I'm new to the site and to leather work and I wouldn't want to infringe on anyone elses work so i have some questions as far as patterns for knife sheaths and spur straps( as this is what i am currently working/practicing in).
There are alot of custom knife, knife and sheath and sheath makers on the net. I have done alot of reasearch, read "how to's" watched the Youtube vid's and watched the vid's on Tandy. So my question is this: is it an infringement on a custom maker if I look at their website, and use the design of one or several of their sheaths as an insperation for my own? For example: the first website I found was for a Canadian custom knife maker who put a tutorial on his website for making a pocket type sheath, seemed a good place to start so I ordered some leather(I started with a Belly) dye, stamps and gave it a go for a cheap Frost skinner that I had. the second site gave a pic intensive how to for a stacked leather sheath by another custom sheath maker(but he only makes sheaths for a certain brand of knives). I tooled the front and over 3/4's of the back and did a double row of hand stiches (ladder stich) for another Frost, a 13" fixed blade. I am currently working on another sheath for another Frost knife that I wanted to have the spine and a portion of the blade grind exposed on. For this I found another custom maker who hand makes all of his knives and the sheaths are custom to each knife he makes, but he does not make sheaths for any other knives. He makes several exposed spine sheaths with different types of retainers and that is I guess my real question, I don't want to "steal his work" but the designs are incredible, and i was hoping that through my own practice I will be able to draw the curves and lines without needing to take bits and pieces of others work.
2nd as far as spur straps...Tandy has patterns for download so i was wondering if I do the tooling all on my own as far as choosing the stamps, the layout and any carving and the buckles then that would be considered original? Like i said I'm new to this trade and I just want to do it right. It's mainly for fun and a hobbie but since I finished my first two some of the guys at work are asking for sheaths to replace canvas or worn out leather ones and holsters too.
Oh, i hope to eventually get photos uploaded of the work that I have done so I can get some feedback.
Phil