Glendon

I would agree with Chavez completely. I would suggest investing in the 3 volumes of "The Art of Making Leather Cases". The techniques tend to follow from one volume to the next. I wouldn't follow each pattern exactly, but if you take the skills and move from a couple of the smaller projects in volume one to the larger projects in volume three, you should be able to work out how you would want to make just about anything short of clothing. "The Leatherworking Handbook" by Valerie Michael is also very handy to have. I find I refer to the leather thickness chart in that book quite often. I also found the illustrations for sewing in that book more helpful then the ones in "The art of hand sewing leather". Personal preference, but I found having both helpful.

No I don't think 2 mm would be too thick at all. Most leather bags are 2 - 2.4mm. A 5oz (2mm) leather plus a waterproofing layer and an inner lining would work well. It should be a nice bit of padding, but shouldn't look too thick to the eye.

Pigskin depending on the finish, can be a little hard and rough. That's what a lot of wallet interiors are made out of. You would want to look at what finish the pigskin is before buying. I would look at kidskin, lambskin, perhaps a nice soft suede. Now that I think about it, what I might do is a 3 layer bag with a waterproof fabric between the outer leather and a suede inner lining.

If you have done your research, then you know that you want veg tanned leather for tooling. I would contact Weaver and / or Springfield Leather Co. and explain what you will be making. They will be able to help you choose thickness. For practice, you'll probobly want their #2 or medium grade tooling leather. That runs about $4.00 - $4.50 per square foot. As far as cutting, I use a utility knife with a new blade for thicker leather. Some of the old timers use round knifes, but a utility knife you can pick up at any hardware store will serve you well. Scissors will work for thin lining leather, but for anything with real heft to it, I stick to the utility knife. I personally find it easier to replace a 25 cent safety blade every few projects then to sharpen a good knife.

I do not know, so this is a guess on my part, but in commercial belts it is probobly bonded leather. Otherwise known as reconstituted leather, or garbage. If you wanted to recreate that tapered bulky look, I'd probobly buy some cheap leather splits and sandwich those between your top layers to keep a level of quality.

Thanks everyone. I'll pick up a bottle of Simple Green and try that first. The grease isn't on too too thick, so it should work. I'll post a before and after pic for the future reference of anyone who comes across this thread later.

Hi all, I just picked up a 1 ton arbor press on the cheap to take over some stamping and eyelet / rivet setting. Thing is, it of course came in packing grease. I don't have any real experience maintaining bench tools like this. I've only ever borrowed them for quick projects. How do I clean this stuff off? Would soap and water do the trick or do I need to get break cleaner or gun cleaner or something that some woodworking forums have suggested?

Oh, another quick tip. When you're looking at buying your first tools, buy a digital caliper. You can pick up a cheap one for $10 - $12. I found that when I started that I did not know what thicknesses I wanted to use. Buy the scrap bag first and then get an exact thickness of the pieces with the caliper as you play with them, you'll know the weight of leather you want the next time you're ready to order.

Hm, just a guess here, but did most places change the style because they know most people are using them as belt closures and not working hoof picks? I'm not into horses so I don't know, but have you tried looking around for "working" folding hoof picks or "real" folding hoof picks. It looks like the new design was done to make them safer for people who would not be using them as actual hoof picks.

That's an interesting idea. I'll have to try that melted wax trick at some point and see what the results are. Neillo, oil tan leather would be my first choice for water resistance. I just ordered an oil tanned side I plan to use for wheelchair packs. However, as you said it can not be tooled. The best compromise probobly would be a latigo re-tan like this if you can find a supplier that can get it for your. http://springfieldle...ornado%2C8-9oz/

The simple answer is no. That's why people who are fording rivers or diving or whatever, are using Kydex for sheaths these days. You can make leather water resistant so if you spill something or it gets rained on, it will come back, but making leather submersion proof isn't too realistic. I suppose if you just covered it in acrylic, but it wouldn't really be leather at that point.

Actually, watch buckles aren't that hard to come by. Springfield Leather Co. sells a fair selection of watch buckles http://springfieldle...ory/7/85/Watch/ Ohio Travel Bag also carries watch hardware if you don't mind the $30.00 order minimum. Watch bands do not need to be that thick. For watch bands, you could work off the tooling leather scrap bags for awhile I think. Most of the pieces you get should be more then long enough, and you could always laminate two pieces of leather if you want a thicker band.

By Tandy book, do you mean The Art of Making Leather Cases? Another good book is The Leatherworking Handbook. Really, I think people look at these books the wrong way. They think about following a pattern exactly, when they should be using them to learn the skills. Once you know the techniques, you can futz with the patterns to make whatever you'd like. I actually didn't follow the patterns exactly the first time. Use a basic pattern, but change the gusset style, or cut a different style in the flap, whatever.

