Neillo

Nice video Jess Jones! I'm a big believer in glycerine soap for edging too, works really nicely. Your video reminds me of some of the videos I see on the ThoseWhoMake vimeo channel. It's not all leather vids, but they're all pretty inspiring nonetheless! Here's a link https://vimeo.com/channels/thosewhomake

A bit of a dilemma you have there Leese, it's partly why i shy away from making one offs that i've never even prototyped before. If I were in your situation, I'd tell the customer that it's going to be extra to modify the bag. Work out a quote and take the money for the modifications up front. Also, there's a lot to be said for "under quote, over deliver" in this case: tell him it'll take a certain time to fix it and get it fixed and delivered a couple of days before that time, it can really surprise a customer and make both you and your work look very professional.

It's been a crazy month so I'm a little late! Modified the pattern a little but it turned out pretty good, gusset was a bit of a bear to sew but the greasy kangaroo I used was nice to work with!

Oxalic acid is a good way to restore leather but it's pretty expensive stuff to buy! I Normally use Pears brand glycerine soap and a regular nylon kitchen scourer and clean hides by lathering the soap on the leather, then I rinse the scourer and use it to wipe off the soap and then wipe dry the leather with a clean rag and allow it to air dry. It's worked so far for mildly water stained hide with early signs of mildew, but anything much worse than that and maybe Oxalic crystals will be the only way to get the staining out. Like Camano said, if you're dyeing the leather in darker colours, the staining won't be of much consequence; not sure if the staining will affect water based dyes though so it might be worth cutting off a few scrap pieces to experiment with different dyes.

Looking great Joe! I see what you mean about where the seam meets the roll top, but in proper roll top dry bags (I use them when kayaking) the seam goes all the way to the top. I've had good luck with using a 4-6mm (5/32" - 1/4") Hole punch in situations like that, so that when the seam flexes, the leather will create it's own relief. Mind you, proper dry bags are made of relatively light, supple material , so sewing an inverted, or "invisible" seam all the the way up the the top would necessitate the use of much lighter leather than any sensible leatherworker would typically use on a bag, at least not without some serious compromises. A regular external seam (with the leather edges showing) Would, of course, lend itself much better to a roll top design, but getting it to look good would require a bit of design ingenuity! It's a challenge it think you're more than capable of meeting, so maybe some prototyping is in order! I really like the D-rings at the strap anchor points, having the option for removable and changeable straps is great and something I always go for on my bags, and the colour of those straps works really nicely with the colour of the bag! Only real critique I can offer is that the thread should be at least V138-V207 and 1.2-2SPI finer, V92 is a widely held minimum standard for marine and auto upholstery where I'm from; and that's for working with light weight leathers. You could probably get away with V277 on the high side, but at the end of the day it's your preference and it's probably best to get hold of some thread samples to test before you buy bulk, as big spools of poly aren't cheap! Keep up the great work Joe, Your spirit of innovation and trying new things all the time is inspiring!

Strapworks has some cool hardware like the clips and slides for suspenders, a few bits of hardware I couldn't normally source locally; but it would be expensive and slow to ship unfortunately. Luckily one of the leather stores Nearby has all kinds of webbing and I'm never short of seatbelt and cotton style webbings! Got some ideas to make a fishing tackle belt using seatbelt webbing and plastic hardware soon, so that I can go rock fishing when the weather warms up again. Good thing about this belt too, is that if it gets too big, you can unpick the end off the webbing, cut the webbing to size and sew it back up again. can't shorten a full leather belt like that without it looking strange!

Thanks guys! I've already got some requests to make more of these; I might even make some in my "signature" Red seat belt webbing.

Hardly any grain runout, beautiful hand made and dowelled hinge, looks like an absolute pleasure to use! A few questions, if I may: What made you decide to cut the jaws on the bandsaw instead of steam bend them? What is the depth and width of the throat and the clamping width of the jaws? Was your design based off a coudre you own or have used, or did you design it from the ground up? What's the total height of the piece? Is it designed for when you're sitting on a stool? Looks very nice all round, please give us a report when you finish the wallet for your bro; I'm genuinely keen to find out how the throat depth and jaw width works out for you!

