45LC

Spinner, I'm not sure that wanting decent leather is being picky. You're not alone and I don't think as buyers we need to beg the suppliers to furnish decent leather. My orders from W & C usually resulted in 20 -30 percent scrap even though I was being charged for better leather. I finally told them I was tired of begging. I don't think they'll miss me. I'm centered exactly between two Tandy stores and plan to pick out my leather in the future. Their European leather looks to be pretty good and I'm going to give it a try.

Since you're being overwhelmed with comments I will add my two cents worth. What you are calling a wrinkle is a natural occurrence. Remember the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. When you wrap anything around something it's going to take more of it to go the distance. When you lay it flat again the excess it took to go the distance has to go somewhere so it forms itself into what you call a wrinkle, bulge or a hump on the binding. All good books do the same thing. The bookbinder makes a flat tube and glues it on the spine before the cover goes on. That tube opens up when the book is opened and the outside cover which is attached to and rides with that tube becomes a wrinkle or bulge. Look at a good book and you can almost stick your finger in the opening at the binding. Your leather is doing the same thing. You're not going to get rid of it so work with it. If you made grooves at the binding you're in good shape. Cut the inside covering and glue it on each side and a narrow thin strip on the binding. Let the outside cover do the flexing at the grooves and let it do what you call wrinkle on the outside. Leave a small gap at the grooves and you will have done a good job. You've eliminated the extra distance on the inside. When you try to shove the leather down into the grooves you're using extra leather because you're going a further distance than if you leave it flat. When you close the book you decrease the distance on the inside so it's going to wrinkle on the inside. In your case you're going to get a wrinkle on the outside and the inside with reverse actions. Outside when you open it and inside when you close it if you don't make the grooves. You can at least eliminate the wrinkles on the inside but not the outside. If this doesn't make sense let me know. I promise I can probably make it more confusing.

What is the problem with finding a rivet. If I had that thing I'd have it riveted in less than 10 minutes. Well, by the time we had a cup of coffee and roll.... I'm not understanding the problem. Can you explain it a little more or email me. leatherandstuff@outdrs.net The space between the bracket that holds the stone and the piece of leather could have a round leather spacer inserted there and you rivet through all pieces. Depending on the size of the holes I have nickel plated brass or nickel silver rivets,

I use a very sturdy white plastic that is perfect for templates. It's called FRP or Fiberglas Reinforced plastic. Most of us have been peeing on it for years. It's used as a wall panel in rest rooms and commercial kitchen areas where moisture may be a problem. It's a little over a sixteenth inch, has a pebbled side and a smooth side. I draw my pattern on it, Rough cut it out on a bandsaw and sand to the lines on a small belt sander/grinder. Cut it, drill it, sand it...do what you need to do to it. I use a sharp awl to trace around the template and then cut my leather with the confidence that it will be what I want. A 4' x 8' piece is less than $30.00 at a big box store. The templates should be good for ever if you don't abuse them. Sometimes I spray a piece of graph paper with adhesive and stick it to a piece and I have something to design a new pattern on. Cut it out and you're good to go.

carr52 PM sent to you

CWA That's a beautiful seat on what appears to be an awesome bike. I think though, you're pullin our leg about a first attempt. Keep up the great work. You'll find some of the most beautiful leather work in almost any category on this site.

Jason, If I can get a word in, there are a couple of ways I might consider to attack the problem. 1) send it out to a sharpener..saw blades, scissors etc. 2) I have a small sander with a 1" x 42" belt and a 9" disk. I would use a 250 grit belt and approach it very carefully at the angle you think matches the one on the tool. Any grinding is going to be fairly slow, especially on a used belt. I use this approach to sharpen my hole punches, except that I will chuck them up in a 3/8" drill. Turn the sander on and the drill and it only takes a few seconds. When the 250 grit belts get completely worn and won't hardly cut anything they become some of my best belts. I use them to burnish the edges on some of the thicker practice pieces I make. It will usually darken the leather, so don't do it on anything that you want to stay natural . 3) glue a piece of wet or dry sandpaper to a piece of glass and very carefully do it by hand. Don't know if any of these methods will help you.

That is one healthy looking press. Last week I drilled a 3/8" hole about an inch or so into the bottom of the quill?? on mine. I made provision for two 10-32 set screws to hold whatever is put into it. I want to try some accessories for snaps and similar things. It works well for my makers stamp. Takes very little effort to press. I've even started doing it on dry leather. Of course my stamp is small so it would naturally be easier.

Ed, A piece of 1/2 " steel rod and a couple of rubber end caps. I just guessed at how much extra length I wanted.

Tell me more!!

I didn't want to do a commercial for them so I left their name off. The company is Harbor Freight. They have lots of interesting stuff at low prices if you deal with them knowing that you're not buying the highest quality of anything but getting what you pay for. And yes, it's all from china.

Ed, I bought the same press from a tool company that imports everything to do that exact task. I case the leather a bit and it doesn't take much pressure. I put a slightly longer handle on it for better leverage.

Steve, Your work is awesome! Is it a secret how you do the bubbles? I've never seen that . Very neat stuff.

Johanna, I'm new to the forum so I've been reading previous posts and recently had experience with this problem. I had the boxes and decided to get rid of them. Well, I pretty much got rid of them. My solution was to grind the shoulders off the stamps. You have to be very careful not to grind on the letter but it can be done. I did a few today and for the most part if you keep the stamp handle straight and hit it without trying to drive it through the leather you can eliminate the boxes. I did mine on a 1" belt sander that I use every day for leather work. Holding the stamp very carefully on the edge you can radius or eliminate the corners that are causing the problem. You may need to keep an eye on the stamps for rust. They're easy to keep oiled slightly and not difficult to clean up. I've noticed some discoloration on a basket stamp that I removed half of the pattern on. Try it on a couple of stamps you don't use much like Q or Z and see what you think.