Clintonville Leather

A while back I read about an Amish machinist making self centering belt tippers but can't seem to find the info here now. If someone could point me to the thread or has his contact info it would be greatly appreciated.

A lot of good info here. The pairing knife I made was 1/8" and I can tell thinner would be better. I am not sure how many stock incrememts are smaller guess I will try 1/16 for a trim knife.

I figure it is fine. I did a low temp temper around 350F it is solely for slicing leather so I am not worried about it chipping or anything.

It may have been overheated. I heated it in a propane forge to just past magnetic. I dont have any high temp thermometers.

Thank you, I think I will make a trim knife next. Save money on the disposable blades.

Super basic but it slices

Sorry I havent been on recently. I think I can load a picture. It isnt pretty but it cuts well. I am still having trouble skiving enough to turn a 5oz edge though. Well, it says the file is too big let me try and shrink it

Scratch that, it just wasnt sharp enough. Arm shaving isnt enough, hair popping glides through like butter.

I got a 1" x 1/8" x6" piece of o1. Put about a 30 degree angle in it and a 10 degree bevel. Heat treated and tempered then sharpened and polished to 8,000. It shaves and skives about 3/16" wide but I am having trouble doing any sort of wide skive I could fold. I can tell it likes to slice at an angle greater than 30 degrees. I think my bevel is too small and the steel is too thick. I will mess with it more. I can tell it will take a lot of tinkering to figure out. Good news is I think I will make a trim knife since the knife making part was easy enough. Took up most of an evening but it was educational. The tip got nicked a so I can see how rounding that would be useful, wont really be cutting with that part anyway.

Thank you, I have some steel coming soon. I have a bench splitter for belts I just wanted to make something for turned edges.

I just ordered a piece of steel to make a skiving knife. About what angle did you make yours? At first I thought 45 was good but the more I see the more it looks like a little more is common.

Ok, thank you

Hello I made an item for someone recently. I tried rubbing off as much dye as I could and put some tan kote on it but the customer is getting rub off. Wondering if anyone knows a good top coat to use on latigo. Thank you

When using the doming tool it is mandatory this be done on a very hard surface such as an anvil or piece of granite. Trying to do this on a wood surface will not be good as wood is not hard enough.

Just to add to the good advice here. In my experience green compound works best for tool steel

Ugh, that would be some math. I did notice my panel had 97 holes. I made the gusset oversized to trim and had to add 3 holes to it. Thank you I will mess with it some more.

Does anyone have a tip for roundbraiding a curved gusset when the holes start to not line up? I have tried going through a hole multiple times as I would do on a flat item around a corner but cant get it quite right. Any tips greatly appreciated. Thank you

Good advice here. Might also want to use a larger beveler to round the edge more.

Whenever I glue something I put a piece of scrap leather on top of the project and hit it a few times with a mallet. Make sure the scrap is larger than the mallet surface. If you whack the edge of the scrap with the mallet you may leave a mark on your project.

Pants size is worthless. Pants makers have been using vanity sizing since 1937. You have skinny -1" regular fit +2" relaxed fit +4" loose fit +5" so many different styles of pants and NONE of them are an accurate measurement. That is the reason belt makers will say to add 2" and also the reason why half of the reviews will say This belt is too small! I always have people measure an old belt.

That looks great. It takes a lot of practice to make less mistakes. It is very rare to see anything that is perfect. You will judge yourself more than onlookers.

As others have mentioned pics may help. If you are using diamond punches it is essential to hold the punch completely perpendicular to the work surface. I find it helps to put the punch in two previously punched holes to help line up the second punch through. For example if you have a 6 hole punch only punch 4 new holes the second time. Use the last two holes of the first punch to line up the next one so you only make 4 new holes if that makes sense. I also take an extra couple seconds to visually line it up before using a mallet. Following a scribe line from your wing dividers helps a lot.

Not sure about specifics but you may find a one sided presser foot makes sewing easier if the raised area is throwing the stitch line off.

I oil before then dye but I usually use the Fiebings oil. Most stains tend to dry the leather. The Eco Flo Waterstain dries it a lot if I use that I condition it before finishing with a tallow beeswax mixture. Any conditioner should work. I usually use Tan Kote for a finish and have not used clear lac. Tan Kote seems to bend just fine.

Nuts, the video in that thread is no longer working and the instructions arent making sense to me. I will ask a braider later this week.