DavidL

fiebings leather cement is the same as white glue as far as I can tell.

Sending a pdf of the dies to the company will get you a quote. It sounds common practice that dies be made exactly to your specification, request that your dies are made with 90 degree corners if there are any, in all fairness that could of been how they are regularly made. I have a few dies that didnt have the 90 degree corner, one of the dies wasn't straight. I gotten a replacement of the one die and the replacement had a huge blue weld mark on the side.. I've done a bit of welding in HS and know its difficult to do that bad of a job on purpose... If you want the name of the company send me a PM. Learning from that experience, its always easier to hope things will work out or that a company will fufill there responsibility, the things to do is to have all your bases covered even if that means taking more time. Do a bit of research on everything from the item to the shipping. Do know that you can self declare packages relatively easily and safe yourself some cash (at least in Canada). Ex. warranty, how they make the dies, return policy.. Seeing that the website lacks info and detail, 9 times out of 10 the product does too.. If you miss the warning signs, didnt do the research you would just be taking an uninformed chance. For business this is a recipe for disaster, so do learn from my mistake..

precise metal ruler. Raw hide hammer. large and/or small 90 degree ruler (squared edges)

thats fantastic. Looks like theres a positive future for your company. One thing I noticed is the thread is exposed in picture 1. Like a shoe lace it could come undone I would imagine. Contact cement when done properly can create a permanent bond on two pieces of leather, locking the thread from coming undone. You can even go as far as taping the thread down too. In picture one again, the left side is skived too far weakening the leather, closest to the stress point (near the watch face). The right side strap would be stronger in theory. "When split to 20% of original thickness kangaroo retains between 30 to 60% of the tensile strength of the unsplit hide. Calf on the other hand split to 20% of original thickness retains only 1-4% of original strength." Not too much to change for the strap but my thinking is if you can make it better and it cost no extra money to enhance your product, it would be dumb not to do it. Chances are how it is now may not be an issue but tiny changes will ensure there will not be an issue. Although companies do decide to keep slightly flawed design aspects, fixing them in the next version.. that is a different topic entirely that could be discussed for days.

glueing only the edges might help.

This may be useful to splice together two strips.

Glad it was useful I made a new PDF. A few things were left out of the first one. Grooving the backside of the end cap is important to create a flatter bend, changing the measurements and tweaking the proportion slightly is necessary. gusset.pdf

Thats brilliant!

I been playing around with various gussets. So far I haven't tried to create this type of gusset yet, I can't say for certain this is the correct way. How I would try to create this gusset/ end cap is to understand how it is constructed, what materials I can use and can't. One quick note - Two pieces of 1.5mm leather same length glued together in theory the piece on top should wrinkle. The top piece should be a somewhere from a mm to a cm shorter. A real life example - A track field has many lanes, the closest to the inside is a shorter run than the outer lane, same with the gusset. Use a measuring tape on the bottom piece of leather. The type of construction on the end cap is grain to grain, gusset is sewn to the strip, then to the main body. You can change the width of the strip to make the end cap more recessed or less. gusset.pdf

I would think it would be okay if you sand the surface.

http://www.sorrellnotionsandfindings.com Aquilim 315 water based. From the description its 3 times stronger than contact cement. A way you may want to try is to cut out the gusset to the length and width then align it as close as you can. When watching videos on shoe construction - sole gluing to upper (glueing the toe and heel area first) bag making - gusset gluing to front panel, the re occurring theme is they glue the (bag) edges and corners first then the parts in between will naturally want to stay straight if that makes sense.. Another thing I have done purely for practice is to take a 10 cm strip of leather (gusset) and stitch it around a rounded corner (also 10cm long around the bend). If I match the ends of the gusset to the ends of the rounded corner the gusset will fit perfectly. I haven't done it enough times to tell if I need to add a few mms of length because the corner needs more leather or if thickness of the gusset leather has a role. The only way to really find an answer is to do it on scraps multiple times till you get it how you want.

