Amadea

Thanks for the reply, Art. Unfortunately, it's in a bad spot to attach anything, because it's where the tip of the belt will rest. I decided to dye it, and I used fiebings dark brown pro dye with a brush. It covered it up, but now the belt looks unbalanced so I guess I'll go ahead and use the same method on the background of the tooled area. I think it will actually look better that way, and contrast more with the washed colors in the tooling. I'm just dreading the tiny brush work and the risk of another mishap. Ugh. If all goes well, I'll put up a photo later.

It's my fault for not clearing off my workspace while I dyed the edges of another belt but... I got a drop of black water stain on a belt. I had already painted, oiled, resolened twice and was going to antique it, but then this happened. I tried to wipe it off and made it worse. I know it won't come off, so my question is: What would you do? I spent a lot of time on this so far, and I really like the belt. I wanted to keep it the natural oiled color, but now I'm wondering if maybe I should try dyeing the end (from where the tooling ends to the buckle end, but only inside the border) dark brown to make it less noticeable, or would that look stupid? When I put on the belt, the area where the blob is is covered by the tip of the belt. I'm so mad at myself. Any thoughts? Oh, and as you can see in the photo, I had a slip with the groover, but that doesn't bother me nearly as much.

Tell me about it. I have to keep myself away from the Springfield website or I'll go broke. I tried the swivel beveler today on a belt, which was not only thicker than my hide from Tandy, but also seemed to be better quality. I made deep, clean cuts with my knife and the beveler just glided along. That little tool probably saved me at least an hour in beveling, and no tool marks! I love it. I'm waiting for the oil on the belt to dry, but after I antique and finish it I'll put some pictures up. Thanks again for the tips.

I love this forum! So many answers and ideas. Thanks to everyone who chimed in. I was using the swivel beveler when the leather was wetter than usual and kept resetting as needed, which helped. But Sylvia, you're right, I don't think I'm cutting deep enough to begin with because the leather is so thin. I'll see how it goes on my thicker belt blanks. I also like the idea of filing down the beveler to get a finer tip. As for sharpening the awl, I got a stone (but forgot the oil) and it seems to be sharper, but I probably need more practice to get it right.

Thanks for the help! I'm going to go looking for a stone right now. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm sure my swivel knife is ready to be sharpened too.

Hi all! Yesterday I received my first order from Springfield Leather (who are just as great as everyone on here has said). Last night I played around with some of my new goodies, and now I have questions, specifically regarding the plastic beveler tip for swivel knives and the Osborne stitching awl. I'm one of those people who can't make a lot of noise tooling because I live in an apartment, so I was really excited to try the swivel beveler. I know a few people here use one with amazing results (Chancey77, I'm looking at you). I'm wondering if anyone has any tips for getting a nice deep bevel with this thing. I'm using crappy Tandy leather. I think it's 3-4 oz. I'm sure the quality of leather isn't helping anything. The practice piece I did with it ended up with only a suggestion of a bevel around the lines. Maybe it's a casing issue, or my hand just isn't strong enough to apply the necessary pressure. Any suggestions are appreciated. Next thing is the Osborne awl. I ordered the stitching awl haft and a 2-1/2 inch diamond blade. It didn't occur to me that the blade wouldn't be sharp, and I have no experience sharpening anything, nor the tools to do so. I looked at a couple of tutorials online about how to sharpen awl blades, including the bowstock one, but I don't quite understand it. Do I need a sharpening stone or something else? And is there a way to mount the blade in the haft without a vise? I feel really stupid about this. It's just that until I started doing leather stuff, I stayed far away from most sharp objects because I'm clumsy. Now all this sharpening business seems like Greek to me. One thing I know for sure is that my new Barry King maul is awesome! Such an improvement over that yellow poly mallet. Thanks in advance for any advice!

For being 30 or 40 years old, it seems to be holding up pretty well. Your work is great, so I'm gonna follow your lead and order one as soon as I can.

What a brilliant idea. And it looks amazing. I bet you're getting some serious ink out of this deal. Is that swivel knife beveler the same one Springfield has? I was curious about it, and was planning on ordering one. It looks like it works really well, at least in your stuff. Great job again. Amadea

Thanks for all the comments, everybody! It's very encouraging to hear such nice things. I'm having fun experimenting with different ways of doing things, but I definitely want to start tooling more. I'll let you all know how my attempts go!

Hi everyone! I just stitched up the iPad sleeves I've been working on. As I mentioned in another thread, I'm new to leather craft and I live in an apartment where I can't make too much noise tooling, so these are examples of quieter methods. The pig is done with only a swivel knife, and the Mario is lightly repoussed and painted with acrylics. My construction and stitching isn't great, but hey, I finished them!

I'm new on here and apparently I'm accidentally quoting people for no reason. Sorry about any computer weirdness. Thanks everyone for the encouragement! Pete, you're right about the scrimshaw. I hadn't thought about that. The pig and crow are on envelope style iPad sleeves I made for myself and my brother, so not for sale...yet. Suicide, I did try repousse on one piece and it came out alright, but it was hard to get it puffy enough. I'll keep trying.

Thanks! I have a belt blank lying around that's a bit thicker than what I've been using, probably 8 oz. I'm going to try my technique on the belt and see how it goes. I'll post a photo when I"m finished.

Hi all! I'm really new to leather craft and I appreciate all the help I can get. I've tooled a few practice pieces, but not nearly as many as I'd like. I live in an apartment and my neighbors on either side work 3rd shift and sleep during the day. I can't bring myself to tap away when I know they're home and trying to rest. So, being the thoughtful neighbor I am, I've been experimenting with different, quieter, ways of decorating leather. My primary method had been to use my swivel knife, to "draw" on the leather, using crosshatching for shading. Kind of like pen and ink drawing. This technique suits my subject matter well, because I'm into old timey etchings and stuff like that. It's pretty nontraditional stuff, but I like what I've done so far. Just have some questions: 1. Does anyone else do this? 2. I try not to cut too deep, but I know that all the closely spaced and crossing lines have to weaken the leather. Is there anything I can do, like backing the leather or using a specific finish, to offset this? 3. Would this method work for a belt? It doesn't seem bold enough, like the fine lines would get lost unless you were right up on it. My friend wants me to design a belt with animals on it, and she wants me to do an original design. I'm having trouble coming up with anything, because I feel like a belt wants to be tooled, so you can see whats going on. Trouble is, I haven't done enough tooling to know how to begin designing a tooling pattern. 4. Any advice for tooling in a quiet zone? These are some examples of what I've been up to: Thanks!

This is a great question. Earlier tonight I actually tried tracing part of a belt pattern on my iPhone and every time I touched it it would move or resize itself. So annoying. I have an iPad too, and it would make a great light box if you could keep the image still. Even in the photo roll it resizes if you touch in a certain way. I'll keep an eye out for apps and post if I find anything good.