RavenAus

The strap end punch from my local non-Tandy-stockist (I don't have a local Tandy, there's only one in Australia) was exactly the same, a little oversize. I'd prefer it a tad big to a tad small though! By the time I've burnished the edge you can't tell the 25mm punch is oversize a few mm

Thanks, that looks perfect I don't want to spend out for a 5ltr tub when I use so little so one of those bottles is just right. Will look at the pet stores...

I know, right? And at the same time, mine's complaining about how heavy her bag is!

The other thing to consider is you have absolutely no defence if someone does claim copyright infringement after posting a thread like this - you are basically stating you were planning to do this so you can't even claim you were ignorant of the laws now.

This sort of question is one you ask a lawyer, not a leatherworker. Look at it this way though. If you were a photographer and someone was making money from your images, would you want recognition and recompense?

*Steampunk mode on* The Engineers Belt and Pouch is an upgrade to the original Airship Engineers pouch with more space for tools, Aether cylinders and equipment. Pouch has a soft suede gusset with a roomy interior and simple leather latch. Belt has one large loop for tools, two smaller loops suitable for cylinders or shotgun shells and four D-rings to attach other items. */steampunk mode* I gave this a rag-dyed finish for an aged look - actually it's kitchen towel, crumple it up and use water-based dye and it comes out lovely and mottled. The edges are not brilliant, this is quite thin, 1.8-2mm leather and this section just didn't want to burnish. I'll go back over it with some gum trag when it's fully dry. I originally did this as a standalone belt pouch but my wife wanted a belt to go with it for the days when she wants a pouch ("WHY don't womens jeans have pockets!" is a phrase I hear a lot...) but doesn't want a belt on whatever she's wearing so I made this one. Last pic is the original pouch. Oh, and sorry about the omnipresent watermarks, I've had issues with some pics being used on another site so I do this for everything I post now.

Best one I've used is Copydex but I can't get that in Australia :S Still looking for an alternative here.

I actually use a regular bushcraft knife for skiving most of the time, but I'll definitely have to think about those...

Wish the outlet stuff didn't JUST come from the US. I gave up on it when I wanted to order a few vest kits for $5 each and they wanted to charge me something like $70 to ship them.

One figure I saw was to allow 15% per hide as wastage so for your 20ft hide you'd have a working size of 17ft

I've had one for nearly a year (Able 290) and TBH I'm over it! Hand cranked means you only have one hand for the job and getting anything bar a straight line out of it is a PITA. The machine works well enough but it's just not much use for larger projects or anything with curves

I did suggest earlier that he try someone who turns pens, but warned they would not take the price he was after. I also suggested he actually try what he's saying is so easy. DavidL, get a sharp knife, around 1" to 2" straight blade, get one of the pieces of wood you want and see how much effort it takes you to produce one pair of your screws. Then, when you have some real-world experience, come back and re-evaluate your position. I'm not the only woodworker who has offered their opinions but you have ignored all of us. TBH, there's no point in asking the question if you're not prepared to take on board the advice given. You want exotic wood plugs. You're looking at reconstituted 70% plastic/30% wood (which you would still have to pay someone to 3d model for you, nobody works for free man.) You say you want the whittled look, not the perfect finish then you say you want them CNC milled (which would need programming which would not get done for free). You want them threaded, unthreaded, male, female... I honestly think you are way beyond what your original brief was and you need to go back, cost things in a more realistic manner and see if this is ever going to be worth your time. People have suggested various ways in which you could do this and each has been dismissed. FYI, a bond with a good PVA wood glue between 2 flat surfaces is stronger than most of the woods you'd be gluing together - test it out! Get 2 pieces, flatten the ends, glue as per the instructions and try to break the join. You will break the wood first, not the join, if you've followed the instructions correctly.

70% plastic and powdered pine is not wood. If it was 30% leather would that make it leather? No. Plastic coloured like leather perhaps but not leather. Where is the grain? Where are the knots? Ground down to powder and extruded like fiberboard (MDF). You cannot mistake this for wood.

It's plastic with 30% pine. Not wood, certainly not hardwood, and definitely not something that can replicate the look of wood. Do your own research. Unless you want to get a commercial grade 3d printer you're pretty much stuck with either PLA or ABS. Fillers used can give different textures or colours but at the end of the day it's plastic. No grain, no features, just wood coloured plastic. It's like when you mix your sawdust with glue to fill a hole. It can cover it but it ain't wood, and something like he wants would have to be modeled in 3d before printing, so does he know 3d modeling? Is he willing to pay for that, when the end result is going to be wood filler in the shape he wants, not actual wood? Somehow I doubt the result would be worth it.

3D printing with wood filaments? Nope, you're way out left field there. There are 2 things 3D printers can print with, and they are different types of plastic. You cannot get 3d printed wood. I suggest you get some wood and a sharp knife. Learn something of the job you want before making any more errors. Assumptions and vague ideas of the process means you actually have no concept of what you're asking.

I am a wood carver as well as a leather worker and I can tell you now you'd not get me for that job. Firstly, the wood you want is a very hard wood, right? Well, whittling means hand work, not machine. Whittling the very hard woods is a laborious task even with the sharpest of blades - the harder the wood, the harder the job. Most whittling is done in Lime or Basswood, which is (for a hardwood) easily carvable and resists splitting well. By the time you work up to Oak, you're more than doubling or trebling your workload to make the same item. Your best bet would be to find someone who makes wooden pens with a micro lathe. These guys do not work for peanuts though and you'd be lucky to find anyone who would do that job for the money you want to pay. Bottom line, you want custom, you pay custom. You want off the shelf components, you pay store/wholesale price.

David, you're talking out of your nethers. - So how does the woodworker charge for his time in setting up, trial and error, getting it right so you get a product that works? You want to add that to your dollar 50? You're cheating him, not the other way around. If someone came to you and wanted something you have no pattern for, something you might need to buy new tools to make, and offered you only a bare wholesale price per part, would you take the job? How many hours work would you be prepared to put in unpaid so that customer could get his cheap option?

If it were Brisbane I could point you to a few places but I don't know Melb at all sorry

Excellent, thank you all It's really been bugging me. I'm still trying to get an answer from the dye company as to what they recommend as a resist to their dyes. 3 coats of their own sealer and the dye went straight through. I will definitely look into the latex

Thanks from me also My local shop has the chisels in mm and the stitch markers in spi so it's really helpful to see this.

Looks like it got a good sun tanning there, and maybe lost some of the polish, but apart from that it looks good for something out in the elements with no protection or care for a couple of weeks!

I generally trim the seam allowance down then run a bone folder around the inside. You can trim much closer to the stitches than you can with cloth

Hmm the sealer doesn't actually seal. So the whole point of doing that area in the first place was made pointless. I did mask it just in case but the dye still got under the tape, same as before, and went straight through the 3 times coated surface. Why would a company sell something in their range branded as 'Leather sealer' when it still leaves a porous surface? I can see it labeled as a finish but not when it says on the packaging it's a sealer. :/ Need to find a decent resist to spirit-based dyes now.

2 people have recommended latex mask to me, I always thought that would harm the leather? I've not used it before, how hard is it to use, and to remove after?

1.6 is a PITA to carve at the best of times, there's just not much grain there. Unless I really need the leather that weight I get 2mm and up, it always carves easy. I have a local leather shop about an hours drive away so I don't use Tandy. Nowt against them but I can hand-pick my hides from the local store instead of online ordering - going to Tandy for me (there's only one in Aus) would be like you driving to Spain!