Hey everyone, Been watching my food and doing more training lately so I've gone through all the holes in my old belt, I decided it's high time I made a new one! Have been toying with the idea of making a nautical belt for some time now and have had the natural cotton webbing and 32mm solid brass west end buckle lying around the workshop for a while; All I needed was some heavy scrap boot leather, cotton webbing and a buckle which totaled around $6! Project came together very quickly, even with the keeper and having to do some skiving; leather was a little on the thin side at around 5oz, I'd recommend 6-7oz for anyone wanting to try this project as it'll likely sit a little bit better. The best thing about this belt is that you can make it from belt cutoffs and scrap bits of hides so it's great for using up some of the stuff you'd otherwise throw on the scrap pile or in the bin; next job on the bench will be some lined wallets and pouches I think!

Thanks for your support guys, I haven't made much this winter due to the bitter cold but this came together pretty well all considered. Weather is starting to warm up a little now and i've got myself a beautiful greasy kangaroo skin, so i'm gonna be making some wallets and phone pouches with material lining soon; I'll keep you all posted when I do!

Hi Monica, The leather is just no name chrome tan i picked up on a trip, it has a really nice soft feel and grain, but is spongy and stretchy so is pretty tough to hand sew! Everything was hand stitched, but the material frayed at the edges due to issues with gluing up. This leather has a very absorbent flesh side and it required 2 full coats of adhesive to stick at all! Client is very happy with it, but i'm always very critical of my own work. The materials let me down more than anything this time, but i'll definitely be doing more lining in the future and searching for some decent quailty veg tan in my area!

Been a little while since I've dropped in with new content, been pretty busy with some other hobbies and trying to catch some fish in this hellish winter! Did something a little different this time, lined the inside with cotton duck and used magnetic catches for a change; had a few minor hiccups with the pattern and this particular thick chrome tan is a very disobedient material to work with! It's a little rough in some ways, but I learnt a fair bit from this one. Probably won't work with chrome tan much in the future if I can afford to, it sews poorly and doesn't sit right in the final product.

I think now with the recent influx of people asking to support leather businesses and kickstarts, we're probably at the top of search rankings when someone types in "leatherwork kickstarter" or whatnot. Hopefully we don't get too many more of these kind of threads, the mods have already locked at least one of these threads for getting out of control. I'm a leather hobbyist so it doesn't bother me too much; but I know there are plenty of people on here that depend on it to make a living and have worked hard to make great products and generate a reputation and customer base; But asking the competition to promote you is like apple walking into microsoft and asking if they can put and ad for the new iMac on their website, and for free... Not intending any offense, I just don't want to see new members alienate themselves and therefore deprive themselves of such a great site with such a wealth of knowledge from people who love leatherwork so much. Best of luck with your business, -Neillo

I've used the wax immersion and also painting hot wax onto leather goods; wouldn't recommend painting it on, but dipping is pretty effective as long as you have a big enough container to dip the whole item in at once, also washing the container afterward is a real pain so make sure it's something you're willing to sacrifice. I used a glass oven dish and it worked for smaller items, heating it up in the oven and dipping for about a second (didn't want to harden the leather) and letting it dry. I used a hairdryer (this was before I had a heat gun) to melt off some excess wax and buffed the rest off with a rag. The process left me with a nice satin sheen, very stain resistant finish that i would definitely use again on a item that is going to see a lot of water contact or brief immersion. If you edge the item before you dip it, it can make slicking a breeze too, but it won't necessarily look as good as the full edging methods some of us use (your mileage may vary) The main reason I tried the process was for knife sheaths and a belt for a hunter, he sometimes goes wading in pursuit of boars and such and wanted something that could withstand those terrors without getting destroyed or moldy; he seemed very happy with it! Also, a word of warning: make sure the leather is dry before you dip it in hot wax, unless you want to ruin the piece!

I like the design, I've owned a couple belts and usually they're cumbersome or too wide at the back, this one looks pretty versatile. I'll be making a dip belt soon myself, stainless dees, chain and carabiners are expensive, but it's part of a milestone for me and will be like a trophy!

