misha01

Does anyone know some good sources for leather in southwestern Ontario? I'm hoping for anything closer to London. I know of Zelikovitz in Ottawa and Tundra in Hamilton, but it would nice to have something closer and avoid the 401. If there is nothing else, does anyone have experience ordering leather from them or other Canadian suppliers? How is the quality when it comes in? Does it get beaten up in shipping?

Hi. You may have already found what you are looking for, but Himeji is probably where you want to look. They have a large tannery there, so lot's of tools too, and there is a school that teaches leather working there. My wife can't remember any of the names of the places, so I can't help much more than that, sorry. goodjapan.com was already mentioned, but if you are already in Japan then don't go there. There is a pretty big markup on there items compared to just buying it from the supplier.

I don't know about the Tokyo area, but look for stores called Kyoshin Elle or Tokyu Hands. They are all over Japan. goodsjapan.jp was mentioned above, but I wouldn't bother with them if you are already in Japan. Their prices are marked up from the store price, so if you are near the source you are better off buying there. If you are out of country and want something, then they are good.

I can't really answer your question, but I'll share my experience. Twice I have asked the leather shop for advise on what leather to buy and twice they got it wrong. They gave me deer leather when I needed something a little rigid, and chrome-tanned leather when I was making a knife sheath. It's best if you can figure it out for yourself.

I'll looking to buy some punches. What sizes should I buy for installing rivets, snaps and eyelets/grommets? I realize that there are different sizes of snaps (for example), but I figure that there has to be a standard for the common snaps. Also, do you have any advice on brand? How is Osborne? And since I have your attention, how is the Osborne skiver? https://www.osborneleathertools.com/product_details.php?pid=400

Electrathon pretty much summed it up. I'm also self teaching and some sources that I found helpful were a book called The Art of Making Leather Cases Vol 1 by Al Stohlman, and Ian Atkinson's YouTube channel.

I see what Nuttish is saying, but I'm not sure how to fix it exactly. Let's say you want to make a pillow with a 10" diameter. For the side piece you would then need (10x3.14) 31.4" of material, right? But if your leather is 0.125" thick (1/8), and you make a circle out of the 31.4" strip, then the circle created on the flesh side of the leather would be of 9.75" (10"- 0.125 - 0.125) in diameter and only require 30.6" of material. So you are getting some compression when you make a circle out of your 31.4" strip. I hope that makes sense, otherwise Nuttish can clear that up with his drawing. I'm not sure how to fix your problem because I haven't made one of those before. But my first thought was to bevel the inside edge of the side strip.

I would guess that the circumference of the round panel is greater than the length of your side strip.

That's a very nice video. Thanks for sharing it. 1 - I'm not sure. Maybe someone else can help with that. 2 - I don't know off hand. If you have samples of both, I would maybe make a run of each in some scrap leather with your 9spi iron and see how they look. Then use the one you like most. 3 - I was told to generally have the distance of the stitch line to be about the same as the thickness of the leather. So if your leather is 6mm thick, then have the stitch line 6mm from the edge. If I remember correctly, that was in Al Stohlman's book The Art of Hand Stitching, or something like that. 4 - It's a matter of preference again. In the video he is using an alligator leather, right? What thickness do those come in? Some wallet's are intentionally made a little more beefy. This is a judgement call the craftsman makes. 5 - So in this video he has the inside a little longer, glues it to the outside, then cuts off the excess with a paring knife. http://www.fineleatherworking.com/leather-tools/high-speed-steel-paring-knife You could try to cut them both to exact lengths first, however you are going to find it far more difficult to glue the two pieces together exactly right. It's much easier to trim off the excess afterwards as he did. You will find that your edges are much cleaner that way. Hopefully someone else can help you out with those couple of things I wasn't so sure on. Best of luck making your version and be sure to post pictures afterwards!

Nice. I like the tooling on the back. How many ounces or mm is the finished belt? Where did you get the buckle too? I haven't found any large enough for a weight lifting belt before.

Very nice. I'm a fan of the Sam Browne hardware too.

Thank you. I was planning on making a bag soon and this definitely clears up some things and gives me some ideas to consider.

Usually I'm not a fan of the oak leaf tooling, but I like yours. That looks fantastic. I also like how you added the divider inside while only having one gusset. How many rivets did you add to keep it secured?

That looks great. It's looking at stuff like this that got me to try leather working.

I graduated university with a degree in computer science, then went to Japan for 3 years to teach English. When I got back home I worked in software development for about 9 months until I got into law enforcement. I've been there for almost 5 years so far.