; you can toss it, or keep it for reference for a while so you can look back and see what didn't work, and the improvements in the next projects. Good luck with your endeavors. Tom

Really great job. I want to see more! Tom

Pretty nice, great job. Your customers will love them. Tom

If the crack goes right through, stick a vacuum cleaner up against one side, add good quality wood glue to the other side, and suck it through until is shows on the vacuum side. Them clamp it tight for a couple hours. Another way is to drill a small hole and inject the glue with a syringe. Tom

Interesting. Welcome to the forum, hope to see you around frequently. Tom

That's really great news. Good luck Tom

Great to see you are back at it again. We'll be watching your work closely. I'm really looking forward to seeing your progress. Tom

Moved to "Marketplace > Items For Sale > Machinery -- Sewing and Stitching > Used" Tom

Pages 13 and 14 of Al Stohlman's Pictorial Carving has some examples. Bark is done with a modeling tool. You can purchase a download this booklet from Tandy. Page 46 of Al Stohlman's How to Carve Leather has a similar illustration. Also available from Tandy. Both of these booklets are good reference material and have lots of western figure carving patterns. Tom

Bruce Grants Encyclopedia of Rawhide and Leather Braiding, page 273. Tom

A photo might help us understand what you are seeing. Tom

Wooden mallet also sheds fibres that drop onto your work and may get stamped into the leather if you don't notice in time. So I stay away from wood. You can cut a thin layer off the face of wood or rawhide to square up the face after it has become all beat up. Tom

Welcome from another Calgarian. What are your main interests? Carving and tooling, bags, saddles, ... Looking forward to hearing more from you soon. Tom

Steel rule dies are not suitable for use as mallet dies. But you can use an arbor press with a couple pieces of 3/8" or thicker steel plate to spread the force. The larger the die, the stronger press you need to use. (and maybe more bites to be able to cut longer or wider pieces) Standard index card size die is easy to use with a 1 ton arbor press as an example of force required for size. Tom

Doug - Took me a while to find it! Sorry, that thread was locked. Here is a pic. Tom

If you do a search for "mallet die" (including the quotes) you'll find a few threads with a little information including a supplier. Tom

Same sort of thing happened to me. Have to keep the object you are sewing flat, perpendicular to the needle. If you lift the left edge, stitching on the back moves closer to the edge. I built a flat table adapter, problem gone. Tom

You can add a flat bed adapter to a cylinder arm machine to use it as a flat bed. But you can't convert a flatbed to a cylinder arm. Nice to be able to reach inside to do purses, bags, etc. Domestics are just that. For leather, get an industrial machine that has been setup for leather. Tom

Motors lose torque at low speeds. So if you are trying to punch through thick or hard temper leather a stitch at a time going around a tight curve, the motor is going too slow to produce the torque needed. The addition of a speed reduce set of pulleys gets the motor speed back up, and increases the torque available to your machine. If a speed reduce is 4:1 speed reduction, it will give you a 4x torque amplification besides the increased available motor torque due to its higher speed. Tom

In addition to the comments above, servo motors normally have a brake. When the pedal is completely released, the servo motor's brake is on, so yes it is even harder to turn against the brake. Press the pedal slightly to release the brake. There is another thread of posts about disconnecting or removing the brake if it is not needed. Typically for most of us, we go slow so don't really need the brake. Tom

Great stuff! Tom

Have you tried changing the needle? Tom

I try to always stitch the ends down instead of using the end stops. But it depends on your project. I have also found that when making a zippered folder, measure and start attaching the zipper in the middle on both covers, and working both directions to avoid having a twisted folder when finished. Use double sided tape or lots of clips to keep it all in place while doing the final assembly and stitching. Tom

I tested three different types of contact cement. Tanners came out the best, and even developed greater strength as it cured over several more days. I have 2 BB playbook cases with Kydex clips I fabricated that have been in use for about a year now. No indication of anything coming apart yet. Don't forget to rough up the plastic and the grain side of the leather it is being attached to. Tom