billybopp

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

I also have two smartcards, use a big fold and keep one card on one side with the other on the other side. -Bill

Painters tape on the back side works. -Bill

@immiketoo ... There are 12 steps to help you with this situation ... Do you believe in a higher power? I have about 7 or 8 swivel knives. Two are Tandy pro and they're fairly good. The others were mostly acquired as parts of collections - mostly the regular run of the mill knives. Those, I keep less used specialty blades in - such as hair blades. Very handy to have them ready to go and not have to switch blades around. Seriously tho, nice collection. I'm curious about the one at bottom center that looks like a tree branch? -Bill

For something as small as these shield tabs, you probably could adapt an arbor press to do the job, but it probably wouldn't readily go larger. It'd take some metalworking skill, (yours or somebody elses ) tho to make a flat plate for the bottom of the ram and a flat plate for the base with cutting board material over it. - Bill

This relatively straightforward. Once you've got the grooves that demarcate the lighter colored lines, you use a relatively good quality smallish artist brush that is lightly loaded with dye and paint the border areas. If there is too much dye on the brush it can bleed through the leather to areas where you do not want it. There's a recent video by Serge Volken that covers background dying and brushes - what you're looking to do is similar. Al Stohlman suggests loading your brush and then dying a bit away from the border to use up some of the dye and then going for the edges after some dye is depleted. -Bill

Check out Wickett & Craig. They may have what you're looking for. -Bill

Welcome aboard from West Philly. Fine looking work there.I -Bill

I glued little chunks of leather in the news of mine, but like your idea better! Very cool. -Bill