footrat

I peen with the flat of the rivet directly on my granite slab. For thick folds, such as around buckles and whatnot, the alignment is tougher, so I might have to hang part of the piece off the edge of the slab to make sure I'm still setting and peening straight up and down. Any odd angles will make thick leather shift and lead to bent shafts on the rivets. You'll end up with the flat of the rivet digging in on one edge and sitting high on the other.

That is a beautiful stitching punch.

I use synthetic wool daubers from Tandy. Big bag of about 100. I wait until I have several pieces to oil, and one dauber usually fares well for the entire lot. The rough sides of leather will usually smash the dauber down so it's not as fluffy and absorbent, but it still works fine. What I make is expected to last years in the hardest environments (structural firefighting), so I use heavy harness leather, and I oil the crap out of it. I oil it front and back until it won't hold any more, and I also oil the edges. Then I rub it down with Aussie Leather Conditioner to hold the oil in.

I use 1" #12's, and I drive the setter with a 16 oz. framing hammer. The striking surface of my setter has mushroomed down a LOT. I peen with a ball pein hammer, and then dome again using the setter/doming tool. I finish by flattening the top of the dome with the framing hammer.

I hate messing up with copper rivets, but they are all I use. They hold better than stitching for what I make. The three or four times I've had to remove a copper rivet, the easiest way was to drill it out.

I wear nitrile gloves when applying Aussie, and I do it by hand. I get just a little bit at a time, enough to do a few inches. The gloves don't hold the product, so I lose almost none. When I'm done, I come back and wipe it down with a rag to get any excess off. By the way, Aussie is mostly beeswax, petroleum jelly, and a petroleum distillate like naptha to keep it thin. Once the petroleum products evaporate, you're left with a mostly beeswax finish.

I buy hardware from two different places. When I want solid brass, I buy from buckleguy.com. When I need something else, I usually go to Ryan's Products. Both have done a great job at shipping a lot of hardware quickly and accurately. If you go through Ryan's, opt for USPS priority. It isn't added at checkout, but instead later before actually shipping the stuff. It's way cheaper than UPS.

What did the original leather look like, color wise, before stamping and darkening oil?

I use a rubber mallet for strap end, oblong hole, and button hole punches. I use a framing hammer for letter/number stamps and for driving the burr on copper rivets. I use the ball of a ball pein hammer to peen the copper post over the burr, and the face of the framing hammer again to drive the doming tool and to flatten the dome. I use a poly mallet for tooling only. It is THE least used striking tool on my bench. Use what works.

I like a waxy feel, so even on domestic stuff, I use Aussie Leather Conditioner. It's basically beeswax and petroleum jelly, with probably naptha to thin things. Once the petroleum distillates evaporate, you're left with a durable waxy finish that lasts a while. It's not permanent, though, and use will wear it off. It does very slightly darken the leather, but so does oiling it. I do both.

My problem with snaps is that I only work with about 13 oz. leather, either harness or saddle skirting. It's almost impossible to properly set a line 24 snap in that thickness because there's not enough post above the snap to roll over. I've had to skive areas down that I would otherwise leave full thickness. Now I just use long Chicago screws.

I've always wondered how guys paint the lettering so cleanly. what's the trick?

I would definitely sand or otherwise slick the flesh side down a lot more than in that picture. If you plan on making more than one of these, do yourself a favor and make the crown mold from a block of wood. You can wet form over it, and then tack the leather to the block to prevent uneven shrinkage or movement as it dries. If you were doing felt hats, you could use something else that would mold easier to an existing crown for the pattern. But a wood mold would be best for this, so you can really stretch the leather against it.

I don't just pull on the handle. I also push on the head. I'm a lefty, so my left hand controls the handle pitch and yaw, while the right thumb pushes on the head. The outside sides of my hands stay planted on the leather, keeping it still while the skiver moves. I skive my straps where they fold or have to double or triple up in thickness, so I want a nice, even skive across the width of the strap, with a "scooped" look to the skive down the length of the strap. I could never do that by using only one hand for control. The handle of the skiver is often NOT in line with the direction of the cut, but angled just to the side. At the edges of the strap, this makes the blade contact as little leather as possible, reducing the drag and the force needed for the cut. There are several big problems I run into with the Super Skiver. Firstly, the blade ends up bent convexly. This makes a deeper cut in the center of the tool head than toward the outsides. Just something that has to be worked around if you want your skiving completely smooth across the piece, instead of cut concavely in the center. Secondly, the blade is angled very aggressively down from the head. This makes the blade bite harder into the leather, increasing drag, and often taking too deep a cut. It also leaves a gap between the head and the blade where little pieces of leather pack in and push the blade FURTHER from the head. I have to stop from time to time and clean that out. I change blades when it's apparent that poor cutting is due to dullness, and not due to bad blade angle or crud between the blade and tool head. If I wanted to strop things, I wouldn't own a tool with disposable blades. I'd throw down on a good skiving knife that would last for decades. I don't want to strop things right now, so I stick with disposables. I've never wet-skived. I've wet-edge-beveled, and I didn't like it as much as dry. I might have to try this. Remember, however, that if you wet a piece and then turn it grain-down on a cutting board so you can skive it, you're going to texture the grain side with the board, or whatever is down there.

