byggyns

I was in the same boat. I had to draw a line & stop buying tools until I had completed more projects. Then, when I was in the middle of a project & needed that one more tool, I let myself buy more.

First, check your local laws as to the legality of posessing the fur. Since we don't even know what country you are in, I can't research if it is legal to posess that at all. Some places are really weird about what you are allowed to do with animal parts that you find: antlers, feathers, furs, etc. You don't want to run afoul of the law. Next, check out the section of this forum titled: Exotics, Reptiles, Furs and others.You can probably get some ideas from the projects & questions posted there. Then, you need to tan the skin before it can be used. You have a raw skin that will rot and degrade quickly. The tanning process will preserve & stabilize the skin to make it useful for crafting. The same section of the board will have info on that. There are also many books out there that describe various do-it-yourself tanning processes for furs.

The first techniques I would suggest concentrating on are stitching and edging. A straight and even saddle stitch combined with straight, even, burnished edges makes anything look more refined & professional. I suggest using scrap pieces for your practice. Just take 2 scraps, cut them straight on one side, line them up & perform your glue, stitch & edge finishing procedure. "The Art of Hand Sewing Leather" by Al Stohlman is a good resource for this. Also, I suggest rounding your corners a little. Sharp corners tend to bend over or get frayed & split. They look bad after very little use. Refinements in design and contruction will present themselves the more you see, especially on this site, and the more things you put together. If you want to concentrate on cases, I suggest the "The Art of Making Leather Cases" 3 volume series by Stohlman. There really isn't much about making bags and cases that isn't covered in those 3 books. They hit all of the basics and go into some more advanced skills as well.

For wallet / card case, the thickness most people like is 4-5 oz. for the outside and 2-3 for the inside. Like Monica said, it really is personal preference. You may want to think about wet molding the inner pocket if you want to fit that many business cards into each side. For wet molding, you want to make sure the leather you buy is not pre-finished and is just dyed veg tan. The "fuzz" on the back (flesh) side is really a function of leather quality. The supplier will be able to get you the correct quality for what you want. Typically better quality (more expensive) leather will have a flesh side with fewer issues. The flesh side can be burnished like the edges to make it smoother. Herman Oak brand is a good one to get high quality hides. When you start tackling a holster, you want to have a much thicker leather. I use 8-9 oz for my pancake holsters with an additional stiffener piece at the mouth. For a fold-over style, I will normally add a liner of 2-3 oz. The holster section of this forum is a great resource for information and design ideas. Again, because you have to wet form a holster, you must have veg tan without any finishes. Pre-dyed is OK. I'm working on my first belt with 8-9oz for the top layer & 2-3 for the lining. I haven't finished that one yet, so I don't know about performance yet. I have seen some people use a double thickness of 6-7 or 8-9, and others just use a single layer of 10-12. For a true gun belt, I think you need at least a total thickness of 12 oz. If you want to tool & decorate it, you will want undyed veg tan. For purses & bags, Monica would a good one to ask. I've seen some of her work posted here, and it is impressive.

As far as strength, The buckles from Weaver will certainly do the job. Before I started doing my own leatherwork, I bought all of my belts from an amish shop here in central Ohio. I'm sure they source their buckles from Weaver. I have literaly hung my entire body weight (over 250) from my 1.25" latigo belt with one of those roller buckles. A basic safety rope around your belt will save you from injury when you don't have a full safety harness available

I know you were probably looking for a free one, but there is one for sale here: http://www.bighousedaddy.com/business_satchel.htm I haven't ever gotten any patterns from them, but have heard some good things. I'm not seeing it in the pics, so I'm not sure if it has the provision for a shoulder strap attachment.

Growing up, my family always called it a "primp kit." I've heard ditty bag, toiletry bag, and Dopp Kit before, though.

This way works really well. With most modern double stacks being close to the same thickness, I will generally start with a 5/8" allowance on the top side, 1/2" at the trigger guard, then do any adjustments from there. I like to use thick craft paper to get a closer approximation of how the pattern fits, then make adjustments before cutting the leather. Also, make sure to allow for the thickness of the cylinder on a revolver.

