leaky5

I am OK, the guy I bought it from can do this for me.

I have an off cut of Oak Tanned leather approx 300mm x 32mm x 3.4-4mm which I would like to use for a watch strap. This needs to be split down to about 1.2mm, me doing it with a skiving knife will probably ruin it. Does anyone on here have a splitting machine who could do this for me ? Regards Richard

I also ordered an Olfa BTC-1 and that does the job really well and is quite cheap. Along with the fact it had replacable blades, that is perfect for me.

Thanks for the tips, I almost bought a block plane and then remembered I had a new wood chisel in the shed. Gave it a bit of a sharpen and it has tided up my hack job quite nicely.

I am still learning with this, I can do fairly small pieces, but if I try to do say the last 60mm of the reverse of a 32mm wide belt (where the buckle goes) I end up taking chunks out of it. Is it down to the correct tools ? I normally use a Boker subcom 42, but that plays havoc with the arthritis in my fingers. Would I be better off with one of the square ended, wooden handled skivers (Japanese style ?) Do you bother skiving this part and the keeper to thin them out ?

If anyone has any examples, I would like to see how green dyes come out on veg tan leather. One of my sons wants an Iphone case and would like it in green.

She actually really like this and wants me to finish it. So onwards with the stitching

The original intention had been to do a handbag for my wife and the laptop bag for our 25th wedding anniversary in a few weeks time. Both with a similar pattern But a good way through doing the bag for my wife, I realised it was not the sort of bag she would want to use day to day, so I hit plan B and did the other 2. After our anniversary I will show her this one and see if she wants me to finish it.

I was quite chuffed at work today, I had been using the laptop bag for the first time. One of my work mates had been discussing the quality of a non leather designer brand bag his boss had just bought for £150. Then he saw my bag as I was packing away and said ‘Now that’s a bag ‘and proceeded to give it a good look over and then asked how much it had cost. We then had a 10 minute discussion, with him not believing I had made it myself. He is a close up of the handle.

Thanks. My first attempt at a zip (there is a thread about it somewhere on here) failed. Now I glue a strip of scrap leather to the back of the zip and then stitch through both parts. I will always hand stitch, just nothing of this scale in future. There is a strap which goes from one side buckle to the other which is stitched along both edges as well. The bag is about 40x30cm and the dye is Fiebings Spanish Brown. edit. Just had a quick work out and I think there are between 1100 & 1200 stitches on the laptop bag.

Finally finished all my planned major work for the summer. I know none of them are perfect, but I am learning and improving all the time. 1st two are for my wife. A small cross body bag for dog walking and a larger one for general use. Both just need a small bit of finishing off and a strap. Just going to make a temporary blacking webbing strap and then let her decide on the final design she wants. The next two are for me. First one based loosely on the Indiana Jones gas mask bag. Just need to give this a protective coating. Contains a drawstring liner, going to be used as my holiday bag. And finally a laptop bag for me and it is safe to say I am never going to do anything with as much hand stitching ever again.

I have nearly finished this bag and would like to water proof it a bit, its unlikely to go out in major down pours, but is likely to see rain at some time. So far it has only had a few coats on Neatsfoot oil. I normally just use Kiwi shoe polish on my knife sheathes, rifle slings etc. Once soaked in and buffed up it does not normally leave a tacky finish. So I could just use netural Kiwi and maybe even Leder Gris clear, which I think may give a more waterproof finish. Has anyone ever used Leder Gris or can recommend anything else ?

I really like these and would like to try something similar at some point. Just a quick question, what type of paints do you use ? Richard

I have been playing about and I think Neetsfoot oil is going to give the result I want, when I finally get around to it I will pop some pictures up. I have 4 bags to do and this is probaly going to be for the last one.

Following on from these 2 threads, I am now much happier with the zip and happy with the handle. On the handle I will get some smaller rings, they are far to big. For the zip I need to remove about 2 teeth to get the length right, but that will also remove the stops from the end. Does anyone have any tips to do some kind of stop at the end ? http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=63729 http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=63041