Sona

Actually I think, exspecially for the hobbyists, leatherwork and woodworking are kind of connected. There are a lot of guys who build there own workbenches, stitching clamps/ponys and stuff, in addition there are a lot of forms for bags, wet forming/molding and stuff you can make out of wood (plus some tools you can use for both crafts ^^). I know some videos of him and yes, it is nice to watch him. He is this kind of handtool woodworker who know what he is doing (which is not that often these days ^^). But about sharpening videos.... I don´t know how much videos are out there. I still think, that you learn sharpening by just doing it and by trying out a couple of different techniques/materials. You will find your own way, which is the only one that will fit exactly for you. In the end, most of those sharpening videos tell you the same anyway, maybe with those exceptions of "use oil stones" vs "us water stones" or "use the green compund" vs "stropping is inefficient". So all in all: Yes, I think having a look into woodworking is a good idea, but I think it´s funny that you pointed out exspecially the sharpening videos

@DavidL: Haha, damn it. I got to admit, that I didn´t see that in the first place. Sry for that stupid question. Of course you are right If I had seen that before, I think I would have advised him to use some veg tan ^^. @comopasta: Well for casing the leather there are some threads here in the forum. I´d just use the search engine for that. And yes, it is about soaking it with water About the rings: as I just cleaned up my work space, I just took a little time to make such a little ring with that skiving joint. It´s made quite wuick and dirty, so you can see directly where you would have to pay some attention (right at the joint positioning). Besides that: David is right, this just works that well with one piece of veg tan. With your leather you might find something flexible but sturdy, fitting around your/the finger where you could stitch the leather around.... maybe So here the example. And just for you to know: I normally don´t do such things (making stuff just to show how to make it). So this is kind of an exception ^^

Quick sample illustration.

Skiving was the word, not beveling, right I´d skive it, too, but I think, a butt stitch wwould be a alternative way of doing it. For the buttstich: To form the leather, I´d case it an wrap it around any round Thing(bar(dovel, what ever, that fits the measurements you Need. Than just wrap sth smooth around it to Keep it that way, until it´s dry (I´d leave it like a day or so). Like that you should have much less Problems with the Tension of the leather opening up at the Joint. And don´t think to much about taht "5 degrees". it´s just about "a slight angle" nothing more If you skive it, you should have any Problems with the Tension, but - exspecially if you use predyed leather - you have to work quite exact to get a good result. When skiving I´d stitch the reing with a normal saddle-stitch. SPI 8+ just enough stitches to go over both Ends of the Joint. @DavidL The 3-4mm: depends on the leather. If you do that I´d try it with 2-3 first, as the seam will look awfull if you cut off too much. And it depends on your stitching. If you i.e. use a butt stitch, you might just rip the thread through the leather... If you do some knife sheaths this works great, but on this Project you just got about 3, maybe 4 holes, so even if the leather holds up to the Tension, both visible edges might have an ugly gap.... Besides that, the step with boning/hammering it on a model is just right and will improve the appearance! But why should it be hard to do a skiving Joint with his leather?

Glueing some fabric wouldn´t fix anything. It would rather add a fuzzy edge on the inside to the whole Thing, but you won´t get any improvement for the construction itself. There are two techniques, I´d try: - preform the ring and use a "butt-stitch" as you can see on your picture, the opens up a little bit where you joint the two edges. Thats because of the Tension of the leather, as you might have stitched it dry and with some force, right? Ìf you preform the ring (case it - use the search engine here on that if you got questions), let it dry and cut a light angle to the ends (like five degrees) you might get a nice result using a butt-stitch (a stitch through half of the thickness, I don´t know why, but I can´t c&p a link here... so you might wanna look it up) as it pulls thos angled Ends together to Close the gap. Another possibility would be to bevel both Ends over a length like 10mm (one top, one bottom) and glue them together. After that I´d stitch the koint just to be safe and that´s it. I hope you understand what I mean, as I would like to add some pictures, but I can´t (except I´d copy the link by hand... a thing I won´t do....)