You can also use a soldering iron / gun or a woodburner in the same way.

As Thor said, it depends on the user as to the right angle, but I would say that 30 degrees from vertical is the starting point. You should just go more horizontal from there. Also, the larger the belly of the user, the more horizontal the angle should be. For me: 5'7", long torso for my height, and a big belly, I like mine at right around 45*.

You could try olive oil on a test piece. I have found olive oil changes the color of the leather less than neatsfoot. Again, use several light coats & allow it to soak in (24 hours) before the next coat. You may find that only one coat gets the results you are after, but sometimes more are required. I also agree with Dwight about wetting the leather. I've done it both before & after dying to fold over the belt strap portion on a knife sheath, and it works out well - no cracking.

I would say that first, you want to decide the exact type of cover style you want. Do you want a flexible thin cover like many "bonded leather" covers on the market, a slightly stiffer & thicker leather cover, or a totally rigid cover wrapped in leather. I re-covered a Bible for a friend and used 7-8 oz veg tan as my book boards and wrapped it in 1.5 - 2 oz goat skin. I've been meaning to post pics in the show off section, but haven't gotten around to it. The way I attached the book block to the cover was by using a mull cloth glued to the spine of the block and inside of the cover. I used hot glue for attaching it to the block & PVA glue for the cover side. I did NOT glue the spine portion of the cover to the spine of the book block. Then I used heavy paper / light card stock from the scrapbooking section of the craft store as inner cover paper / flyleaves. if you do the leather wrapped style, I learned that skiving the edges, especially in the corner folds, is absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the book binding portion of the project, just the leatherwork portion and the finished result. The Bible is with my friend on a missions trip halfway around the world right now, so getting more pictures will take a while.

Also, for stitching, you will want a diamond stitching awl. The scratch awl will make round holes that are not very well suited to an attractive stitch line. To get an evaluation of some more budget friendly as well as more expensive pricking irons, check out the new series of videos posted by Nigel Armitage. He goes through many of the most widely available irons out there. If you use a stitching chisel, you won't necessarily need a diamond awl, but it is a better idea to have one, than not. He outlines it well in his videos. Check out this thread where he gives some insights on what is out there. There aren't any video links in the thread, but he's easy to find on YouTube under Armitage Leather http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=60867

I use the Tandy snaps on 8-10 oz consistently & have no issue with the post length. I've used it with leather as thick as 12 oz as well. With thinner leathers- around 5-6 oz, I've had to be careful when setting to make sure I get the post flattened enough to close the snap. Thus far I haven't had to trim the post, but I could see that as necessary if I were to go down below 4 oz in thickness.

So, you only dress the internal edge, not the tapered edge aroud the outside? I don't know if I've ever talked to anyone who does it that way.

use a medium to fine grit sharpening stone hold it so the angle of the stone on the tool matches the existing angle of the edge push the tool across the stone maintaining the same angle the entire time- you do not have to press hard, the tool should slide with a little resistance rotate the tool slightly to an area you have not yet sharpened repeat steps 3 & 4 until you have fully rotated the tool to the place you started dress the inside of the punch hole with a tapered sharpening rod- lightly push the rod into the tool, rotate, repeat (some people do not do this step, but I find it helps remove any burr on the interior of the hole) here is a link to the tool I use strop the outer edge by pulling across the strop- maintain the same angle you did while sharpening, rotate, repeat You always push a cutting edge into the stone or rod when sharpening. A back & forth or circular motion is for grinding away large amounts of material- like changing the angle of the edge or removing a nick in the edge. You always pull the tool away from the cutting edge when you strop. Maintaining the correct angle is critical. The stone should also be lubricated: oil or water depending on if you are using an oil stone or a wet stone. The diamond sharpeners typically do not require lubrication. I hope this is clear enough to follow. I don't know your overall experience level with tool sharpening, so some things I may take for granted, and others I may be explaining at too basic of a level. Let me know if you need any clarification.

