billybopp

see if you can get a small piece .. Maybe 1" or so ... Drop it in boiling water. If it curls up, it is most likely veg tanned. If not, then it's not!

I was thinking the same thing ... It would be fascinating to see one in action, moving slowly to see what's going on and also at full speed. There's so much exposed mechanism on this one to watch!

In a separate container, try adding a very small amount of black to the purple ... and incrementally add more black to get the fade you want - building up the color on the piece. If the purple is too intense, you can thin it to achieve lighter shades and highlights as well. Dying with color is a lot like painting with watercolor, if you're familiar with that.

I use flesh side out deer on the back of my guitar straps. It's really soft, gives a wonderful feel, and a some friction to keep the strap from sliding. It does have a few quirks, in that you have to be pretty careful to get it to glue smoothly .. every little lump and bump can show through. Its too soft to edge with even a sharp beveler, so I use a sharp hobby knife to bevel it. It burnishes .. Sort of .. using a burnishing cream by craft-sha. I use white deer skin, and it discolors very easily when burnishing, so make sure that your burnisher is very very clean, and be careful not to turn it around while using since it will pick up dye from the front side during use. Bill

So now I know where Tom Servo's career went after MST3000!

USMC black does indeed take a whole lot of buffing ... I found out the hard way, as the OP did, before I started coming here and reading about it. But it begs the question, why do they still sell the stuff? Does it have some use that I'm not aware of? Is there some use for it that justifies all that work?

Gotta ask .. Is the belt mechanism to help pull material through? Is it powered / synchronized with the feed? I've never seen one o' those before. Bill

Yup. Airbrushes are great. For the vast majority of what we use them for in leatherwork they are dead easy. They are also, like many other things, intimidating at first. Just like that big pencil you used in the first grade was. I bet it also took a lot longer to learn to use that big pencil than the airbrush did. Just get past the intimidation factor and you're on your way! Love the stand. It's much prettier than mine is. You may want to take a look at quick disconnects for your airbrushes. They're not pricey and make switching back and forth between airbrushes really easy and fast!

My guitar straps were all done with a single length of braided poly .. A couple with black Tiger thread, the others with Chinese poly. They were all darker colors, so color contamination was not a problem. Managing tangling does take a bit of care, and it will happen. You just have to be aware of it and keep an eye out for knots. If a knot appears, don't pull it through if you catch it, back out and untangle the knot. It's a little bit of a pain, but I've not had more than two or three in a project. You quickly learn how to manage your thread and not tangle it. Over that length, the needle end of the poly will begin to show some wear for a couple of inches, so add a little extra to allow for that. If I were doing a light color, or using linen or some other thread that's susceptible to wear I'd go for shorter lengths and splice. Also, as previously mentioned, some protection for your hands is in order .. Lightweight gloves would work, but I use athletic tape wrapped around the fingertips that grab needle and thread and around the "wear" places on my fingers that I pull to tighten with. Without these, in time you'll get callouses on those spots, but until then you can end up sore and maybe even a little bloody. Another big help is a couple of thin strips of wood to help support long runs in your stitching pony. About 1/4" X 1" x 12" on both sides of the strap held by the stitching pony. Some have made stitching clamps just for straps, but the wood strips work really well.

If you're only looking to make a belt or three, hand sewing is not a bad option. I have not sewn a belt myself, BUT I have done a few guitar straps which are similar. It's not something you'd want to do all the time, but when you hit your stride sewing something that size, it moves along nicely. Stopping every few inches to stretch my arthritic hands the straps still only take two or three hours. There is a certain zen-like quality to hand stitching for me, and there's a little extra bit of pride in the finished product it seems. So, no. It's not insane. Not something you'd want to do every day, but do-able! P.S. Be sure to have some proper music to work with, or if you can maintain concentration a movie or TV show. It helps.

LOL. Good point. There are other things as well. They all go hand in hand, tho. Leather is not much use unless you know what to do with it and have a few tools around to use too. Also worth mentioning are consumables such as glue, dye, finishes, needles, thread, and hardware such as belt buckles. Just about any of the above is worthy of their own subject (and frequently are on here)! Good leather vs. so so is a huge thing .. It's not the place to go for cheap. JLS doesn't do crappy leather, so that's a very generous offer!