A think that might be worth mentioning is the Quality of the leather, too.... If you got some bad leather with very loose fibres on the back you can apply what you want to it. If you bend it over time, it will break, wear, just disappear. I normally just take some beeswax/balm and apply it heavily on the back (and front). When I use colours like black, or "colours" other than Brown stuff, I tend to use some Tan-Kote quite thin, but I really don´t like the appearance of resolene, even if a lot of People in this Forum recommend it. The Thing is: my leather is flat and smooth already when I buy it, and it doesn´t change that status... the fibres are so dense that I have to wait some time, before water even thinks about soaking in without (!) any finish. So before you think "everything is possible" Keep this in mind and maybe just think about lining such a strap next time

Ja, ich schau nochmal. Tut mir Leid, dass ich das alle etwas verzögert habe, bei mir läuft in den letzten Wochen einfach sehr viel drunter und drüber... morgen weiß ich wohl mehr und wird mich dann nochmal melden. Ich meld mich bei euch dann auch nochmal wegen nem Treffen. Die Zeit verrinnt grad wie im Fluge ^^.

well than: hurray for you! XD

Nice shop, really nice and fast contac via mail. Bought some hardware some time ago and everything was just fine. But I can´t say anything about the leather. You might wanna know how much the shipping is, as I didn´t expect 20 € for my little order. So that was the only thing I didn´t like about that order

With Tan Kote you won´get it shiny as with resolene. I myself see this as a positive point for the Tan Kote, but taste differes I guess ^^. I apply it with a cloth wraped around a sponge using no pressure at all (more like merely feelin the contact to the leather. Besides that I cut it down with water. Did it sometimes with up to 1/5 TK/Water, so you got some room for experiments. I would thin it at least a litte, as it is much easier to apply it evenly.

I am a cabinet maker for about 8 years. I am just not that sure, if "woodworker" differs between proffessionals and hobbyists, or not. (just interested)

Hi Simon, no problem at all As german actually IS my mother´s tongue, it might be easier for me anyway ^^. But when we get our first experienced danish saddler it´s your job again By the way: your translation was wuite good. Exspecially for a non native speaker (in both languages). Nothing wrong with that! (Btw. Do you live at the border to Germany, or did you just learn german at school (or somewhere else)?)

Beim Dämpfen wird das Holz eher wirklich unter Wasserdampf gesetzt, im Prinzip wie vorm Biegen, nur länger. Und du bekommst heute tatsächlich noch ne Menge ungedämpfter Ware. Buche wird tatsächlich sehr sehr häufig gedämpft, aber das kannst du streckeweise auch schon an den Farbtönen sehen. Beim Dämpfen verändert sich der nämlich. Und leider muss ich dich enttäuschen. Holz arbeitet.... immer. War einer der Leitsätze, der uns in der Bfs tagtäglich eingeprügelt wurde und ich habe ihn sich schon häufiger bewahrheiten sehen.... Holz quellt oder schwindet immer dann, wenn es Flüssigkeit aufnimmt oder abgibt! Wenn es dabei Unterschiede gibt (eine Seite nass, eine Trocken, etc) wird dieser Effekt noch massiv verstärkt. Am heftigsten zu beobachten beim Furnieren, wenn du das Furnier auf die beleimte Platte legst und kurz wartest rollt sich das Furnier auf, und zwar richtig! Da kann man z.B. gegenarbeiten, wenn man es von oben mit Wasser benetzt..... Zum schnelleren Trocknen gibt es diverse Verfahren wie z.B. Kammertrocknung und ähnliches. Und wenn man es will, kann man das durchaus "zu hause" machen. Man sollte aber Platz haben, ne Dämpfkammer, etc..... ist eben mit Aufwand verbunden. So well... I just think about translating this one, but it is rather some kind of woodworking stuff refering to Walters text which has not that much to do with the main topic here. So I think if you are more interested in wooden stuff, it might be a possibility to open a new thread.. or I might translate this one afterwards if anybody wants to know more about wood... and stuff ^^. But all in al Walter is alright in what he says, so I see no real need to write sth completely different rather than some additions ^^.

Haha, I guess you hit the "post"-button some times too often ^^. And no, it´s not that sort steaming what I mean. It is some sort of steaming, but it is used while preparing wood (drying, etc) for the normal use by a cabinet maker or similar. So it is used to reduce the tension in the wood and to differ it in some ways, shortly said: to improve certain properties of it.... Of course you could steam and bend your jaws, but as we are in a Leatherworkers forum I would expect that from anybody, nor would I suggest it, just because it´s a process you might wanna go into the woodworking topic a little bit more for.... And there for it might be just a little task to cut this clamp down to a simple, easy-to-make thing, rather than to be sure, everything is made like the "rules of woodworking" would dictate it Besides that: I got a little different opinion on bend wood, but even if the fibres might (!) be weakend a bit.... that would not at all influence this piece at all as wood is far more solid than a lot of people think....^^ For the hardware: Good luck Thor

Servus Walter, ich bin nicht Simon, ist aber kein Problem. Mach ich gerne Abgesehen davon... ich schick dir nachher nochmal Bilder von meinem Ahlenheft von Kappey, da warst du a noch interressiert dran ^^.