I'm more of a minimalist style belt kinda guy, but i gotta say, that is some handsome edgework and stitching!

The bottle opener on the collar is a great touch, as long as your dog comes when called! Not the kind of thing you would do with a cat collar haha! The skiver and head knife cases are a great idea, especially with tools that gorgeous too! Oh and if your browser locks up and you accidentally double post, just report one of the posts to the mods and cite "duplicate post, please delete." they usually respond quickly and delete it in a timely manner!

Very nice work Tatyana! The "tufted" look is really striking and the carving in the corner is very pretty! Also, that unique zip is a nice touch, much nicer than the standard YKK zip!

Very nice wallets KGV! The hermann oak has a beautiful colour and the Chromexcel adds a touch of class almost like cordovan would! Stitching is very nice and the designs look nice and practical, does the wallet with the flap pocket behave itself and stay closed easily? I figure you would maybe have to wet form the fold to get it to behave! Nicest work i've seen in a little while and a great contrast of colour,keep it up!

Looks decent overall Joe, I think she will be very happy with it! The square footage and brand stamps in the inside are a nice touch, wouldn't worry too much about the fastener at the front, you can always remount the hardware on leather washers and stitch them back on perfectly straight if it bothered you enough. Overall, pretty nice! Now, if i can find a source of horween in Australia i'll be set for life!

Nice design and lacing work JayJay! Was wondering, do you have anything in place to stop cards from slipping all the way down to the bottom of the card pocket? Not sure if i'm explaining it right, but that's something I've had to be mindful of in my wallets, as they rely on the cards for the stiffness of the wallet!

Hey Joe, the Swatch I have has the 2 bridges and I had to use a very small hole punch and knife to cut some slots to allow for them. It proved pretty difficult to push the pin through all that soft leather so I heated up a #0 needle with a blowtorch and pushed it through the strap end of the leather to widen and burnish it; the pin went through reasonably easily after that. Pic isn't taken by me, but it's the same as my watch and the original band that was so stiff and horrible.

At the moment i don't have tools for reliably marking more than 6SPI so that's where they're at. around 9SPI is what i'll be aiming for in the near future, though 6 looks ok with the thicker thread, anything V138 or smaller looks silly with that spacing for me.

Hey everyone, Haven't posted much of my work for a while, been doing a bit more auto and upholstery type stuff and the bench hasn't seen leather for a little while. A friend of mine that loves watches asked for a strap and pouch for a couple of his watches, here it is on a cheap Pulsar chronograph doing its work! Pretty much scrap chrome tan I had in the 'shop that matched best with the Amann Serafil M40 thread i wanted to use for a sporty look. thickness is about 3mm Second is a strap made for my active watch: a cheap and cheerful swatch chronograph I use at the gym. The leather I used for this is a beautiful goatskin, very fine and it takes well to punching holes and sewing really nicely! The thread is some mystery nylon I found at a beading store and seemed to suit the strap much better than the red thread! The whole thing was thrown together in a few hours to meet a means, so it's not a refined piece of work! Wanted to try perforating the strap this time but sewing made the strap bow or "smile" slightly so lining it all up was going to prove nightmarish! Tried it out at the gym tonight and i performs very nicely; the next step is to find tools to make a finer SPI and use finer thread like the coats terko satin I enjoy using! Hope you guys enjoy, apologies for the lousy phone camera photos; these were the best out of many!

It can most likely be done, but it'll be very expensive. Weaver leather makes custom dies but to my knowledge they use the round hole punches and they can only be space so close together. Your best option if you want to do any kind of large production is to use dies to cut the parts, mark the seam allowance and sew with a machine. If you insist on hand stitching, you'll have to look into some advanced and expensive custom dies. I vaguely remember seeing a die making company that used diamond hole punches in their dies, you might be able to find them in 9 SPI if you're lucky and do some looking around. The craftool stitch fork below is about the closest i've seen to what they used in those dies; the 1/8" spacing would yield just over 8 SPI and might be the way to go if someone can integrate that into a die. Here's a pic for reference, good luck Nuttish!