I would use a clamping system instead of piling weight on top. I have an improvised book press made with 3/4" plywood pieces that I clamp with C clamps. To press the leather, I would use a layer of thick scrap leather or some foam on each side to protect the wallet from the wood. Clamp it in there & wait. The benefit to using clamps is that you can easily change the clamping force. If you start to crack the wood, you've probably tightened the clamps too much.

The ones I have used have all been really heavy weight leather. I don't think using 12-14 oz would be out of line. Skive the buckle end of course. I have used some that were lined with suede and had a cushioned section in the small of the back ( the very wide portion of the belt). I've never seen any patterns, but I'm sure there are some out there. I think making a pattern yourself would be easy. Just figure our how wide the large section will be and how long, then narrow it down to a 2-1/2" or 3" strap portion. good luck & post pics of the final product

It may be too late now, but you may want to consider tuck lock clasps for a quick release option. Tandy, Ohio Travel bag, Springfield, and I'm sure many others supply these. Here's one from Tandy: http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/department/hardware/11399-619.aspx ETA: If you need adjustability, you can put an adjustment buckle higher on the flap and have the strap terminate at the bottom with the tuck lock. The way I would approach it is have the billet end with the adjustment holes sewn to the top flap- that way the tip of the billet is hanging downward, have the tuck lock on a short strap with the buckle at the other end. Of course the socket (if that's what it's called) for the tuck lock would be mounted on the bag front near the bottom.

Add me as well, please

The only issue I've had with magnets and tablets / phones is that sometimes a magnet will wake up the device or select options on a screen unintentionally. I have a set of work keys with a magnet to release secure display locks. There have been occasions where the magnet brushed against the pocket where my phone was & woke it up. It decreases battery life, but other than that, no issues.

I had planned on participating, but work at my two jobs ate up too much time this month. I'll see if I can get into the competition next month.

Fiebing's dye reducer is a mix of Ethanol (denatured alcohol) and Propanol (rubbing alcohol) acording to their MSDS. So, yes, dye reducer would work for what he is suggesting. It's also a good idea to keep that in mind for the future. You can mix your own dye reducer formula for less than $10 a quart. That's a lot less than the $20 that Tandy charges (at Elite club level). The effective differences between the two types of alcohol are not much when dealing with leather. So, using either the 90% rubbing alcohol or denatured alcohol by themselves is also an option.

A similar design is used for snow gaiters that are sold for showshoeing. Those are make of medium to heavy weight nylon. Keeping the snow out of your boots is something that these should handle easily. There are also heavier weight canvas or cordura gaiters / spats for use in brush. So again, leather would work really well. I would think that since most snakebite prevention gaiters are made of heavy Cordura Denier fabric, that 10 oz leather would do an even better job. Growing up on the Carolina coast, we had to worry a lot about snakes. Plenty of guys I knew had leather & canvas gaiters for when they went hunting. Some farmers wore them frequently in certain areas & brush conditions on the farms. It's hard to count the number of times I had encounters with snakes growing up. I always wore sturdy, high top leather boots when I was out in the wild. Between the eastern diamondbacks, cotton mouths, copperheads, and the various large non-venemous snakes, it was a pretty regular event to come across one in the spring through fall. I only once ran into a coral snake in SC, but saw a couple when I lived in FL later.

I would also suggest you choose an initial direction for your learning. I think most people either focus on construction / design or tooling / design at the beginning. Basically what I mean is that some will try to get good at designing & constructing a wide range of items before they tackle the tooling and decoration of leather. Others will focus on the tooling, decorations, and artwork side while making very simple (from a construction perspective) projects. I don't know how many people try to learn both sides at once, but that is a lot of skills to practice and integrate initially. Personally, I am in the exploration phase of construction design. I try to come up with my own patterns, work out how I want to attach the hardware, what the order of assembly is, etc. The only decoration that I have even attempted yet is simple basket weave stamping.