AlexOstacchini

Lovely stuff, knife and sheath. I second the point about the rolled edge, very pretty

Hi all 'Show off' is too strong a term with this one I feel, nothing fancy here, but perhaps a new way to use up otherwise useless scraps. I often work as a modelmaker and the tool of the trade that everyone uses is a swann-morton scalpel. These just get thrown around in toolboxes, bags, pencil cases etc and everyone has an anecdote about that time they stabbed themselves by accident, so here is a cunning solution. Please ignore the business cards, this is not an advert but these are the photos I have. Technical specs- these are a thin (1.4ish mm) veg tan formed around a 3.5mm core, obviously with a cutout for the scalpel to fit into. The thicker central piece stops the blade from slicing through the stitching and tip of the sheath. Fiebings dyes, waxed linen thread, with atom wax for the finish. I normally like doing tooled stuff but these are small and fiddly so are all in plain flavour. Only simple things but I hope you like them, I'm sure lots of people here have the same mentality about making little cases for every tool they own... Cheers, Alex

Thanks again all! These are my first attempts really both at knives and this style of sheath- hopefully lots more to come! I have no doubt both occured, but I would think probably leatherworkers as they apparently had their own independant sheath guild from at least the mid 1300s. I am mostly familiar with the London examples which is obviously a limited pool to go off, but a fair number have stamped decoration which in my mind points to them being done professionally- Some of the stamps are really quite intricate and must have been quite specialised tools so i wouldn't have thought it likely to have been owned by anyone otherwise. That is purely speculative on my part and I am definitely no expert. That being said there are other examples that are very crudely decorated. I wasn't aware of the book you mentioned, but it looks great and I might just have to order a copy as i'd love to know more about this. My main reference material for this sort of thing is 'knives and scabbards', which i'm sure you'll know about already but is really an excellent book if you don't. It mentions cutting the leather (or incising i think is the term used) was very popular in the 14th-15th centuries, but does not show many examples where this is the case... cheers! Alex

Cheers all Many thanks, and I believe you are right, I was actually in two minds about this myself. Going off Janet Russell's 'English Medieval Leatherwork' article, apparently cut decoration was very common for the later medieval period and there are a few sheaths where this is the case, but in 'knives and scabbards' from the museum of London they basically all seem to just have pressed decoration, including the example that I used as my main reference for the second sheath. In the end this was just a personal choice as I felt it would give a better impression and I am more familiar with it, but I think really I should have used a blunter tool to be more historically correct! I shall do some experimenting before the next one... :p whoops, here they are! Not very pretty I'm afraid

Hello everyone I have so far only posted Sheridan style things but my main interest really is in European Medieval history. The scabbards are very much secondary objects in this case but there is leather involved and any history nerds out there might find it interesting, so here are a couple of medieval eating knives. These are both in the style of 14th/15th century examples- not exact copies of any originals in particular but borrowing design elements from the many knives and scabbards in the museum of London. The general standard of leatherwork in my reference was not the best, and some was down right terrible, and obviously I was much more limited than usual in what tools I could use, but I am quite pleased with the end results. These were both done freehand and you can tell- nothing has been measured and really it's all comparatively crude, but that is what the real ones look like and that was the aim here. Masterpieces of leather crafting they are not, but the original sheaths rarely were either it seems. Obviously I didn't want them to look rubbish but it's nice not worrying about neatness for a change! Technical specs- Both of these are 2mm veg tan, wet formed around the knife and then tooled. Occasionally they were double layered but these are not. The aim seems to have been just to overwhelm the eye with stuff, so if there is space, fill it with crosshatching or dots or anything to make it more interesting. The larger sheath has gothic lettering as it was for my brother's birthday, no prizes for guessing his name. They both have a back central seam stitched with waxed linen, and a couple of hanging thongs rather than modern belt loops. For anyone interested the knives themselves are both hand forged from 1080 carbon steel, with olive handle scales and brass pins and bolsters. I hope you like them! cheers Alex

lovely stuff, I've never managed to get my knife quite like that no matter how long I hone it- Any top secret tricks involved or just patience and steady hands? great work!

