thekid77

cutting leather that thin can tend to stretch if you're using a utility knife/razor blade.....I'd use a rotary cutter with a fresh blade.... for your strips, just measure out the width and lay a straight edge down over the leather on a large flat surface....you can clamp the straight edge down over the leather with a couple of C clamps and make your cuts

hey Art!! very interesting video indeed!! thank you for sharing!!! hi Buster, yes, I do have a stitching pony. I have been doing leatherwork for about two years and I have since gotten better at dyeing, finishing, beveling edges, making various patterns, and hand stitching. I have put many hours into hand stitching and it's my favorite part of finishing a project, but I don't have much experience stitching leather that thick.....any experience you could share would be awesome. I really want to stick with doing everything by hand (no sewing machine)...i'm very patient thank you Gary!!! Yes, this is very helpful indeed!!

Hi and welcome to the trade!!! You will find many kind and helpful people here... The best advice I can give you is to contact Bruce Johnson here: http://brucejohnsonleather.com/about-me/my-leatherwork Telephone: (844) LTHR-Tools Two years ago I was in the same boat you are now--I called Bruce because I had read that he is the go-to guy for tools and is very well-respected on this forum. When I first started, I called him up, told him what I wanted to do, and he picked out a simple tool set for me. He will be happy to help you as well...truly a nice guy Have fun!!!

Thank you for the advice Twin!!! Much appreciated :D

Hey friends, Have any of you out there hand stitched a leather halter? If you have, can you share your experience, the challenges, what you used? I'm a very patient person and I know it's a lot of leather to go through, but if anybody could share advice for stitching a halter by hand i'd appreciate it.... To be clear, I do not want to use a sewing machine Thank you in advance for sharing!

Hi there, may I ask how you prepare to sew learher that thick? What size diamond awl are you using? Thank you!!! You do beautiful work :D

Seriously take my word for this....ditch all the black dyes that you are using and buy the Tandy Black Waterstain......I can tell you that this stuff, after allowing it to dry will not come off even if your holding the dyed piece in running water.... save yourself a pain in the rear and just use this stuff trust me I will be the first person to say that I am not all that thoroughly impressed with many Tandy products but this is a quality product that is the end-all for anyone dyeing things black.

agreed, but i'm a poor ex-college student.....i'll stick with the safety beveler for now LOL

no need to wet the leather, but do make sure that you skive with fresh blades.......those little injector razor blades are cheap and material is not.....the goal is a nice smooth skive actually, one thing though......if the leather you are trying to skive has a really fuzzy flesh side, this can make skiving evenly difficult.......you can apply some gum trag to the flesh side and take a roller or anything and slick down the leather. let it dry completely.....then come back and skive and this will make things easier.... ***one caveat: if you are applying gum trag to a piece of leather that you have not yet dyed, be very careful not to get any on the grain (smooth) side or it will resist the dye in the spot where the gum trag touched.....hope this helps :D

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your knowledge....I'm definitely trying to build my wallets to last. I still have much to learn.....the thickness of the leather in the stress areas such as the fold of the wallet hadn't even entered my mind until a friend of mine brought it up. At the same time, I have a feeling that if somebody told me to bend that inside piece back and forth until it tore through, I'd be trying to get the leather to tear through longer than I'd probably want the wallet LOL...I am going to use thicker leather though in the future, and just make sure that I properly skive down the card slots to lose some of the bulk... Thank you for your advice!!! It's just, I'm a little (ok maybe a lot) obsessive-compulsive when it comes to details LOL...thanks again!!! :D Thank you for sharing electrathon, yeah I'm not too excited about using pre-made wallet insides...I'm going to try 3/4oz for the back and for the inside panel and see how it turns out...

hey friends, I recently made a simple bifold wallet and skived down the leather of the inside/outside panels to about .8mm-1mm, resulting in a fairly thin wallet... what I didn't consider that someone brought to my attention is that the fold of the inside panel might begin to tear through over time and with use.... has anyone had this problem? how thin is too thin? I want to build my wallets to last..... I was thinking, to reinforce the leather where the wallet folds, I could contact cement another piece of leather maybe 1/2" wide strip on the flesh side behind the fold and skive the edges down to prevent tear through.... if anyone has had any problems with this happening, or could share their advice/experience I would really appreciate it!!! thank you so much

I love your work!!! Are you using a pricking iron? or just punching the holes one by one with a diamond awl? I am impressed!!! :D

hey Blue, to strop the blades get yourself a 1" wide strip of leather and secure it to something hard and flat (flesh side facing up)....rub green polishing compound onto the flesh side of the leather....all you have to do from here is lightly strop the safety beveler in between every 5-10 cuts and you'll get a lot more life out of your blades.... hope this helps!!

