billybopp

The Stohlman case books are invaluable. Projects in them are very dated (when was the last time you saw an instamatic film camera with cube flash?). But the techniques are just as sound now as they ever were. They are a good investment. - Bill

Thanks for that list @immiketoo! Great info for helping make heads and tails of tool quality and pricing. One thing I'd suggest for anybody is to avoid the REALLY cheap tools such as you find on eBay for 25 for $20 and such. Those are the ones that we hear people complain about bending and having lots of issues. Otherwise, I'm always a bit of two minds about buying tools. On the one hand, buy-once cry-once is a good philosophy but in order for that to be a wise decision you need to know what you want. On the other hand, try cheap then buy better can be a better choice if you don't yet know what your personal style is and don't really know what you need. There's also a bit of a middle road too: Buy pricey tools where they make a big difference, and buy lesser tools where they don't. Geometric and basketweave tools really need to be "just right", so better tools are a good investment. I wish I had known that when I started! "Slightly off" tools in that class are a real pain to use. Upgrading those was a very good choice for me. IMHO, the craftool and craftool pro are a good place to start for most tools, especially if you get them used or on sale. -Bill

If you are looking to learn how to carve and tool leather, most YouTube videos are too brief to really learn a lot from. Not that it's hard to do, but a single ten minute video just can't show you all that much no matter how skilled the teacher is, and some of those are better than others. One of the best I've found, by a true master, is Tandy's video series by Jim Linnell. He takes you through tooling and making a wallet from beginning to end. The pattern for cutting leather and tooling can be found at https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/download/K33pit53cr3t/Blog_Project_Patterns/TLF_BillfoldBlog_1115.pdf . Bear in mind that it's sponsored by Tandy and references their tools and supplies, but of course you don't HAVE to buy their stuff. And, of course, as mentioned above, LearnLeather is a great resource with some free and some paid content. Also as mentioned above Ian Atkinson and Nigel Armitage both have very good content on YouTube, but are more oriented toward leather project construction techniques than toward carving/tooling. Others that are worth a look include Don Gonzales, Serge Volken, TandyLeatherfactory, and UKSaddlery. There are others that are good to be sure, and quite a few more that are not so good. Hope that helps -Bill

I suspect that floral carving has been around for about as long as people have been decorating leather. A quick search online will find some examples of floral pattern leather covered chests and trunks that are several hundred years old. The Sheridan style, though, is relatively new as I understand it. The style is characterized by circular swirling patterns that flow one into another, and originated around mid 20th century in the area of Sheridan, Wyoming. Acanthus leaves have been used as an artistic motif for millennia, and by this point are very stylized. In architecture, if you look at the top of Corinthian columns you'll see stylized Acanthus .. And they show up in a lot of other ancient artwork. No doubt they showed up in ancient leatherwork too. - Bill

Great work all around! Horse looks great, I like the colors. The cam seeder combo works fine....the cam impressions are still close enough that the rays touch and hide the edge of the basketweave. Well done. -Bill

This looked good before, but now that it's finished ... Wow! Show it off in the right places and you may get the other kind of cougar making advances on you. -Bill

Barney only ever had the one round, tho ... Wouldn't make much of a strip!

Red handled tool is wire strippers. The numbers referring to side gauge. -Bill

One of my many interests is aviation, and in particular historic aviation. Yesterday, I came across this video about making a leather boot for the wing struts in restoration of a Bucker Bu 133 Jungmeister at Fantasy of Flight just outside Orlando Florida. We sometimes forget how often leather was used in the past for fairly mundane uses like this, and not just pretty upholstery. While I can't say for certain, it wouldn't surprise me if the engine in this airplane has leather seals in places in the engine! The airplane itself is a beautiful restoration of a plane that served as an advanced aerobatic trainer for the Luftwaffe through the latter 1930s and into WWII. After the war, they were competitive aerobatic planes into the early 1960s and even served as trainers for some air forces into the late 1960s. Enjoy! -Bill

there's some info in this thread about food-save high temp epoxy resin .. http://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/26684-sealant-for-leather-mugsbottles-with-hot-liquids/ -Bill

ROFL. So much truth right here!

Leather dye and pro dye are both alcohol/spirit based. Oil based pro refers to synthetic / oil based pigments and tend to yield better little better color and I find easier to use. I haven't used acrylic nor low v.o.c. but they are less toxic for use in schools, etc and places like California where some ingredients are regulated. Not sure what's in n.f.o.compound, but most say to use pure n.f.o. instead. -Bill

I have a real problem with those belts. I can't decide which I like better, since they both look great. And thanks for sharing your layout tricks! -Bill

Agreed - A good maul for tooling, and something heavier for punches. I actually prefer a dead-blow hammer for punching - dead cheap at most home supply stores. -Bill

I haven't tried it myself, but have heard good things about tinkercad - a free 3d browser based cad program. -Bill

Well done! ... And a first project? Amazing!

Agreed, it's likely from the tannery from the drying process. Leather is often dried and stretched on a screen of sorts - sometimes with a vacuum, others just air-dried. -Bill

I'm pretty much convinced that you simply can not work with leather for very long without making exactly that sort of mistake. Here's a picture of one of mine. Notice that the strap for the top center Gomph knife goes opposite the direction of the CSO at the right - The wrong direction. Since it's just for me, I didn't re-do it ... at least not yet. -Bill

Looking good! That latex stuff does work great, but it feels soooooo damned weird when you peel it off. It's like peeling skin after a sunburn. (I've seen your skin tone and you're living in the Mediterranean - I know you know what I mean!) -Bill

I've bought some very nice buckles and hardware from buckleguy - Nice buckles and other hardware in lots of colors and finishes. Weaver Leather Supply has some great looking buckles etc - they carry the really nice fancy lookin' Jeremiah Watt hardware line. And of course, as DJole suggested, Ohio Travel Bag. -Bill

Sweet! It looks great. It's not every day that you get to see a replica of a piece that's over 1000 years old - and not everybody that gets to make one! -Bill

That looks really awesome! Well done, and again thank you for posting progress pics along the way! It's really fascinating to watch these things come together. -Bill

Looks pretty darn good, Chief! That's a great looking knife too. I only see three things I'd suggest doing differently - and bear in mind these are just my own opinions so take with a grain of salt. 1. The stitching looks good, but does not exactly follow the outline of the sheath. You could probably still trim off a small bit of leather from the edge to match the stitch line and it'll look good. 2. The parallel lines in the figure at the right of the sheath aren't quite parallel. It ain't easy, to get them exactly right and is something that I had trouble with too. There is a simple solution ... A beader blade for your swivel knife. It has two cutting edges a set distance apart. I think I got mine from eBay, but Barry King sells them in varying widths. If you aren't really going for parallel, you can exaggerate the curves a bit more to make it look more intentional. All that said, it still doesn't look bad! 3. There are a few stray tool marks where the tool went onto the smooth leather. That's still possibly fixable by rubbing those areas with a modelling spoon. Nevertheless, really good work! -Bill

You are likely to find a surface plate in any metal machine shop, or places that supply machine tools. They are pretty much always a hefty chunk of granite that is perfectly flat, and used to gauge anything that must be absolutely flat across a distance. They come in different grades referring to the degree of flatness. For our purposes lesser grades would be fine. In machine shops where high precision is required, they are occasionally lapped and re-calibrated as in this youtube video. They can be expensive (better grades more-so), but have the advantages of being heavy granite and more or less readily available. -Bill

I wonder if anybody has ever tried SPF100 on leather? -Bill