rawr66

Don't know if you found anything yet but there are plenty of cheap slickers on ebay. They're raw wood and could benefit from a little varnish.

I think the problem most likely lies in your technique. For some reason I haven't been able to wrap my head around Nigel or Ian's videos on stitching. I haven't even come close to starting with angled stitches and that usually ends up in pulling stitches out and adjusting my technique. I'll do this until I can reach the desired look I want. I do know that I can create the angles on the visible side of the leather and not the back by punching my holes from the top side of the leather and working from right to left.

I don't think there's much you can do to finish chrome tanned leather. You might be able to skive the the edges and do rolled edges if you have the patience.

Glad everyone is liking the walkthrough. Alo, it doesn't take too much longer than making an unlined wallet. I'd say once you have everything prepped, meaning cut out, dyed, and finished, it should only take a couple hours to put together.

Photo 6 What you should do: Punch your holes through the liner; It will be difficult to do this once the wallet is assembled. Glue down one side and align. For the backside, use a punching board or multiple pieces of leather and place between backside and inside. Then carefully punch your holes. Mistakes I made: I didn't punch my holes through the liner and it made things more difficult than they had to be. Photo 7 and 8 What you should do: Continue sewing the bottom of the wallet and up to the side. Once you get to the top of the wallet, continue sewing along the inside top (doesn't matter if it's inside or outside). Photo 9 What you should do: Continue sewing the other bottom of the wallet and up to the side. Once you get to the top of the wallet, continue sewing along the outside top. Mistakes I made: While sewing the inside, I punched holes into the backside using the holes from the inside. I then started punching holes from the backside towards the inside and once the two parts met I was faced with opposite angles partway through. I managed to keep the stitching looking fairly the same so it didn’t do too much damage. Photos 10-13 And here is the finished wallet.

Here's my first attempt at a lined wallet with a walkthrough outlining the mistakes I made during the process. The wallet is made out of 3-4 oz veg tan leather and lined with a pigskin split. The wallet came out a little too bulky for me. I think it would have been better suited with 2-3 oz leather. The photos should be read from left to right starting with 1 on the far left and 5 on the far right. Photo 1 and 2 What you should do: Sew down the pockets like you normally would, making sure you end on the backside of the wallet. Photo 3 What you should do: Cut out your liner and apply **contact cement** to both your liner and your wallet. Wait for it to become tacky. Mistakes I made: The only cement I had access to was rubber cement. While sewing, the liner was noticeably peeling apart and made things more difficult than they had to be. Photo 4 What you should do: Press down wallet onto liner and cut off excess. Photo 5 What you should do: Use board and clamp down for even coverage. **If you’re worried about creating marks on your leather, lay some scraps between your board and your table.**

Grumpy, the bag is made out of two pieces of leather with two cutouts on either side of the bottom of the bag. I cut out 2 square inch pieces off of each bottom side, sewed the sides and then sewed the bottom, and then flattened the pieces of leather and sewed them together. Here's a fabric tutorial you can check out for the basics of it.

Here's a simple t-slot tote I made recently out of oil tanned leather. Tandy had a sale last month and I was able to pick up a blemish free 22 sq ft piece of leather. I would have bought another, but the rest were riddled with markings. It came out fairly easily with a couple of minor issues. The main thing that I don't particularly like is how wide the straps are. They would have worked out much nicer with a filler to give it a tube shape or if I didn't glue the entire strap together, but I'll keep working on that. By t-slot, I mean cutting the bottom and side in much like the t-slot of a wallet, only smaller.

I'm using upholstery splits from Tandy that are on sale. At about $1 per square foot of each leather, they're a very cheap item that looks good and makes money The clutch is especially easy to make, so I've been cranking a few of those out.

Here is a simple handbag and clutch I made. Had some problems with the clasp on the clutch, that's why there's a brown square (to cover up the old holes). The main problem I had was stitching the strap for the bag. The backside is uneven on one side of the strap. I'll need to keep practicing my saddle stitch. I recently bought Al Stohlman's book on stitching so hopefully that helps me with consistency. Also, I didn't pull enough thread to cover the length of the strap so there are two backstitched parts in the middle of the strap that make it look kind of unsightly. Overall I'm happy with how they turned out.

Here's a calfskin that would be good for wallets.

Thanks guys, I'll see how the acrylic resolene works out and post more belts along the way.

I haven't dyed the leather, just tried to finish it and polish it into a shine. Even just applying water to a regular piece of the leather and rubbing a little will make the dye rub off. Is it normal for that to happen?

The internet is a great resource for learning leatherwork, but I'm having some problems. I followed along Ian Atkinson's belt making tutorial and had a try at making my own. The belts themselves turned out fairly well. I'm still bad at setting rivets by hand so they kind of veer off. The problem I'm having with this leather is the finish. I've buffed until I haven't seen anything on my cloth, but once I add any kind of finish to it the dye rubs off more than I think it should. Ian used tan-kote to finish his belts, but I'm sure he probably uses acrylic resolene now. I tried a coat of tan-kote, let it dry, and buffed to see how well it took, and the dye rubbed off. So I buffed it again until I couldn't see anything and tried a coat of acrylic resolene. I put a dab on my cloth and ran it along the belt, and a lot more dye came off and blackened my rag. This is the leather I used. I don't know how much it plays into the dye rub off. Any help would be appreciated.

Bob, how long do you wait for it to dry? I've let it sit for a few days and as soon as I add any liquid half the colour comes off.

I will dye and then I'll buff, put on a coat of carnuaba cream, and then I'll buff again, and then I'll finish with 50/50 acrylic resolene. The colour is light because I diluted the dye. I think I saturated the leather fairly good because I could see the pigment laying on top.

Tandy has a sale on some finished whole hides if you can find a colour you might like. I managed to pick up a 40 sq ft hide in cream and a 42 sq ft hide in dark brown for $45 a piece. Here's a bag I'm working on, I just don't know what I'm gonna do yet for the shoulder strap. If you want to do more with this type of leather I recommend watching Arthur Porter's videos on youtube. I've learned a lot from his videos.

Found this topic searching for leatherwork documentaries. Here's the full version of the movie. If you use adblock you have to disable it in order to watch. You also can't press the big play button in the middle of the screen. There's a small play button on the bottom left hand corner.

I just finished up this card wallet using Tandy's Eco-flo leather dye. I do like how it turned out, but I don't like how much it rubs off. You can tell how much pigment is left behind compared to something like Fiebings professional oil dye. The same thing goes for Tandy's gel antique; it seems to rub off no matter what I do. I don't have any experience with anything other than these products so I was hoping someone could point me toward a coloured (red, blue, yellow, etc) dye that works better than eco-flo. One more.

You may be able to find something at Waterhouse.

I use Tan Kote like Conrad. I like the smooth finish it gives rather than leaving it untouched.

I haven't used anything 2-3 oz, but I've made some wallets out of 3-4 oz. For burnishing I will cut the pieces slightly larger, maybe a couple millimeters. and then cut a straight, clean edge after dying. Then I'll lay the piece of leather flat on my table, take a cloth and wrap it on my finger, and rub against the leather pushing down and against it.

Dwight, would you happen to know how Weldwood affects the finish of chrome tanned leather? I've tried a different contact cement on chrome tanned leather and it melted the finish off.

I've had the same problems as you with Tandy's rubber cement. I bought it by accident, but I've found ways to work around it. If you're worried about marking the leather you can cut out strips of cardboard or something similar and place it on both sides of the leather.

It looks like the interiors are painted different colours by the bag makers themselves. Here's a closer look at the process further down at the bottom.