AndersenLeather

Thanks 1- I used glue all over the surfaces and on both sides of the filler. I think you are overthinking it. The strap is not stiff at all even with everything glued together. 2 - the edges was finished before the stitching was done. I used normal black dye on the edges before burnishing. If you got more questions feel free to ask again. One thing I always do before a new project is to make small "proof of concept" of the details i'm unsure of.

I just made a watch strap with a filler. I used 1 mm 2-3 oz leather for the upper and 1-2 oz for the back (skived down) The filler was made with 5 oz. it was glued together with normal contact cement. The strap is very flexible and comfortable. This is my first strap with a filler so the process is not perfect.

That sounds great. Looking forward to it

Hi, I am planning on making an us mail bag like this one: I could off course make the pattern myself but it would be alot easier if someone would be willing to share it? Anybody?

I had the same problem until I discovered rubber cement. This cement is much like contact cement but you are able to take it appart and reposition it one or two times. The bond will not be as strong but it will still hold pretty well.

When I think back the first thing that comes to mind is the mistake I made when I sew the " compartment separator" to the gusset. It is this line of stitches I mean: The stitch line has to be further from the edge than one would think. I just followed the instructions from al stohlman where he makes the accordion gusset. When I began to sew I realised that I wasn't penetrating the separator piece with the awl. This off cause would weaken the bag so I spend a long time trying to pull the leather closer together so that the awl would penetrate. The result was a crooked stitch line. I also spend a lot of time figuring out how long the flap should be. I would say that i made it a bit too short. Should I do it again I would make the front piece (and off course also the gusset) 1 or 2 cm shorter. You could off course also make the flap longer but then the overall dimensions of the bag would change. Make a good and comfortable handle and remember to add extra space so that you can also carry it while wearing gloves! I did this mistake on another bag I made! When you sew on the small pieces on the front and back that holds on the strap in place use 4 small nails to keep it in place. I only used 2 and that wasn't enough to make it stay in total alignment with the bottom edge. You are going to sew a lot of small lines. (the small pieces on the front and back required 16 separate threads!) If you make the threads too long you will be wasting a lot thread. Therefore figure out exactly how long the thread should be when you sew these small lines. Write down what you do along the way. Also remember to take pictures! I did not and I regret it.!

The lock is from abbey england: http://www.abbeyengland.com/Store/tabid/77/ProductID/69333/language/en-GB/Default.aspx Thank you I only sell smaller goods to friends and family. It is strictly a hobby

After you have bunished the edge with the slicker try to sand the edge down again. Yes thats right. Sand it down again. The first time I use around grit 180. Then bunish it again. If you are still not happy with the result repeat the process. Gradually use finer sandpaper. 320-400 is the finest that makes sense. Finer that that and it will not sand the edge but burnish it instead. If you only wish to use natural products the this is the way i would do it: Wet the edge with water. I use a molotow marker filled with water. it is better to user too little water than to much. Burnish the edge. I use a small piece of sand paper grid 3000 Sand the edge with grid 180 Wet the edge Burnish Sand the edge with grid 320 Wet the edge Burnish Sand the edge with 320 Wet the edge Burnish with sandpaper Polish with canvas cloth. You could add beeswax at this point if you wish. Look at the pictures to get an idea of what I am talking about. Note that the sandpaper I used had been used for black edges so sand edge looks a little black.

Thanks again for the kind comments. @The Trooper. I got the leather from Laederiet. Even though skindhuset is only a few kilometers from my house they did not have the right weight of leather. Yes I use the ROC colors. I also found them to be very good. Less rubb off compaired to fiebings oil dye and just as good coverage. Also you can't bye the oil dye in denmark so you have to order it from USA which off course makes it very expensive.

Yeah sure. As soon as I have time I will draw up the pattern. Right after I finished it i had a baby so I am pretty busy Thanks. I use markers from molotow with a 250ml bottle. This is a picture of the marker without the bottle: This is the bottle http://shop.molotow.com/en/Marker/Molotow-Refills/TRANSFORMER/MOLOTOW-TRANSFORMER-Empty-Bottle-250ml.html?listtype=search&searchparam=transformer It is very easy to apply the dye this way and the mess is minimal. I clean the leather with some leather cleaner i have. I think it is just acetone / rubbing alcohol. Then I apply as much dye as the leather will take. Then I buff and apply dye again.

Thank you all for the kind words Yes I made the pattern myself as well as dying the leather. I live in copenhagen so that tannery is to far away to stop by. Do you know if you can order from them? That's a good question. It is really hard to tell. As I made the pattern myself i spend a lot of time dimensioning the bag. Total time i think is about 100 hours. If i should make it again it would maybe take 40-60 hours but I really don't know.