You might want to check out this video by Ian Atkinson about starter leather tools on youtube. He also has a list of those tools with prices in UK pounds. It covers a pretty good selection of the basics. Everybody will have a slightly different list, but this is a good starting point. A couple of things I'd suggest, if you don't already have something serviceable are a folding utility knife, as the blade will have very little wobble compared to the retractable type. You may also find that a cork or rubber backed straight edge/ruler won't slide around so easily in use. Hobby knife sets are inexpensive, if you don't already have them. For my part, I find the standard hobby knife #11 blade a little flimsy for leather and prefer the beefier #22 blades. Many of the tools that you need initially you may already have, such as a cutting surface, utility knife, hobby knife, hammer, lighter and such. Now, note that the tools he lists are oriented toward assembling things made of leather. Decorating, or tooling, leather is a different subject .. BUT most things that are tooled also need to be assembled, so it's a good starting point. Another really great resource, is the Tandy leathercraft library. Amongst the first things I'd suggest on there are the leathercraft tools book, and the handsewing leather book. I have hard copies of both and still refer back to them often. Many others of the books are very useful as well .. the Stohlman books were written long ago, and many of the projects in them are now dated BUT the techniques they teach are still valid and timeless. Most projects involve at least some amount of sewing, and the Tandy book is a good start, but you may also want to check out Youtube videos by Nigel Armitage. Nigel has several saddle-stitch videos and a some project videos as well. UKSaddlery's videos are also well worth a look! (They are also members here, and occasionally kick in with answers to questions). The last thing I'd add is sharpening tools. Leather cutting tools must be sharp. VERY sharp. There are a lot of options here, and you may well have stones, a strop, etc. already. The leathercraft tools book above gives some good info on how to sharpen tools. There is a forum on here all about sharpening that's very useful. If you're on a budget, the Scary Sharp method works well, although I feel their suggestion to use "float glass" is overkill. I use my glass topped coffee table and it works well. There is also a youtube video by Paul Sellers showing the scary sharp method on wood chisels. It'll give you a good idea of how this works. I should add here, that even utility knife blades from the box, while sharp, often still have grinding marks on the cutting edge and can benefit from some stropping to make them really sing. Also worth noting, sharpening is a handy, life long skill that's terribly useful. My kitchen knives are now more useful than ever since I've learned to sharpen well! Hope that helps Bill

The isopropyl rubbing alcohol that you get from a drug store comes in two varieties. 70% and 90% concentration, with the balance being water. The price difference is small, so I usually stick with 90%. I don't know if it makes a difference, but for pennies why gamble.

Aside from the "darn that's so cool" quality of using old tools, they really are better IMHO. If I were starting over again, I'd skip the new tools and only buy old .. I've got some real crap new tools. As I mused in another thread, I think the old timers who used these tools day in and day out were willing to pay a premium price for tools that would (and often did) outlast them. They depended on these tools for their daily bread and butter. Even the best modern tools are comparatively cheaper to buy, but good quality can be had at the right price. Unfortunately, for now "The Boss" has forbidden any leather tool purchases. Just when I've seen a few that I'm lusting after too! LOL. A friend of mine is a laid off machinist, and I've given some thought to seeing if we can come up with some startup cash for tooling to make some true quality tools. I think you're right, there IS a market for them. Maybe we should make it happen! Bill

The sheaths were a fun project to design and make. They are the thickest things that I have sewn to date, which presented its own challenges. The beltloop, back, and strap are all one piece. I made a mistake on the Gomph sheath and have the strap coming off the same side that the knife slides out from and it gets in the way a bit ... better to have the strap on the sewn shut side! I may still cut the strap off and rivet a new one on going the other direction, but haven't decided yet. Another lesson learned from a straight knife sheath that I made previously was to put a thicker piece of leather between the back and welt to help offset the handle from the loop a bit.

