Glendon

The only type of leather that can be tooled or carved is veg tanned leather. Vegetable tanned is the flesh toned leather. Anything with a finish like upholstery or shoe leather is likely chrome tanned and will not tool.

They are designed to have a trimmed belt tip inserted into them and the set screw snugged into the leather. I agree that it is not the most secure process. I've only one a couple of belts with a metal tip, but I do use glue to help hold the tip in place. Leather weld, epoxy, wood glue, whatever glue you have on hand that works on metal should do the trick.

I saw that yesterday as well. That filigree set looks pretty nice.

Yes, that will end up working so well. SLC is already working on their own stamp supplier and are beginning to roll out their own kits. The kits are just wallets right now, but I expect we will see more. So we will see how that goes.

Well I guess 1 out 3 statements actually being true isn't bad in his book. Tandy is the largest leather retailer around. I will give him that. I would argue Springfield carries a better selction. They have the part of the Tandy line most people care about, plus their own versions of the more hard to find liquids and a much better leather selection. A lot of places are older then Tandy. Even if we take their claimed establishment in 1919 as true (and we all know they have been reincarnated as a company a couple of times), a local leather supplier to me, Waterhouse Leather beats that out at 1897 and that's not even looking very hard. And I'm sure we can all rattle off 4 or 5 small businesses that are one to one compeditors to Tandy. Yes I know it wasn't nessasary to do, but I enjoyed the little research hunt.

I will buy from Tandy when I can stack sales, the same way you can at the big box store to get things 60%+ off. I have no ethical problem doing that because Tandy has become a pure bottom line corperation with no links to the local community. I would never even think to try that with Springfield Leather, Brettuns Village, or the other "smaller" suppliers I work with because I know eventhough they need to make a profit too, they will make every effort to do me right in the process. Use Tandy like Walmart. If you can find the odd deal there, great. Otherwise I don't bother anymore.

That's a new one on me, but it makes sense for the right guys. Better gifts then the usual tie tacks, wallets, or whatever.

Don't get me started on the pains of brass hardware. It's getting harder to come by these days. Best source I've found is Ohio Travel Bag, www.ohiotravelbag.com

Shoemaking is really a skill in and of itself beyond leatherwork, but I think custom patterns might be what you are looking for. One of the best starting books I found was called Handmake Shoes for Women. It has been out of print for some time, but is avalible directly from the author at her Etsy store, http://www.etsy.com/...hop_home_active If you want a simpler option then a custom pattern, have you tried the larger kids patterns? At least for moccasins they are out there. One of my friends is one of those small women. She buys larger childrens sizes quite often.

Inch and a half is a big slot punch. Most smaller belts I've seen use 3/4" or 1" slots for the buckle tounge. You might want to make a couple prototypes and cut the slot by hand a few times to see what works before you buy tools. Good punches actually cost a bit. Bigger ones especally can run a bit of moeny.

Yep, you've gotta love those "new' tools. There is so much good stuff sitting around out there that would last another 100 years of use if they are taken care of. By the way, what is the appeal of the Cobblers hammers? I've seen a lot of people going crazy for them recently, but not having used one I don't get it.

Dwight, good catch. I made that post in the middle of doing some other work, and completely spaced on actually doing the math. For a 10 sq ft hide you coulld be sure of at least one section that was 3 feet long, Always have to keep an extra eye on those measurements if you don't do that kind of work every day.

This is the second time in a couple months I've run across someone praising this stuff. I need to order some. I think a lot of us have gotten "tooling cramps" or blistered their fingers from a long project at some point..

The first and most basic thing to realise when figuring out the size of leather you need to get from online retailers is this, leather is always sold in square feet. A square foot is of course 12" by 12". Hides are not perfectly semetrical so you have to do some estimating based on the ratio of the long side to the short side, but if you bought say 10 sq ft of leather, at least one edge will be 10 ft long. That gets you most of the way there.

The thing to remember with standard white or yellow glue is that it will take time and preasure to cure. With material that have that much heft to them, you will need weights to keep the belts down as the glue does its thing.

There's a trick at I picked up from gutar strap makers. Blue painters tape. You stick it over the side you don't want glued, stained, painted, what have you. Use a rolling pin or similar to make sure the tape goes down down flat and there are no pockets for liquid to run into. Then when you're done the tape will come off clean. Most everyone here uses contact cement as their leather glue of choice. If you are going to sew, I found rubber cement holds well enough, but keeps things loose enough to work between layers. Trust me, you do not want to look at the price tags on sewing machines that can handle belt thickneses. Those guys run some money.

This is an older thread, but I have quite a bit of experence with leatherworking in an apartment setting, so I wanted to put in my experence. My work area is set up like this. Everything is set on top of one of those interlocking foam mats that has a rubber top coat. Sitting on that is a solid wood work desk. A wood workbench would work just fine. Just make sure it is all wood so that it obsorbs noise rather then amplifying it. Then I have a rubber mat between the desk and my granate. I have not had a single noise complaint since setting that up.

I would second WScotts suggestion for the scrap bags from Springfield. Another great option for practice is horse hide leather scrap, also avalible from Springfield. Horse leather does not stamp quite as cleanly as cow hide because it is denser, but it is cheap and great to practice with.

Absolutely beautiful work as usual. Personally I like the branded end caps. Visually, I think I like the smaller single paw, but I would be proud to have the "Bearmauls" brand on a couple of my tools as well.

It must be currently out of print. I agree that it's a great book, but it's sure not worth that. I would think another print run has to be in the works. It is popular.

Ya, the crew at Springfield are Awsome. It was a Tandy store before the then manager bought it out when Tandy was going to close it. Very cool place.

Springfieldleather.com and done. They even honor Tandy wholesale memberships last time I heard.

I would say you're on the right track there. I had the same thought on the gamblers choice as a cheaper way to get experence. So far I have not been disapointed. When you place your first order, put in the notes section at check out what your project is, and they should pull you something that will work well.

I assume he is talking about the gamblers choice option on their website sold by the square foot. There are 5 aspects to leather I think you can generally look for when buying. Type of tanning, type of hide, color, thickness, and temper. With gamblers choice I would say you can reliably request two of the five and you will get what you ask for. I've ordered this a few times for prototypes or one off projects. I have always been happy with what the pickers at Springfield have come up with. If you are a bit flexible I'd say give it a shot.

I would agree with Gary. I have both books, and have the same reaction. If you think of them in school terms, Valeries book is more Intro to Leather 101, and Geoffreys is more of an Intermediate Leather 201 book. It's easier to get the basic concepts down first.