billybopp

Maybe blue leather ... From Babe, the blue ox.

Welcome aboard sbpark. All good advice above, but don't forget that there are other tools that you'll need as well, many of which you may already have around the house. I'll second barry king tools. They are good and will last a lifetime. You'll need a surface to tool on. A big slab of granite or marble works great, and can often be found cheap if not free from the scrap pile of a local countertop place. I found mine on a trash pile at a house that was being renovated, and covered the bottom with a big piece of felt so that it won't scratch my table. You'll need hole punches for strap ends and belt buckles if you are using them. You'll need a cutting board or poundo board for punching holes, etc. You'll need a knife, long straight edge and probably cutting surface for cutting leather. A utility knife with the best blades you can find works well and isn't expensive. The same goes for an x-acto knife. I use a 4ft aluminum straight edge with a cork backing to help guide my cuts. The cork backing helps prevent the straight edge from sliding around. I also use a huge self-healing cutting mat that's really nice. You'll want honing and sharpening supplies for your cutting tools to keep them in good shape. Even the nice sharp disposable blades can be improved with a little honing and stropping. A square of some sort can be very helpful in laying out designs and cuts. You'll need edger/bevelers, and burnishing tools and supplies. Check out this post for a great tutorial on finishing edges http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=18101 You'll need dyes, thinners, antique dyes, and finishes along with their respective supplies such as daubers, rags and brushes, and disposable gloves. A good place to start with guitar straps is with a pre-made template. They are a great help and confidence builder. Some good ones can be found at http://www.blackriverlaser.com/ There are a lot of other items that can be helpful that you can often find lying around the house, such as bottle and jar lids for helping make rounded cuts. Bottles and jars are good to have around for thinned dyes, etc too. Here are a few pictures of straps that I've made using a blackriverlaser template. Hope that helps! Bill

One thing to bear in mind in the Chevy vs. Ford debate is the companies' differing philosophies regarding upgrades and "improvements". I don't know if they still work this way, but traditionally Ford would launch a new design or re-design with new body style, and most of the drive-train new, and then incrementally make small design changes and improvements as necessary. So, if you happen to bought one of those in the first year or two were likely to have any and all kinds of problems. After that, they were pretty stable and good. GM, on the other hand would launch body, engine, transmission and other components individually every couple of years, so you could end up with a vehicle with engine troubles, or transmission troubles, but everything else good. Bill

I have a variety of knives for different situations. My go to knife for cutting larger pieces of veg-tan is a nice heavy utility knife with high quality blades, which I strop to improve the edge even further than out of the box. For finer detail cuts, I use an x-acto knife with either the z-line blades #11, or if the leather is a little thicker a curved scalpel type blade #10. The scalpel blades are less susceptible to bending and give a more perpendicular cut in thicker material. For thinner and strechy leather, I use a Olfa large rotary cutter. ( I have both 45mm and 60mm rotary cutters, but mostly prefer the 60mm). If I need a circle, I use an Olfa circle cutter. For skiving belts and straps that are not too wide, I use a vintage Wilkro razor blade plane that I picked up on fleabay. For skiving larger items, I use a tandy splitter or a safety skiver. I also have a head knife, that I occasionally use for cutting and skiving, but it does not see a lot of use. If I need a smaller piece of leather cut totally square, I use a rotary paper cutter such as this http://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-Classic-Rotary-Paper-Trimmer/dp/B000YAJHVE/ Heavy leather shears are often useful as well. The shears, head knife and wilkro are the only ones that I actually bought specifically for leather work. I already had the others around the house for other various uses and projects. Bill

Thanks for posting that story! Awesome. I found this newspaper article to go along with your story. http://www.rarenewspapers.com/view/581943 Bill

Just a thought ... But I wouldn't plug that in right next to that gasoline can! It could really light up your life.

Hmmm. I'm thinkin' there just might be a market for Macho Daddy Diaper Bags©.

I don't know if the size is the same, but use something like this: http://www.tandyleather.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/8112-00.aspx Bill

I bought some cloth athletic tape to wrap around my fingers so that they do not get cut. Bill

Best patterns anywhere ( other than the ones shared on here ) is found at the local Goodwill store or other thrift shop. Find a kit like you want, pay $2 or $3 for it, take it apart seam by seam and use it as your pattern!! Bill

That really looks awesome, Chriscraft! Thanks for the demo. You've really come across a good idea. I don't think using tools as these is cheating at all. There is some evidence that Vermeer, and other renaissance artists used camera obscura to draft their works before painting. I say, good enough for the old masters, good enough for us too! Bill

It's usually the simplest ideas that make the coolest things! Thanks for the pattern, Tom! Bill

Chriscraft .. You realize, of course, that this now means that you will need to post a series of pictures of the entire process from initial artwork through projection and transfer to completed item. Right? Bill

