Suicide

Hi folks, Got over my very first tooling work - the fabulous Tandy billfold wallet Made seem a lot of mistakes, but now lessons learned. Any suggestions/advises/etc are warmly welcome.

Thanks, guys! Luke, I slightly improved your method and got results. The improvement I did was a cutting - I rolled the piece, then cut it with the hacksaw trying to "chew" it as much as I can. Got fairly nasty cut after unroll. Then I hammered it as you said, put the only edge into can with water for about 1 hour, then dried and finally oil it. Excellent I don't need ask my neighbour's dog to suck that bag before going outside!

Thanks, Jim, Thats another option. But unfortunately it seems like that piece should be premium grade in general and only on the edge must be distressed. That piece is mostly like the overlapped cover of that bag in my first post. If there is no other options to distress premium, I am going to take your advise and to lace on that piece strip of lowgrade leather.

Hi, It apeared I need some 4 oz deerskin strips with distressed edges. But all I the deer leather I currently has perfectly cut and even edges. What I did try is to scratch the edge by different metal tools, skive it with sandpaper and blunt skiver blade, rip pieces off it with plies, hammer it , do all these in different combinations with dry and dump leather and got no good results. I mean esges still look like the was intentionally distressed, not just worned of damaged while skin processing. Can you please suggest me a method which gives results like in the picture below? Thanks in advace!

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Thanks for your advices. Actually I meant moccasin's outer sole to build from the thick latigo. Sorry to confuse you by mixing these 2 terms together.

Hi folks, Can you please suggest me any sources of heavy and fairly thick latigo sole leather with a good quality and resonable prices? As I need to get it to Europe, so I'd prefer any of European sources. But can consider US suppliers as well (if they ship to Europe of course). Thanks in advance!

Somehow got over it with soft double (actually - "triple" ) sole. Thanks everybody for help and ideas!

WoW, Gunter! You're man! I have found that. Thanks! PS: I dropped message to you.

To me too, but they said this is latigo. And they insist there is no glue used but handsewing only. Thats kind of mystery for me unless they sew it in the way like I drew on the picture attached.

Hi Art, They aren't glued 100%, most likely your right and they had been sewn wrong side out. Here I attached another example - it seems like stitch is there, but again, I can't see any threads, just creases on the white sole like it has been stitched. Another source They also claimed as sewed not glued.

Hi all, Please remove this thread if it violates the Forum's rules. I'm looking for the (as I suppose) well-known book Craft Manual of the North American Indian Footwear I check it at the Crazy Cow, but it appears what delivery costs to Europe will be 3 times more that the book costs itself ($24 vs $8) And they seem don't have it in PDF or any other downloadable format. I also checked Amazon and some other shops but all of them either have hight item or shipment price or just simple back reference to CrazyCow Does somebody knows any other source where I can get this book in PDF to avoid shipment charges? Thanks in advance, any advises are highly appreciated.

Hi everybody Can somebody please give ma any ideas on how do they sew the sole on the Pueblo moccasins? I tried hard but see no any stitches on it. Is it kinda tunnel stitch or what? It is also interesting for me how they preform the sole (I know it should be formed wet as it is seem latigo, but exact process currently unknown for me). I would very appreciate for any links or might be books / excerpts on that technique. Please

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

Hi everybody, I'd like to mark stitching holes on the deerskin to have even spacing and punch it later on. I tried to use overstitching wheel but on the deerskin marks are almost invisible and almost disappear after couple of minutes. Is there any other and more handy ways rather than mark holes on the pattern's paper and then trace them 1by1 with the marker? Any hints? Thanks in advance!

Thanks alot! Thats clear for me now.

Hi folks, Just novice in tooling and so far practiced with the only veg tanned cowhides. Sheepskin looks much less expensive though and supplier convinced it is perfect for tooling/stamping. How good veg tan 2oz sheepskin for tooling?? Can it be shaped/molded ? Thanks in advance.

Hi everybody, Just want to share my very first experience in leather working and shoemaking at once Today I finished the very first moccasin I have ever made in my life. That was my wife's idea as she wanted some warm moccasins to walk around the house here during long and cold Finnish winter. So I took pretty nice shearling for moc's up and insole, heavy but pliable 4mm veg tanned leather for outer sole and lace off the 4 oz deerskin for a weld. Then spent a lot of time here on your forum to get into general technics for leatherwork and details on sewing and making shoes. Then I sew the up using just common domestic Brother sewing machine, and finally attached glued together soles to it. I'd like to thank very much all the forum folks for sharing your brilliant experience what helped me accomplish that task. Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 PS: Tomorrow I'm going to make the second one PPS: Tandy's starter kit is also on the way to me PPPS: If somebody has any questions - you always welcome!