Many thanks Yes, for this I used contact adhesive over the entire inside. Unfortunately there is some creasing at the folding point when it closes and this can be seen in the pictures, but i don't know if much can be done about that :/ The seams were sanded and burnished together once they were glued and a few layers of edge coat helps to blend them together- not perfect by any means as I don't enjoy sanding at all and i'm sure could have gone to a much finer grit, but enough to smooth out the worst areas. Thank you for the compliment Alex

Thanks all I was uncertain for a long time about it, especially as I had to order tools from the US and they were not cheap! But overall I liked it on other people's work so took the plunge. I am sure there are techniques and established rules when using them which I have not grasped yet- so far they seem great for small gaps but not sure of the best way to fill larger areas without looking 'patchy' (not sure of the right word here..). Some practice needed I think I agree on the efficiency aspect, they seem very fast despite how small the stamps are. Thanks- tan kote, with another coat applied after the antique Cheers Alex

Hi all First time posting something that isn't a big batch. This is a tooled case made as a present for a friend- I had originally sized it so it to be used as a fancy pencil case but due to some poor planning there are some gaps at the sides and i'm not sure how well it would work for that. No time left to alter but I guess it could be used for glasses or tools or as a clutch or anything really- not for me to decide but i'm sure something will fit in it... This was built over a couple of weeks worth of lunch breaks at work so didn't have the time I would've liked, but maybe i'll reuse the patterns when I'm freed up again. Technical specs- 2.5ishmm veg tan lined with thin upholstery stuff, which is also used for the side panels. Hand stitched with waxed linen. First time using bar grounders which was fun, haven't learnt all the do's and don't's with them yet but i expect it will become the go to backgrounding method from now on. I hope you like it, and any questions or critiques fire away. Thanks! Alex

For these I built a wooden former to stretch them over. Soaked the leather for 20+ minutes followed by lots of pushing pressing fun with a bone folder and then clamped them in and left overnight to set.

Thanks, fiebings pro dyes followed by neetsfoot oil and tan kote- going across they are black, dark brown, british tan, mahogany, and saddle tan. The tooling is just neetsfoot oil, with tan kote as the resist and dark brown antique paste cheers! Alex

Thanks, nothing in particular, keys, coins, etc, any small item really. It's the kind of thing people might have on their belts for archery/bushcrafty type things, so any associated gubbins I suppose. Unfortunately too small for most phones now... 2.5ish mm veg tan backed with thin floppy upholstery type stuff that I have scraps of in abundance. Thanks for the kind words

Hi all, Had some time to spend on my own stuff again, so here are some Western style wet moulded belt pouches. Hand tooled and stitched, with matching liners and sam browne stud closures. All the same except for colours, so a good exercise in batch production. Quite fun and relatively quick to make compared to a belt or bag. After a bit of reading I think that in hindsight stitching across the belt loop was not the best idea in terms of strength but as these are small and won't be taking any substantial weight I don't think it will be a problem. Cheers and I hope you like them, Alex

Glad you like them- the antler was bought as a bulk lot of tines from ebay or etsy I think, it was quite a while ago so can't remember exactly, but I don't recall them being especially expensive. Then it's just a case of drilling them out, chamfering the ends and varnishing. Antler pieces are sometimes sold as dog chews so I've found it's worth looking round pet shops as well- As much as I have found Tandy useful it doesn't surprise me that they are expensive!

Second all of the above, superb work. Was also curious about the cartridge bag construction, looks like that would take some working out, so thanks for extra pics.

Thanks all, don't mean to come across as overly pedantic as there are of course elements i am happy with, but as these are intended for eventual sale it is difficult not to be critical of aspects that I know in hindsight could have been done a lot better! All part of the learning process i suppose. Thanks, mostly fiebings oil dyes with antique gels/ high lighters over the top. A lot of experimentation really, before I had discovered a working formula and not really how I would go about it now, but thankfully came out in relatively even coats! Alex

Very tidy- What resist was used on the lighter areas?