So I made myself a new briefcase. It is by far my biggest project so far and I learned a lot from it. The main part is made of 3-3,5mm leather and the gusset is made from 1-1,2mm. The quality of the leather is not very good but here in denmark the selection of good leather is limited. The thread is fil au chinois 432. The pricking iron used is the one from goods japan with 4 mm spacing

I do have a copy and the handle I wish to make is not a part of the book. Precisely which handle are you referring to? Yes I think that skiving the ends would do the trick. I still however would like to figure out how the handles on the pictures are constructed. I have drawn a couple of ideas. 1 are the construction you suggest. The others have two layers but only no. 2 i think would work. no. 3 only has one layer at the right bend. No 4 deals with this but i don't know how it will work out.

Hi, I am in the process of making a briefcase and need to make a handle. I have found a type that I would like to make but I’m not quite sure how to construct it. This is the type of handle I would like to make: What I can’t figure out is how to make it seamlessly end. Before I found good pictures of the handle I made this handle just to see if it worked at all. As you can see there is a rather large gap where the two ends meet. My handle is made with a single layer whereas the other handle is made with two layers. I cant see if it is one long piece of leather that is wrapped around two times or it is two pieces wrapped around one time each. Even with this figured out I'm still not completely sure how to make a seamless joint. You could off course skive the ends so that they overlap each other and the make sure that this joint is not in the middle of the handle but off to the end. If you look at this handle it looks as if it is two pieces of leather. The inner is thick and the outer is thin making it easier to skive the ending to be almost seamless. Have any of you tried to make a similar handle our do you have an idea how to do it? The pictures I found on this page: http://bentleyslondon.com/shop/vintage-luggage/

Read my reply in this thread. It should answer your questions. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=49470

After making this bag: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=49177&hl=%22music+bag%22 my sister asked me if i could make a small shoulder bag for her with the same style of closure The leather for the main part is 2,8 mm and the gusset is 1,6mm. If I should remake it I would not have used the 2,8mm as it made it very difficult to sew on the gusset. The inside is covered with orange suede The closing bar There is a notch in the bar so that the leather stays in place

That's a real good looking bag. You did a great job!

Abbey england do sell to other than businesses so I can get the lock from them. Nice.

Do anybody know where I can find a briefcase lock like this one: I know you can get it from abbey england but they only sell to businesses. I am located in Europe.

I do all of my burnsihing with a dremmel. I have found that if you attach sandpaper to a sanding drum you get a very good burnishing drum. You can get 10 sanding drum mandrel for close to nothing on ebay (from china) Please check this out: http://andersenleath...burnishing.html

That is a very nice looking bag!

The phrase "cast your stitches" is as usefull as " just do it correct. It only tells a fraction about how to do a complete stitch. You can achive the same result as when you "cast your stitches" in several other ways. The thing that has helped me the most getting the holes at 45 degress is very simple. On the awl I have made a little dot with a magic marker. If this dot points straigth up then the awl is at 45 degrees This pictures shows where I have put the dot. (not my awl) In regards to keeping the awl perpendicular I have had good luck using the a cork like the guy in this video (the way he stitches is not the way i do it. I think his stitches forms a knot inside. If i do like him my backside does not look good): I know some of you will argue that you should never prepunch holes and you should not put down the awl. I have tried both methods and I prefer mine If you say that it is "correct" way to do it say there is not "correct" way. If you say it is faster then please tell me in % how much. If it is in fact faster what does it matter if its only your hobby and you get a better result? The thing about having a good looking backstitch is a bit more complicated. I can not achive a good looking backstitch when I stitch leather with a total thickness of 8 oz or less (4 oz each). If I however stich 11-12 oz. the backside looks fine. I use 18/3 linen thread at 6,8 spi. I am sure you have already seen the videos from Nigel: http://www.youtube.c...icbadger/videos He mentions that the ugly backside can be fixed by making i knot inside the stitch and i show it in one of his videos (with big thread and big holes). I can not make this work so I am still looking for a solution.

I have the same problem when I sew "thin" leather. Try to sew 2 pieces of +6oz together and see if that changes the result. I do not know how to get it uniform front and back with thin leather and it seems that nobody can come up with a good solution? In one of the videos from Nigel he mentions that when you sew in thin leather this can be a problem. His solution is to form a knot within the stitch.. I have tried this but it does not seem to work. He shows it using a single piece of leather with huge holes.

I found a pattern here: http://adriaandippenaar.blogspot.dk/ It looks pretty good.