Dan28

I think I noticed I could stitch quite a bit faster If I could pull the thread through in one motion without having to regrab it. So I think my max length will be my "wingspan" from now on for the most part. Anyway, I wanted to stitch on my lunch break at work today, so I brought the strap, thread, awl, needles with me to work. Made myself a makeshift stitching pony and got into a pretty good rythem with it. Probably have about an hour left till this strap is done. (Think I may redo the first eight inches or so. I was watching Nigel Armitage's videos while trying learn exactly how to get a good consistent stitch, and think it took me about that long before I was getting the hang of it)

Been stitching on the strap for hours and just a little over half way done. I did start breaking the thread up into about 8 foot section. Used the effect described above when I finished a threads run.

Do you try to measure out enough thread to do one run and deal with pulling it all through each hole at first, or just expect to have to do small sections with multiple backstiches? I started one last night with a very long amount of thread between my needles, but think I'm going to do shorter runs and a few backstitches so I can control it more easily. The stitch on this item is just ornamental, so no need for it to hold anything structurally.

Guess I did get lucky, as the order showed up USPS today.

Thanks. I kind of was waiting for those stitching chisels to progress with a project, but think I'll look into some alternatives rather than waiting another three to four weeks. I guess I could use the stitching wheels and diamond awls I have. When I placed the order I was not paying attention to shipping times. I would have paid for the expedited shipping if I knew it would take that long.

I wonder if there is just one accidental zero on that. Even at $270 it would be kind of expensive, but it does look well made out of good oak.

I did a search trying to find out what carrier these guys deliver with in the US. Yesterday was exactly 3 weeks since my order supposedly shipped. Order was for a few stitching chisels, a stylus/modeling spoon, a wing divider/groover, and a small jar of their Gum Trag replacement, so should just be one box. I didn't get tracking info with my order, (think there is a charge for that). I'm just curious should I be looking for it to come US Mail, Fed Ex, UPS etc.

Sounds a lot like my experience the past couple days with a bag I'm doing. Up until this all my dye jobs have been relatively small. I was using Feibings saddle tan oil dye and just kept jetting bad streaks. It was drying way to quickly. Eventually I got it to a point I could live with it and went to put Resolene on it and that just made it worse. My Saddle Tan dye was also coming out slightly red too. I eventually couldn't stand the streaks and went to town on it with Fiebings Deglazer, denatured alcohol, and acetone. Took a lot of "junk" off, soaked the pieces, let them dry a bit, but not bone dry and then put another couple coats of dye on. They pieces came out with an antiqued look. It wasn't what I was going for originally, but I kind of like it, though there is still a slight red tinge, maybe from some mink oil I had applied. Of course when I dyed the straps, they came out without issue and saddle tan. I mixed some Saddle tan dye with a little bit of mahogany dye to add a second coat to the straps to get them to match the rest and it got it close. It was a learning process.

Thanks. I was a Seabee in the Navy years ago, so I do have a background in building stuff. Posting these to know if I'm on the right track. On the magazine pouch, I cobbled together a quick form using some scrap cedar at my dad's wood shop, kind of spur of the moment as its a two and a half hour drive and I was leaving that day. I just kind of wanted to get something since I was there and had his shop available to me. If I had planned it out, I probably would have made the form a double As it is I had to form each pouch separately and then connect them to a single backing piece. You can see that they are two separate pieces of leather in the middle between the stitching. I took the "pointy" end of my burnishing tool and kind of grooved them together to try and make it less noticeable. I almost ran a strip of pig skin down the middle, too, but decided against it. The left pouch stitching is rough. I used a stitching wheel (not sure of name) to mark my stitch points, then the tip of a diamond awl and my arbor press to punch them. It started off ok, but then I guess I lost consistency. and got off track. I guess I should have just hand punched them with the awl handle. Its just with my arbor press method it is like going though butter. I've now started a messenger bag. I am taking it super slow though (for me anyway). I kind of assembled my paper templates with tape to see how it looked and decided to trim down the dimensions. Finally got it to the point I wanted and made my initial cuts in my good leather last night. I do think I may have an issue or rather just an obstacle. I made the corners square and the design has a single piece of leather as the gusset that goes down each side and along the bottom. . I found that having it square will make it harder to attach the gusset but I think I have solved this by cutting small triangles out of the edge of the bends so that I can stitch the sides and bottom to the front and back. Anyway I'm at a stand still on that project till some tools I ordered arrive.

Thanks for the responses. I gave her some pieces of scrap and good 9oz leather and designs I want to try today. They were unfinished, so I will see how it turns out. I'm going on vacation so I won't know for a week or so how it turns out. I'm actually looking at one of the "cheap" Chinese 40W laser engravers on Amazon now. Wondering if it would be worth it to mess with it myself.

First off, I am new to leather crafting. I do have a pretty good resource I can use, as a co-worker has a rather high end laser engraving machine that she mostly used to make etchings into wood frames. https://www.etsy.com/shop/LaserCraftEngraving?page=1 She can and will engrave leather for me. I'm just curious if anybody knows whether to do it to the veg tan leather before or after the dying process?

Here is the magazine pouch.

Thanks. I kind of picked the "loop" position arbitrarily. If I had seen some of the ones here before hand, I may have moved it up. The stitching is where my impatience kicked in. I started out with a diamond awl doing the flat work where the bottom of the barrel is. I switched to a cheap set of pricking tools I have to do most of the rest. I think afterwords after seeing it that they are probably too many stitches per inch for this project and the mix of the two does detract. I have some pricking tools on order from Goods Japan that are around six stitches per inch, but think I got a week or so wait till they arrive. I also was going to try my hand at tooling a border on it and changed my mind after a bit. I had marked a grove around the edge as a guide. The stamps I had made, about 6 or 7 were along the fold and I was able to remove them by wetting the leather. I couldn't get the guide grove out though. I've since finished a magazine holder that I wet formed to go with it, that has some of the same issues you pointed out. Or I should say close to finished, as I think I need to burnish the edges some more on it. I thought they were pretty good yesterday, but today they seem to have gotten a little rougher.

Wanting a certain style holster for my 1911 is what drove me to finally try leather working. I've thought about trying it for years, but the holster idea was what finally drove me to go buy some tools and leather and give it a try. Made two belts and a knife sheath then went to work on the holster. Hadn't found this site before I made it, or I may have done better. Looking at some of the stuff people have done on here let's me know I'm very much a beginner. I already see many ways of improving. The first employing more patience. Anyway here is my holster.