venator

I think so too, it also protects the belt during shipping. Considering it took me all of about 3 minutes to make the pouch it was well worth it.

Mostly I'm liking the little bag I made to ship it in from some scrap cloth.

When I hand stitch I wear an old pair of mountain biking gloves that I cut the thumb and first two fingers off. That way I have a leather palm I can push the needle with and I also have glove covering my ring and pinkie finger for the pulling. Saves me a lot of time and wear and tear.

Well it's good to know I'm not the only one who feels like banging his head into a wall. It's just a shame to know that I have to buy a whole new hide so now I'm losing money on the project.. .

Thanks, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Lined with ripstop and one zipper pocket on the side.

Know what really grinds my gears? Using my new skiver to perfectly skive 3/4 edges for a big duffle bag I'm making then watching it eat 3/4" of leather on the last side for no apparent reason. Bah!!!! Now the dimensions of my bag are off, I have to re-adjust everything and it's no longer going to be the sizing I wanted (had a very specific sizing request from a customer). Stupid skiver. . .

First, don't stitch across the belt, only stitch along (or across at an angle) doing it at 90 degrees like you did causes a perforation that significantly weakens the leather. It's a pretty solid looking belt otherwise, pricking irons or a roller wheel with pricks would go a long way to evening out your stitches. Personally for an english point I just use my wing divider, set it to the width of the belt, plant one end and draw a curve across the belt, then do the same on the other side, cut along the two lines and you have a great point that's proportional to the width of the belt (bisecting curves). To cut it I actually plant a corner of my round knife on the table then pull the belt into the knife, I find it works really well. With dying the holes you can either dye the belt after punching them or go back and dab some dye into them with a q-tip or something similar.

it was a lot more than a bit too far away, turned out it was backed off almost completely. With regards to Cobra, I'm thrilled they're mailing me a manual at no cost, very nice of them and exactly the sort of thing that we cause me to purchase other equipment from them in the future, that's fantastic. Not answering emails, and being told if I call someone can help then being told when I call that nobody can help are just a little frustrating. You're right, it's second hand and I didn't even expect the manual so I'm quite happy, just frustrated by the little things. I also find it amusing that they'll mail me a manual for free but don't have a digital version they can email? odd.

Excellent! Thank you sir!

What glue do you use when you want to glue fabric (say canvas, cotton, wool) to the flesh side of leather? A spray? Contact Cememt? Prayers and hope? Goat sacrifice? Thanks.

Ah, it's the lack of dye that fooled me. Things like that are hard to tell from the pictures vs in person, I dye my edges when I burnish so I didn't realize you had burnished them. Well sometimes I do. . .

What did you stiffen it with? What did you line it with? I'm very curious as it's just gorgeous. If you finished the edges it would be amazing IMHO.

I have a friend with a machine shop and I'm going to see what it would run me for a prototype, often he'll throw a one-off my way for free.

Very sexy

I just found this video and damn, it explains everything. And sure enough, the bell knife was way too far away, oddly one thing I hadn't adjusted but now she works just fine.

I was told today that there was no-one there who could help. I'll just wait for the manual and see if I can figure it out myself. The good news is with my issue it doesn't really waste any leather as the damn knife doesn't ever cut it, the leather always just slides across the top. Also yes, I've made sure the knife is sharp, ask my fingertips.

Also I suppose I should be more specific with my issue. When I attempt to skive only one of two things happens either the machine sucks the whole piece of leather through cutting the edge right off or the leather just slides across the top of the blade not skiving anything. There doesn't seem to be much of an in-between. I'm using fairly soft leather (upholstery hide) and I've tried moving the presser foot up and down, I've tried moving the feeding wheel up and down, angling it etc etc and just can't seem to get it to do anything other than one of the two above things. Very frustrating and I'm sure it's user error as the guy I bought it from skived some very thin leather on it when I bought it to demo that it worked.

Well I called and cobra is mailing me a manual, not sure why they don't respond to emails but that's very nice of them. It is a little disappointing that I won't be able to use the machine for another week or so until that arrives as I had some projects I wanted to get done this week that it would have been very handy for. Not their fault however that there's no manual with my used machine. I don't suppose anyone has experience with these and could maybe talk me through using it as they weren't able to do that over the phone since the lovely lady didn't know how it worked. lol

As I said I've tried emailing since I doubt my issue could be solved via telephone. The machine is fine, it's just a learning issue and I'd do that best by watching instructional videos or reading instructions.

Does anyone have a link to how to set-up, operate one of these? I bought one second hand and cannot seem to get it to skive, it either cuts right through the leather or does nothing at all and I'm getting frustrated. I've emailed cobra asking for instructions, or a manual, or a video, and received no response so if anyone could help I'd really appreciate it.

Really gorgeous, how do you do your edges? Also, can we see the inside please?

Ideally an ongoing source. Probably 2-3 sets of 4 (so 12) the first time, then more if successful.

I'm trying to find stretch clips like these for tablet holders, any suggestions?

Normally I'd agree but there's been a huge shift in the fashion industry toward simple bags with minimal anything and raw edges. Nowdays it's all about the silhouette and minimalism. Plus I'm looking for a bag product I can product quickly and easily for minimal labour and cost to keep the purchase price low. Now if I could just find a solid and consistent leather source for it here in Canada. . .