I use the Super Skiver, and a sharp blade is critical. Cleaning bits of leather out from between the blade and knife is important, too, otherwise you end up changing the blade angle against the leather, and it digs in harder than normal. For me, it's a two-handed motion, with my left hand (I'm left handed) pulling the handle, and the right hand holding down the piece and pushing on the head of the skiver. In this manner, I get more control, and can lift up out of the skiving where I want. I use saddle skirting, so have to skive almost everything at some point, mostly to make folds, or to make a piece of leather thinner in one spot so the layers don't add up so much.

Ryans Products is where I buy my hardware. http://store.ryansproducts.com/1brtrsnhowsq.html

I use nothing but copper rivets to assemble my products. Some of my rivets end up going through 3 layers of 13 oz. skirting leather. When you've got that much mushy stuff between the flat part of the rivet and the burr, if you start peening aggressively right off the bat, you're going to cause the rivet to bend in the middle. This in turn pushes all the layers of leather in directions you didn't want them going, misaligns other holes that were lined up, and makes it nearly impossible to get a nicely peened head. Like others said, appropriate trim height is critical. You CAN cut too long and it still work, but you'll end up with a very tall dome on the peened rivet. If you cut too short, it can be impossible to peen the rivet without driving it back through the burr. You'll get a feel for it. If you're driving one side of the rivet back through the burr, you're likely bending the rivet somewhere, either because your strikes are off-kilter, or because you're going too hard, too fast. Also like mentioned above, I use the ball side of a ball pien hammer, and start gently peening around the edges. Even if the burr starts riding up off its seated position, if you peen evenly and slowly, the peened rivet will drive the burr back down tightly against the leather. When I've got a nice little peened dome using the hammer, I make it pretty and smooth by using the doming tool on the Tandy copper rivet tool. Then, I add one more touch by flattening the top of the dome with the smooth face of a hammer. So, it's a round dome with a flattened top. I use a granite slab for my impact surface. I've never had so much as a chip while using it. It's a scrap piece of countertop, and it's heavy duty. While my whole workbench is bomb-proof, I still make sure to use the slab over a corner, so the force from the hammer is transmitted to the rivet, not to the middle of the table, which still flexes ever so slightly when pounded. It's key that the flat side of the rivet be flush with the impact surface, not tilted. If your leather is heavy and stiff, like when you fold skirting leather, you might have to clamp it in place until you can get the first rivet peened. Cheap, but strong, alligator-style clamps from Home Depot are the best. The jaws are flat and smooth, have rubber covers, and they're strong. I also don't bother with mallets when doing rivets. The rivet setter is cheap enough that I consider it semi-disposable. I use a 16 oz. claw hammer on it. I only use the ball pien to peen the rivets, and the claw hammer for setting burrs and smoothing/flattening the dome.

Airbrush.

I have this issue with Fiebing's oil dye, too. Any cut ends or punched holes are lighter around the area. Repeated dying fixes it. My best guess is that cutting and punching compresses the fibers and makes it harder for dye to penetrate.

If your department REQUIRES everything be NFPA, do they also require you keep the goggles mounted to the helmet? Do they replace your helmets every 6 years or less? Do they inspect every piece of PPE for any damage that would preclude an NFPA rating? If not, they've got no leg on which to stand. I wear a Houston, but it doesn't have goggles. Same helmet, no NFPA. I'm buying a New Yorker next time.

I dye the backs. I also use two or more coats of my finish- either Fiebing's Saddle Lac or Fiebing's Resolene 50/50. If you decide not to dye the backs, make sure you're careful when dying edges, holes, and buckle tongue slots so you don't end up with anything running over to the other side.

Veg tanned leather works fine for constant contact on any firearm that's been finished with a ferritic nitrocarburizing. For instance, the Tenifer finish on factory Glock slides, or anything that's been Melonited. Likewise, anything that's been Parkerized (Glock parks their slides on top of the Tenifer, as a cosmetic finish over the protective coat), or anything that's had a ceramic or moly resin finish applied will have no problems with constant contact with veg tanned leather. As anecdotal evidence, I have a Glock 19 and a Glock 26 that have been holstered in veg tanned leather every day and night for 8 and 6 years, respectively. No issues, even where there's holster or other wear. Just don't use open cell foam under the leather. It's always a good idea to throw a desiccant pack in any firearm box or case that will store a firearm for a while.

All the research I've done says that the vinegar will remove any oil or other coating that prevents rust. This information comes from several websites selling chemistry equipment to schools and labs for educational experiments.

EcoFlo is a gel. It's water-based, so water will remove it if it's not sealed.

fdhelmets.com makes a leather parade helmet. As does D'alesio Group. And Handtubs, who also are one of the biggest dealers for Phenix leather helmets. Royce Shields used to have a website up for their offering, which was the one that accepted a 1010 shell. The website is down now, so I don't know if they're still doing them. They also sold a lot of leather shields and belts, which seemed to be their primary business. I talked in person with the guy about his helmets at the South Carolina Firefighters Convention last year, and I wish I'd had the money to buy one at the time. They were phenomenal. The filigree was depressed into the leather, instead of raised like a Cairns, but otherwise looked and felt like a New Yorker on the outside. I didn't put one on, but I'd imagine they rode well. As far as NFPA approval, it takes a LOT. While he believed (as do I, looking at the helmet) that his lids would pass, it takes the destruction of so many of them to pass NFPA testing that a small business would be crippled by the approval process. I can say this- his lids were traditionally made leather outside with a carbon fiber shell inside to support it, and the 1010 impact cap and suspension. I can't see why that wouldn't pass. I'd trust it without NFPA written inside.