6 to be precise, not really lots, but seemed like a good part 2 to 'Lots of tooled belts'... Would combine into one thread if I knew how to change the title so as not to clog up space. These are in the same style as said belts, but although the finishing touches and assembly was recent, most of the tooling was done over a year ago and so unfortunately is not at the same standard as the belts. Since making these I have imported some lovely new tools courtesy of Mr Barry King which has made life much easier, and become a little more familiar with Western patterns. They say a bad workman blames his tools but good ones sure make a difference, as well as putting more time into drawing and planning the floral design, which is where i feel these suffer most. This was early days, but maybe a good 'before' and 'after' comparison can be made between threads... Anyhow, excuses aside, moving on. These are all (obviously) built to the same pattern and were my first attempt at building up stock in lulls between jobs. Hand tooled, hand stitched, fully lined, and with double loop edge lacing. Closing pins are laquered antler, which laces through a pair of eyelets on the back. Shoulder straps not in the photos but will of course be included... Many lessons learnt with these but I hope you like them anyway. thanks, Alex

Thanks again all for the kind words. I foolishly never timed one from start to finish and always had a few on the go at the same time, but i would estimate somewhere around the 12-15 hour mark, with most of that being tooling and 4 hours for stitching. Not the quickest production line in the world but getting steadily faster i think. These are all cut from the same 3.5mm hide, with 1.5ish mm lining, so a total thickness of 5mm or just under. I think that is 12oz but don't understand the US gauge so well. Quite chunky really but at least they shouldn't break... Cost is difficult to quantify exactly and will have to be UK currency i'm afraid, but assuming you mean build cost then as a rough figure £100ish for veg tan and £100 for lining for the whole lot, £5 per buckle, £1 per set of screws, estimate of £5 per belt to cover glue, thread, gum, dye, oil, antique, edge dye, finish etc and we have a total of £19 material cost per belt. Add in a realistic hourly rate on top of that and you have probably more than most people would be willing to pay for one. So no going full time just yet I don't think... :/ Mutt - looks like Chicago screws - 4th picture down has a pretty clear view of reverse side and you can see slots in the heads Yup, Gary is bang on. The stitching on the reverse side of the buckle plate (or whatever the foldy over bit is called) is purely cosmetic, so although it looks like it's sewn shut, different buckles can still come in and out easily enough. Thanks, although cannot take full credit as this was pinched from an illuminated border pattern in the Book of Kells, in an attempt at something a bit different to a standard knot. But whichever 9th century monk came up with it did a good job I think. I realised there are no images of the tail end or close enough to see any real detail, so for completion's sake here are a couple more.

Thanks for the feedback all, i'm glad you like them. There is somewhere between two and three months work in the whole pile, and some are definitely better than others, but as pointed out it's one way to track progress I suppose. As I'm sure anyone here will testify, there is always an element of doubt in your own work and any small mistakes become very glaring as soon as you've made them, so the kind words are nice to read. Quite an insightful post, thanks for the advice. All hand stitched- not sure therapeutic is the right word but thankfully it's mindless enough work that I can watch something at the same time. I imagine stitching is an aspect which often gets overlooked by a layperson so it's nice to share with a community who can understand the hours of tedium involved haha Cheers, Alex

Hi all, First time poster but have been following for quite a while now. I started leatherworking around 5 years ago and now work mostly as a junior prop maker and armourer in the UK film industry. Had a bit of a lull between jobs so decided to take the first steps in a small personal enterprise, so here is an initial batch of stock pieces. As a general rundown, these are all 38mm/1.5", lined, hand stitched, and allow for interchangeable buckles. Keepers not quite finished yet but haven't been forgotten! There are a few designs going on but most are either oak leaves, Sheridan style floral, or a zoomorphic celtic interlace taken from a 9thc manuscript. Not up to the standards of many of the artists on here, but thought i should say a big general thanks as I have found a huge amount of knowledge and answers to any questions I could think of. There isn't as much of a tradition of leather crafts over here as in the US, particularly when it comes to tooling, so reading through posts has been invaluable. Cheers all!