OTB will probobly be your best bet. They will sell in 2s and 3s as long as you make the $30 minimum order. That's as good of a deal as you're going to get most likely.

The Tandy press supposedly works ok but I think $200+ is too much. My first choice would be this: http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/product_info.php?products_id=634 Though you can get the same tool by buying a normal 1 ton arbor press for around $50, and drilling the holes in the ram and anvil to accept your existing hand tools.

Here's the rule of thumb I use for pricing. Check out the Marketing board here for more info. There are long discussions on this as rada67 said. A: How much did the raw materials for this piece cost? B: How long did it take you to work on it? C: What do you consider a fair wage for your time? $8/hour? $10/hour? More? Plug in the numbers: A + (B x C) = ? The result should probably be the minimum you charge. I personally go with $20 an hour for craft time, and $25 an hour for design time if someone wants something I can't just sit down and start making. Ask yourself how much would be a fair wadge if you were using this skill to pay your bills. If you don't feel comfortable charging full rate right now, maybe come up with an apprentice rate you can give people for 6 months or a year until you feel your skills are worth more.

I would have to agree that the remnant bags are the beginners best option. They don't work well for large projects like bags, but for smaller projects like sheaths and wallets, they are a great starting point. If you want to do belts or longer strap projects, for a beginner, look at the belt blanks and straps available from Tandy and Springfield. Yes, they are more expensive per square foot, but if you're just learning or doing a couple of projects, they are a lot less money up front. And remember, if you're doing a project that doesn't involve stamping or tooling, you don't have to buy expensive veg tan. You can use cheaper chrome tan or oil tan leather if it doesn't need to be stamped. Finally, the shipping charges on websites are usually rounded up to make sure the cost is covered. If you call, shipping will usually be a bit cheaper.

As mlapaglia said above, shoulder or back leather works well for belts. Good stiffness and thickness. 3.2 - 3.6 mm which translates to 8 - 9 oz leather for us Americans is as the typical belt thickness. If you tell the supplier you go with that you will be making belts and in which widths, they should have a good idea what to give you.

I have not bought those, so I can't be sure, but with how big Tandy is I don't think they'd flat out lie. That being said, another option would be Springfield Leather Company. I know you'd get quality product from them. http://springfieldleather.com/18883/Belt-Blank%2CSnaps%2C1%22x48-52%22/

Yep,mlapaglia made the two minor suggestions I was going to make. Only two areas that might make this better is perhaps a cheap lambskin lining for the inside, and an eyelet or stitching and burnishing around the pen slot. Otherwise this is awesome work. I'm going to have to remember that trick for a pen holder. Much simpler and cleaner then adding a loop.

Hi everyone, In another topic, someone asked the question of which leather dye people use. It got me wondering what all the options there are for dyes and what the pros and cons of each are. To help people awnser that question, I started a spreadsheet of all the dye brands and makers I was familar with and most of the basic information. It can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtnQP2G7AXf9dHVORE8xZ1RHdThSSDVLSkVOWE9WN3c If you would like to help out on this little project and have more information to add, please do so. The spreadsheet is open for all to edit if you would like to make direct changes. If you would like to post information in this thread, I will do my best to add it to the spreadsheet. It's not entended to be completely comprehensive. It's just a little cheat sheet I started to help me remember what's available when I think about different projects.

I think you may need to make that your self. Cut the lace, and then dye it. Depending on how much you need, that might not be practical, but I doubt there is too many variants of silver finish lace out there.

Ferg, thank you. I had actually done that a couple of times and did not find any places that looked promising. This time I did spot a couple of companies which have the capability, and that look like they might take smaller jobs. I guess I'll send off a couple of e-mails and see who might be willing to do the work and what their pricing would be.

Hi all, Right now Harbor Freight has a 1 ton arbor press that I could get for about $40 shipped with sales. I'd love to pick it up and get it modified to accept leather tools so I can cut down the amount of hammering I have to do. I however do not have the skill or the tools to drill out the ram and anvil myself. So my question is this. Does anyone know a machinist that would do a small job like this, that either works in the Boston area, or that would know arbor presses well enough to let me mail the ram and anvil to them to do the work? There are places that sell presses with this modification, but they run like $75 plus the cost of shipping 20+ pounds.

For resources, also don't forget http://springfieldleather.com/ Springfield Leather Company. SLC was originally a Tandy store, but was then bought by it's then manager, Kevin when Tandy was going to close a lot of locations. They don't have all of the Tandy stock, but they have the bulk of it, and their leather selection is much better. They don't carry the beginner kits that Tandy has, but I'd look at them for anything else. Their customer service is really something to experience.