Hey everyone, I'm glad you found this helpful...please tell me how things work out for you!!

hey Tiara, I make bifold wallets and regularly skive 3-4oz leather down to about 2-3oz with the Tandy safety beveler.... a few tips that might help... -start off with a fresh blade and have a thick strip of leather loaded with green polishing compound on it (I will strop gently in between every 5-10 cuts with the safety beveler)--you will greatly extend the life of your blades, and the beveler will cut like butter... -skive on a smooth, clean surface like glass or marble -I start by beveling down the outer perimeter of the piece of leather first....for example, if I had a 3x5" piece of leather that I needed to skive down, I would bevel the edge of one side first down to the thickness that I want.... -then, I would bevel the other three sides... -finally, begin to bevel the inside in thin sweeping passes (the beveler is slightly curved so it will create ridges in between cuts--go back later and get rid of the ridges by lightly cutting them away with the beveler as well)... -the beveler, when skiving the insides, should only cut as deeply as the sides are beveled.....that is the benefit of beveling around the edges first....for some reason, the beveled edges act as a guide for the beveler when you are making the cuts..... hope this helps!!!

If you aren't already, you may try applying the neatsfoot oil immediately after dying the leather....the pores are open and it will absorb the oil more readily....this is what I always do...i use ecoflo and the waterstain from tandy and this works for me....hope it works for you!!! credit to Chuck Burrows for recommending the application of the oil when the leather is still damp from the dye

I just use the baseball card toploaders potective sleeves and cut my id windows from those (you can get two windows from one sleeve....they are very cheap. The brand is Ultra Pro: http://www.atomicempire.com/item.aspx?item=43313&gclid=CIWEnpeducQCFYiVfgodGWQASQ

Caroleb hi, you need to keep talking to Chuck....have you seen his work?? His stuff brand new looks 100-200 yrs old....he is a wellspring of knowledge and a very nice guy check out some of his stuff here: http://www.wrtcleather.com/

Pancho, first off, beautiful work!! Second, poly thread melts at fairly low temps...I think you can just get a piece of metal hot on a burner and touch it to the thread.......you may be able to avoid geting the thread dirty in the absence of a flame/combustion....hope this helps Whatever you do, never practice/experiment on a project that's almost finished...have fun!!

Thanks for the advice Twin, it's really odd...I stitch through the same thickness of leather all the time for wallets, and this never happens.....when I stitch something like a strap, it's getting deformed....I will try everything you've suggested

nice stitching....how many stitches per inch and are you using a pricking iron?

hey friends, I tried making a wallet strap for the first time today out of some 8-9oz vegtan i had lying around....everything was going well until i started stitching.... i noticed that the leather along the stitched edge was starting to deform.....is my leather too soft? sure, smaller harness needles and thread would help, but i hand stitch wallets all the time and never have this problem.... any advice is appreciated!! thank you

Yes, like electrathon said!! it's really all personal preference, just experiment and see what appeals more to your eye....less stitches per inch will make the thread more visible, while more stitches per inch makes the thread more subtle....

If you are willing to take 40 minutes and watch this video, I think it will help you make a decision regarding the commonly used finished out on the market today....after watching it, I have used acrylic resolene diluted 50% with water and haven't looked back....I used it whether I am dyeing my projects or just leaving them natural....hope it helps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyTg_hfpNUM

Hi there! Welcome to the trade I would be happy to share my experience with you....as you will see, in leather work, there are lots of different ways to go about doing things....just experiment!!! :D First, about dyeing the leather....I do have experience using the Tandy Black Waterstain....it's great stuff....unlike the eco flo line of dyes, the waterstain, after allowing it to dry for about a day, really sticks to the leather well.....also, after applying the dye, while the leather is damp, it's a good time to apply a light coat of neatsfoot oil to the surface to the leather....this will help keep the leather supple and help to prevent cracking and wrinkling if the leather is to be folded later... after the dye is dry, just take a wool cloth and buff the surface of the leather to remove any residual dye particles left on the surface.... At first, I used the eco flo finishes, but now I use acrylic resolene....it provides, in my opinion a much better finish in terms of look, durability, and water resistance. Fiebings makes it... To use the acrylic resolene, I mix it 1 part resolene to 1 part water...if you don't dilute the resolene, it's very easy to apply too thick a coat, which will lead to the finish looking like plastic and cracking easily....to get better results, the resolene needs to be built up in very light coats (being allowed to dry completely in between each coat).....so, after diluting it 1:1 water/resolene, just take an old cotton t shirt, fold it up into a 3" square, and put it up to the mouth of the bottle with the resolene and tip the bottle onto the shirt a couple times, then blot the shirt on a paper towel lightly....then apply the resolene with smooth swirls onto your leather piece. Allow the first coat to dry for an hour or two. Additional coats can be applied depending on whether you want a matte finish, or a more glossy finish)...after applying your coat(s) of resolene, and allowing to dry, just buff the surface of the leather with a cotton cloth and the resolene will take a polish... About setting the snaps... -first, make sure that your snap is properly sized for the thickness of leather you are trying to set it to. If there is too much post sticking up above the leather, it is easy for it to bend off kilter when you're trying to set it..... -second, make sure the hole you are punching is properly sized for the post of the snap (there should be no wiggle room) -third, I find that the inside edge of the tandy snaps tend to be rolled inward slightly, which can make setting them more difficult.....you can take a scratch awl and rotate the awl against the inner edge of the snaps and it will flare the metal outward a little (kinda starting the roll of the metal)....doing this makes life much easier.... -fourth, don't try to set the snap in two or three hits, make sure you are tapping lightly with the hammer and rotating the setter tool as you are tapping....being in a hurry in leather work is a recipe for disaster... hope this helps!!!