toxo

Gotta love Tony Sees designs. Good job and welcome to the forum.

When I was in JT Leather the other day and I was sorely tempted to buy what looks like a forged one. It looked solid and was only £19. I passed cos the one I have already just suffers from the punches going through to the void. Could glue it but will want to sharpen/replace them at some time so will probably find/machine a circular piece to fit in the hole.

I think you must be an alien Brian. With everything else you have going on you find the time to do stuff like this! I wish I had half your drive. Fantastic stuff. Well done.

Excellent work. That handle looks like a great fit in the hand. In fact that knife is sliding nowhere, no matter how wet or bloody. Good job.

Really good work there Marietje. I've been thinking about a gym bag and that looks just right. Done a few of Tonys designs. Will look at the weekender again. On the backpack, another good build but I'm thinking you won't be able to use the extra space of the turnover at the top without making the straps a bit longer or am I seeing it wrong? Well done.

For centering those rulers look good. I just measure roughly and set my wing dividers to half that and mark from each side. Quicker to do than to write. As wizard mentioned sometimes you need a straight line for the strap cutter. I was lucky and found a galvanised wide angle iron that does that job but before I found that I used a "ping" line. Which is just a piece of string with chalk dust on it. Just pull it taut, pull up in the middle and let go. nice straight line as long as you want it. Here's the proper tool for the job but any piece of string will do.

I don't see anything wrong with it! Good job.

Good job! I quite fancy trying a couple of these just to see if I can do it and learn that box stitch on the bottom.

Good job. Love those handles.

Excellent work Alex. Sheridan style tooling isn't always my favourite when there's loads of it but when used like this it looks really good.

Got a few different calibers in there Frodo.

Here's my motley crew.I favour the 2lb weight. Not so far to lift and it goes back on the work to aid extraction. We don't hit hard enough to harm the implements so I'm guessing the textures on hammer faces are to avoid slipping. When I start doing some tooling I can always glue some thin leather on one face. Is the orange one what's called a deadblow? Seems to have a loose weight inside. Also pictured is my "anvil" . It's very heavy and gets into places other anvils can't reach.

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one. I think the others are using smaller needles than JJ#2s. Two 1.4 needles going through a 1.5 hole has gotta be atight fit. I'm gonna get me some of those #1s

Well that's interesting! I understood "artificial sinew" to be a colour. I bought it as flat waxed polyester which it is. I wonder what makes it different? And I wonder why they sell the stuff at all without making that clear. I should add that I bought it as 1.2 mm. The problems I mentioned in the first post was getting two needles through the hole at the same time as per recommended by Atkinson, Armitage etc.Not because the thread was too thick. I quite like the thread except for the splitting of the strands after a long length of stitching which I'm hoping extra wax will help with. I'm certainly not gonna toss it. I've got one and a half rolls of the stuff.

I quite like the flat All I've used so far is the Tandy flat waxed artificial sinew which is reasonably priced. Just didn't like the fraying. Hoping the extra waxing will help. I have used the stitching chisels but mostly a hole punch cos as you know that's how Tonys patterns are laid out so you know the're gonna match at the ends. What I do is put the first needle through and then hold the needle and the incoming thread on the other side so I can pull them both up to make the maximum space before putting the second needle through if that makes sense and then snug together. I have something similar to your picture with just one hole on it for awkward places. Very reasonable from JT Batchelors.

Sorry guys. I meant to reply yesterday but got sidetracked. Firstly consider me suitably chastised and I promise I won't do it again. Fred and Wizard: I'm confused now. I'm using 2.4 leather and I sometimes have to resort to putting the needles through one at a time in a 1.5 hole. Maybe I have wusses for fingers. I hadn't thought of the extra wax. Should make a big difference. Thanks for that. Zulu: I actually emailed JJ some time ago because someone else mentioned the 002 2/0 thing. I was confused as a newbie because everywhere calls em #2 or #2/0 but even on the JJ website the image used is clearly #002. They eventually came back and said they're all the same. To be clear my needles are 1.4mm as mentioned by Fred. As far as the thickness of the thread goes, up until now I've done mostly Dieselpunk.Ro designs which are for the most part predicated on the steampunk movement and sometimes the thickness of the contrasting thread is a feature of the design as are the rivets and fastenings. If you haven't looked at his stuff yet he does some weird stuff that many people seem to like. And no one has said whether flat or round is easier?

Come on guys I know this is mainly a machine forum but no-one has anything to say after 78 views?

Hi guys. Up until now I've been happy to use flat thread when hand sewing but on a longish run I've noticed it gets a bit scruffy and the individual strands come unstuck and sometimes one strand doesn't pull up as tight as the rest. I've been using John James No2 needles and 1.2 waxed flat thread and it's been a struggle to get those needles through a 1,5mm hole. Before ordering more thread I thought I'd ask you guys if I'm doing something wrong. What's the concensus regarding thread/needle/hole size amongst you guys when sewing two pieces of veg tan?

Dieselpunks designs are relatively foolproof spud and he's a nice guy that always helps his fans when needed. He's got a great facebook page (and I hate facebook. won't go there for anything else). He's just issued a free pattern to his fans to celebrate 40,000 downloads. Two of my daughters wanted one. The lighter coloured one is not finished yet. These two bring my tally of projects to four. As you can see, more practice needed but they are usable. Note that on the darker one I put the front on the outside which gives a rounder design (but a nightmare to sew) with two JJ#2 needles and 1.2 thread going through a 1.5 hole). On the lighter one I put the front to the back which gives a different look and much easier to sew.

Well done zelix. My first was the Motoko3. Like the mod to the handle. I see you didn't go with the lozenge. If I were picky about the design, I don't like just one rivet on the strap which is holding the whole weight of the bag. (easily remedied) and the handle. Otherwise I love all three of the Motokos. Good job on the tote also, did you just glue the lining?

First time I've seen your work Bear. One can only marvel that such things can be done to a piece of leather. Stunning detail!

I can see that. A bit like the Household Cavalry using a heated spoon to supershine their boots.

Come on Mike! That's only half an answer. We wanna know how it was used don't we Fred?

I would say an iron of some kind?

Why not just install into the first layer before gluing up all three layers?