I haven't used one in ages, but with the correct lenses and setup, there's no reason why it would not work. For that matter, a computer video projector would do much the same thing using computer images .. again, given the right lenses and setup! Great idea. Bill

Very nice work Kymberly. You'll find that dying leather is much like painting with watercolor, with two major differences: You don't have a pure white base to work from, so you have to adjust for that a little, and dye tends to spread somewhat more on leather than do watercolors on proper watercolor paper. Neither difference is difficult, but you have to adjust a little. As for dyes, I use a mix of fiebings pro, fiebings regular, and eco-flo pro for different colors and effects. I tried the regular eco-flo dyes, and they are not worth messing with IMHO. The Al Stohlman books on color leather dying are pretty good resources, even if they are dated. Many of the dyes used in them have been replaced with "newer models", but the techniques are still as sound as ever. If you can't find hard copies, they are available online for download Tandy's leathercraftlibrary.com, Coloring Leather and How to Color Leather are both good with a little overlapping info, but enough different to make them both worth a look. I was not so impressed by the Eco Flo book, particularly for the price. Here are a few examples of the color work that I sometimes do: Keep up the good work! Bill

Samar. You need to stop leatherworking. You are making the rest of us look bad. Seriously, once again beautiful work! Bill

I'm pretty sure that DavidL is preparing for the soon to come worldwide zombie apocalypse. He is set to be the world's sole remaining leather craftsman when that happens with control over the entire market and the entire supply chain from beef/hide on the hoof to the high end bag market. He will be supplanting Hermes, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and all of the other high end bag manufacturers at one go when all of their workers become zombified. When the money from high end bags is flowing in, he will then re-invest in more facilities and maybe even branch out into leather clothing to protect from zombie bites, and other practical items such as horse tack as the world devolved into a 19th century lifestyle. Yup. It'll be one heck of a business model! Bill

I use one of these for big holes in leather, or big round pieces for that matter. http://www.amazon.com/9911-CMP-1-Compass-Circle-Cutter/dp/B000BK7NWC/ref=sr_1_1?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1423595151&sr=1-1&keywords=olfa+compass+circle+cutter Bill

This thread reminds me of the two little ol' ladies that were poking around a funeral parlor while waiting for mourners to show up for their friend. The walked into one of the other rooms, and saw a man lying in his casket, looking just terrible. They asked the funeral director what had happened to him, and he replied "He stopped eating and using all of the things that they said were bad for him.". Bill

I once found myself ..er .. um ... caught out the zipper on my jeans decided to stick. A quick going over the zipper with a pencil will leave a deposit of graphite which makes an excellent light lubricant on zippers did the trick. Just don't mix graphite with other lubricants as it will form a not so slick paste. Bill

I still use chisels as well as irons. In situations where it's better to punch the holes em masse before sewing the chisels work better and I punch all the way through. I also use have chisels in SPI sizes for which I don't have pricking irons, so I use the chisels more to mark the spacing in that circumstance, and use an awl to make the hole. I do think I get a slightly better result with the pricking irons, mostly because they really help to keep the angle of the awl just right. The chisels help to keep the awl close to the right angle, but since the mark is considerably larger there's more room for error. Bill

If you're selling pens, why not make up some leather pen cases!? Bill

Blue guns are plastic replicas of various pistols that are used to form holsters. They are called blue guns because that's the color of plastic that one of the main manufacturers uses. Bill

The micro set only slightly softens, and is usually brushed onto the surface where the decal will go. I've never done decals as large as the ones you're looking at since I model in 1/72 for airplanes and 1/24 for cars. However, even some of those decals are reasonably large. Micro Sol probably would soften too much at application time, but does well after the decal is on and mostly dry. Hope that helps, Bill

I can't speak for sewing machines, but on the plastic scale models that I used to build, water slide decals work much better on a gloss finish for several reasons. Matt and semi-matt finishes will allow air to be trapped between the finish and decal which causes decals to silver in any clear areas. The technique that I eventually settled on was to always use high gloss paint, slide on the decals, and then apply a clear coat finish with the appropriate gloss / matt level. Additionally, there are a couple of products that can be helpful in applying those water slide decals. " Micro Set" is used to break the water surface tension and help decals to settle onto the surface more thoroughly, which can prevent them coming loose later. It also softens the decal just slightly to help it match contours. Once the decal is in place, and working from one end of the decal to the other, use a soft smooth rag to slowly help place the decal and absorb excess water, and work out any trapped air. It will not slide around very easily after the water is gone If there are any bubbles or contour problems once the decal is dry you can use "Micro Sol", which is a softening solution to re-soften it, make a tiny pinpoint hold over the raised area, then apply the "Micro Sol" to soften the area and work out the air. Hope that helps Bill