DJole

I think it's a marshmallow press, used to hold a marshmallow over a campfire...

Critique -- it's at your house, not mine! But seriously, that's a pretty good job. Smooth lines, good stitching with enough leather around them, and the stamping is all right. It's very hard to get repetitive patterns like that exactly lined up and spaced correctly-- only purists and pedants would point out the very small inconsistencies.

Angelus has an Orange dye, as well as a Honey dye -- I haven't used either of them, so I can't say how close they are to the color you are looking for. Check online here: <https://angelusshoepolish.com/collections/leather-dye>

Is this the design you mean? <https://www.stecksstore.com/craftool-153r-leathercraft-tool-stamp-68153-02-by-tandy-leather/>

Welcome, AbbyR18. You might benefit from watching some of Ian Atkinson's videos. The ones I linked below are from his website (https://www.ianatkinson.net/leather/videos.htm). He does a great job of explaining what tools you need and why, and also showing that not everything you need must come from a leather supply store. Beginners’ Videos Top 25 Recommended Leatherwork Tools (45 mins) The Tools You Need for Leatherwork (15 mins) The Hardware You Need for Leatherwork (30 mins) Information About Dyeing Leather (45 mins) Choosing the right type, weight and quality of leather for your projects (35 mins) Hand Stitching Leather (1 hour 35 mins)

How interesting that the Netherlands has a market for Western (USA) style riding tack! Welcome to the forum, Mathilde!

That's nice stitching -- the spacing and tension are all equally balanced. I like that you re-purposed lower grade leather into a useful item. And it will take a beating, and you won't be sad because it's not top dollar leather!

I found that I am much more likely to mess up with the stitching gouge than with the dividers. Just one slip and WOOPS. But the dividers are much more forgiving.

Remember also that wet leather will stretch a bit and form to shape. I just completed a couple card slots where I over-trimmed the pieces, and I could JUST BARELY slide the cards in, even though the stitch line was just barely on the edge. But then I wet the piece down, put the cards in and shaped the leather a bit and let them dry in the slots. Now they work great. You can also skive the leather to reduce bulk.

Ah-- I need to specify: the sword has a scabbard already, leather over wood. However, there was no suspension fittings or belt attached to it. So what I made is kind of a hanger, which was made to fit tightly over the scabbard. (See here for the full piece.) (Also, the sword isn't sharp -- it's a metal simulator, or waster.) Looking at your staff handle, I wonder what the color is? Is that a dye you applied or something else? The baseball stitch works really well for tightening leather around things, like baseballs, staffs, steering wheels, sword scabbards...

Welcome to the forum! I'm curious -- why did you move to the USA, and why to that area of Illinois?

Nice work! I did a similar thing on a sword scabbard I made a while back, using flat lace instead of thread like you did:

That is an interesting design! Hammering the stitching chisel through all those layers takes a lot of careful hammering, too. I like seeing design work from outside the Anglosphere -- it is often subtly different.

I thought I would leave it natural, but use a highlighter on it. I haven't done that yet-- I'm still working on the other part.

Here is the back panel carving, just completed. I am very pleased with myself on this piece of work. That reverse carving background looks great, and I took a lot of care to get the lines evenly spaced. I can see that it's not perfect, but I am still proud of it.

Here's the front section, with an Angelus Burgundy background.

Maybe a video by Ian Atkinson (of Leodis Leather) which covers this topic will help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyTg_hfpNUM

For starting traditional floral work, you need a set of the following (as listed in Al Stohlman's Leatherwork Manual from 1969): Camouflage, pear shader, beveller, veiner, seeder, and backgrounder. Now the difficult part is figuring out where to go from there, since each of these come in a dizzying variety of sizes (large, small, figure, etc.) and textures (smooth, lined, checked, ribbed, etc.) Since you are learning, you won't need 8 bevellers at the start (4 smooth of different sizes, and 4 checked in different sizes.) Most of us started with the basic set, and then picked up additional tools only as we needed them for a specific project (mulefoot, pebble backgrounder, different border designs, most of the figure carving tools, etc.) As to whether you should go immediately with the Barry King tools... I don't have the expertise to answer that question (or the budget for those Cadillac tools, either!) :-) Perhaps you should spend the money on better knives, rather than carving tools, at the moment. I understand the difference between a cheap swivel knife and a good one can make a lot of difference. And make sure you understand how to correctly case your leather, or else the tools won't work right and your frustration level will rise, as you can't figure out if the problem is you, the knife/tool, or the leather.

Is there any kind of finish on the inside of those leather straps? If not, they'll sure get soggy when the German skies send rain down on you.

Thick leather like that is what a lot of people want to make armor out of. And it's expensive, too. Since that leather was given to you, you could sell it at a bargain price to SCA people in your area, then use that money to buy leather of the thickness you really want.

Welcome! More voices of experience are always valued, and it's good that the UK contingent keeps growing, too. Ac un Cymro rhagor yw peth da!

Not a stupid question at all, since you don't want to spend money on the wrong kind of leather! You also might contact Brettun's Village, up in Maine, to see if they have the dyed veg-tan you need: <https://www.brettunsvillage.com/leather/> I don't work for them (wrong coast!), but they always have a wide variety of leather types and weights, and they might have yours available. Prices and service are fine, too.

You can also check out this video, by a resident leatherworker here on the forum, who does some fantastic work:

Welcome to the forum and to the world of leatherworking! Here's what I think I see in your bevelling (without getting a closeup view): Letter A is a side view of a beveller used to make a "trough." It's a common problem beginners have as they don't quite understand what the tool is supposed to do. See how there is no "relief", how both sides of the line are equal height? Letter B is what you want-- the beveller is used to push down the leather to make a gradual slope, which fades out away from the design element. This makes the design stand out from the surface of the leather. Want to see it in real life? Take a quick view here: Doing the bevelled lines right will help the antiquing work correctly.

It's got to be an optical trick...you found some giant-size tools and put them into the photo, right? Seriously, though... those are TINY lines you did there! I don't know how you pulled it off, but you did. That would be a difficult how-to video to make, since the movements would be so small. I have a couple designs I have shelved simply because they have some very, very small and narrow lines, and I just don't want to mess with them yet. I'm considering laser engraving instead.