1. You could hand stitch two backstitches by hand. From trial and error I prefer to back stitch twice add a dab of white glue to the end of my awl and tuck the thread into the hole by pushing the awl through. 2. Three possible ways you could experiment with the outer layer could fold over the inner piece and stitch in place. Do measurements to add allowance for the thickness of leather and the thickness of the piece you need to fold over. Draw and cut out the pattern with registration marks. Pre cut the lining to size and stitch take the pattern of the lining shorten by a few mm's and cut out a piece of leather board/ plastic stiffener to that size. skive edge of leather with a very very sharp skiving knife or sandpaper/ dremel. fold the skived leather over the plastic to create the lining.

thats a great collar. I like the added touch of the logo. What do you use in your padding, I never tried to do anything with padding before.

thanks for the picture. I will try that resolene this way.

My mistake I wrote lambskin for goat skin. Goat skin is stronger than cow, lambskin is softer and more delicate. http://www.annaandkristina.com/leather-clothes/

does anyone have pictures of 50/50 resolene. I hear that resolene can be plastic looking when full but haven't seen it in the flesh or in pictures. What I use now is leather balm and it has a tacky feeling and an odd smell to it. Thanks for the tips I will try them out.

will there be hard plastic placed in the knuckles and wrist for protection? Less protection is probably needed on the palms although in an emergency situation I'm not certain if you would use your palm or not.. maybe your finger tips, thumb and lower palm. If its not for safety and comfort only then something soft and durable would be my choice. Another point is whether or not you want padding to keep your wrist rigid in a fall and if that makes it more comfortable to keep your wrists in that locked position while you pull the throttle. Almost like how MMA fighting gloves are designed to keep your hand in a clenched position so its easier to fight with. Lambskin is apparently stronger than cowhide... plus many gloves are lambskin Do share pictures of the gloves, I'm interested in the finished product.

Has anyone tried successfully dulling resolene by adding matte fluid medium? It is suppose to work with acrylic paints and resolene I hear is acrylic. http://www.amazon.com/Liquitex-Professional-Matte-Medium-8-Ounce/dp/B000IYWYNE Any other ways to dull down resolene? It sounds like the best finish but isn't matte like the other finishes.

last poster has some odour issues with ecoweld.. could of been a bad batch http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=42708 heres a review of a low odour water based contact cement conveniently tested on leather. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1083689-Water-based-Contact-Cement-Test Lepage low odour seems to hold its own compared to barge. Not available in USA but if its non toxic they may be able to send it by post. This may the the only time Canadians getting a better deal than Americans..

Tooling is fantastic. The fuel tank pic looks like you beveled the hole. Incredible amount of detail, good job. How did you get the plastic/metal to hold the veg tan?

hermes uses barbours and I think gutterman sewing machine thread too for watch straps. 3:00Selling something for 5 grand a piece, having the best thread isn't too much of a cost. Selling a piece for 50 the thread starts to become unnecessary especially if you need 5 different colours in different sizes. Fil au chinois thread is great thread but Barbours linen hand sewing thread will be my next thread I get, from what I hear it is great.

My mistake, for some reason I had 60 as the number.

try lekoza.com, edge paint is not toxic. they have free shipping over 60 to Canada last time I checked - shown in checkout

right handed version has the bevel on the left side - holding the knife like an exacto for cutting, tip facing down. For paring (bevel facing down) for cutting out patterns using a ruler its terrible IMO. I skive right handed, left to right so the angle on the right hander is \ which is the one you want if you skive the same way. The picture on the website the knife on the bottom is the righty. Picture 2 shows how to use a right handed Japanese leather knife, tilting the blade. A cutting knife with a chisel grind dragging along a ruler you want the LH version unless you want to tilt your knife while you cut. Pic attached worker skives bevel up, instead of bevel down so skiving can be done with a lefty or righty. Hope this isn't too confusing.

the shoe last wont be the same shape as your nike toe box and wont be the same shape as the shoe sole. You may have better luck scribing a line on the upper and glueing it to the sole. The upper should have extra leather to reach the bottom of the sole. bag stiffener, or flexible plastic among other materials can be used as support. for the making of the sole you may be able to make a negative mould and pour in material and find a way to set it. Machinery is probably necessary to set the silicone or whatever material you use. Its an entire different world to make a mould. A month of testing to make the mould from wood, make a negative mould and then pour the silicone perfectly and then set the material.