Some months ago I decided, like you, to see what all the fuss about round knives was. I bought a really cheap one ($15-20) from ebay to give it a go and to learn more about them. So I bought the one pictured at the left below .. It is probably a food slicer blade cut and put into an old handle. It worked pretty well once I learned how to sharpen it, and found that sharpening a curve like this has quite a learning curve so I'm glad that I could learn on cheap stuff first. I liked it well enough to take the plunge for the other two antiques that you see below, a Gomph round knife and a CSO Newark head knife. The antiques are just awesome, and seem to hold an edge well. What I found with these is that they are extremely versatile. They don't replace other cutting tools that I use, but do just about every cutting task pretty well .. they are extremely handy that way! It's also just very very sexy thinking about the history of these every time I pick them up. How old are they really, who has used them and what did they make? We'll probably never know, but it's just too cool and they are just beautiful. One day, I want to add a W. Rose to the collection .. Just for history's sake since I live very near where they were originally made in Philadelphia. It'd be cool to bring one back home. They also led me to think about why these were so popular, and the best explanation that I can some up with is a matter of economy. Modern mass produced tools cost a couple of hours to a day's pay, so buying a single-task tool is not such a big deal. These, at $4-5 or so, would have been more like a week or two's pay. For that money, they HAD to be long lasting, and versatile multi-taskers. Even high end modern round knives such as LeatherWranglers or or Knipschield are comparably priced or less than these were in their day. They won't replace my utility knife for straight cuts along a straight-edge, skiving knives especially for thin leather, rotary cutter for rolling cuts on thin leather, or going around curves with a clicker, but if needed they can and often do those jobs well. The one thing that they do better than any other tool for me is free-hand long straight cuts. P.S. The sheaths were each made using the knife that they hold. I had to try them out thoroughly! They also got progressively better as I figured out how to make them. The "belt loops" are for future use when I have a proper workbench so that they can hang above it.

I was poking around craigslist in Philadelphia the the other day, and came across a Standard No.3. with some pretty good pictures. It looks fascinating, but certainly too pricey for me and I somehow doubt that parts are available. I'd love to see a video of one o' these in action! They claim that this one was made around 1873, so shortly after the civil war. http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/for/5888005948.html

Wow. Just wow. Beautiful work!

... Good point Tinker .. That also assumes that one has the woodworking tools and skills to do the job, which not everybody has. Bill

Looking good so far! You'll have no problem with a messenger bag if you decide to go there. Your sewing looks pretty good, but be prepared for some sore hands with a messenger bag, LOL. Bill

All the above said, it came from your wife's aunt and there's probably plenty family history in that machine. While nobody displays last year's plastic fantastic sewing machine in the family room as a functional display piece. These old machines are beautiful and usable! While you may not be able to sew much if any leather on it, most of us still need to sew fabric or really thin leather from time to time and it may be able to do that. I have a little lightweight Singer that belonged to my grandmother and was used by her, my mother, my sisters, and me. As the story goes, once as a young girl my mother was getting ready for school one day and despite a closet full of clothes claimed that she had nothing to wear to school so my grandfather sat down and whipped out a skirt for her! (Now THAT'S love). One day, if I do enough leather work to justify it I may pop in at Keysew and talk to 'em about a bona-fide leather machine, but even then I wouldn't trade this one for anything.

Binder clips really do make great (and CHEAP) clips for leather work. They do however mark the leather and can rust and leave rust marks if you're not careful. I glued on some little pieces of leather to help mitigate both of those situations. I also have a bunch of inexpensive plastic clamps in various sizes, made mostly for woodworking, also with little bits of leather glued on to prevent marking. Bill

I used to use a lighter, but occasionally burnt the leather if not very careful. Tried an old soldering iron, which worked well but they take awhile to heat up, so not very convenient for burning a thread or two now and then. I've recently started using a battery powered thread zapper, and really like the kind that has a retractable tip so that I don't accidentally burn something I shouldn't, and to protect the wire when not in use. Rechargeable batteries are also a good idea since they do go through batteries fairly quickly. Bill

As far back as the 1920s leather tobacco pouches had a rubber liner. Can't say about before that tho.

That is a really great looking stamp set. I don't know that I've ever seen another set that is meant to give a 3-D effect like that. Bill