zuludog

Yes, I have polished my stitching chisels with small wands made by glueing progressively finer grades of abrasive paper to lollipop sticks A tip I got from Nigel Armitage is to hold down the leather with a small block of wood when you pull them out How are your edge bevellers? I made up a dedicated sharpening board by glueing some lengths of nylon cord and leather to a board, and also a small strip of leather for a strop. Search YouTube for 'sharpening an edge beveller'.

Vergez Blanchard have a good reputation for leatherworking tools. Go to http://www.fineleatherworking.com

I have never been to India, I have only seen it on TV programmes, but I get the impression that most Indian towns & cities have lots of small, informal, traditional (dare I say old - fashioned?) mechanics and engineering works. See if you can find a couple of worn out industrial sized hacksaw blades, about 25mm & 40mm wide. Make these into leather knives, like a skiving knife; Japanese Style leather knife; and a kiridashi. Either make them yourself or get one of these places to do it for you. Search YouTube for appropriate videos. You might even find someone who can make you a round knife for a reasonable price I have never bought anything from Goods Japan but I understand they are a reliable, international supplier, and from their website they have a decent range I was talking to a saddler a while ago, and he said that he'd started selling Indian made harnesses & bridles, and they're well made, so there must be some sort of leather industry there

Here's a suggestion, though obviously it is not quite what you are looking for it might be easier & cheaper to make if you are new to leatherwork Make most of the leash from nylon webbing, (say 1"/25mm wide), including the fold over for the clip, and make just the hand loop from leather. That way it will be easier to find, and afford, the sort of leather you need, but the hand loop will still be comfortable against your hand trap the nylon between the two ends of the leather; bevel the inner edges; skive the ends of the leather that entrap the webbing; use synthetic thread Or make the whole leash with nylon and line the inside of the loop with leather; say 1,5mm? Leather stretches, but thread doesn't. That's why top class belts & straps have a line of stitching down their edges. But hand sewing two lines of 72" stitching plus the foldovers would be a mammoth task, and so is usually sewn by machine I have a dog, and it would be a damn shame if the lead snapped and he ran away and got run over. Use the best leather you can find, and if you can't afford it, use synthetic .

Very good! I'm about to make a board similar to this, or that shown by lb custom knives and others on YouTube. I'll be using a bamboo kebab skewer; some densely braided nylon cord; a strip of leather; and some very fine grit Micro Mesh abrasive paper

I'm about to buy some fine wet & dry paper to sharpen my edge bevellers, covering the range about 1,000 to 8,000 grit; making a dedicated stropping board with a couple of rods and very narrow strips of leather glued to it Micro Mesh is in the region of £2 - 50 for a sheet 6" X 4" I can buy quality (Starke Matador) full size sheets for about 60p each Is the Micro Mesh really that much better?

Hello RobCO1, We're looking at two similar, but still different things here - Cutting and Edge Finishing CUTTING In theory, if your knives are razor sharp and you follow the outline or pattern you want, the cut edges of the leather will be clean, neat, smooth, and exactly how you want them to be, and mate up perfectly. Coarse sandpaper is only used to remove the occasional bump, slip, protrusion, misalignment, ragged edge or other mistake resulting from cutting out your pieces. If you get your cutting right, there's no need to sand. EDGE FINISHING Once two pieces of leather have been mated together by clamping or tack - glueing, and tidied up as described above, the resulting edge should be level, with no overlap between the pieces. Then the procedure I use is to sew, bevel; a light sand sometimes with a slightly finer grade of paper, say 100 or 120 grit; then burnishing with gum tragacanth, Edge Kote, and so on. Search YouTube for leather edge finishing, burnishing, and so on, there are lots of variations I have only used sandpaper dry and only occasionally; any dust is minimal and I can cope with it; I've never considered using it wet on leather. I've only used it by hand, I can definitely see that dry sanding with any sort of power tool would produce a lot of dust You can use power tool for burnishing, that's different to sanding, but I've heard that sanding with a Dremel can burn out the motor; to be sure you need something more powerful like an attachment on a bench grinder Cheap edge bevellers produce a flat or straight cut, essentially taking 45 degrees of the corner; that's why I usually follow up with sandpaper to produce a more rounded corner. No problem with that, as long as you're aware of it, but they do have their place More expensive edge bevellers have a concave underside which leads the tool onto the corners and produces a more rounded corner, hence less need for sanding. Search YouTube for videos on sheathmaking, which often show sanding, bevelling, and burnishing leather edges, as the edges on sheaths tend to be noticeable, so a lot of attention is paid to that. The videos by Jacklore and Ian Atkinson are in any case, first class tutorials on leatherwork. They use power sanders, but you can obtain similar results by hand, it just takes longer.

http://leathercoursesbritain.com I've just found this website. This company runs various leatherworking courses, and their website has some useful advice, in the blog and videos

Search YouTube for 'sharpening an edge beveller', there are several videos. Watch the French one; even if you can't speak French the video is plain enough

There are loads of videos on YouTube about leatherwork. Watch as many as you have the stamina for to see how they do their cutting 'Making a Leather Knife Sheath' by Jacklore uses a Stanley knife 'Making a Leather Knife Sheath' by Ian Atkinson uses (admittedly briefly) a Stanley knife, a clicker knife, and a round knife Cutting inside curves is difficult, which is why one of them uses a strap end cutter, but that's not necessary, and is quite expensive A round knife is the traditional leather knife, but they're also expensive, and need practice & experience to use well Sharpen your replaceable blades, practice, learn how to use it, and take your time. If you're still not happy think about a clicker knife, Tandy sell them as Industrial knife #3595-00. Or look at videos of a kiridashi

Sandpaper - about 80 grit, that's fairly coarse But before that you can trim the edge just by running the knife almost flat along the eddge

Hello Deb, and welcome! You will find loads of advice and information here, and the answer to just about any leather related question I hadn't heard of SCA but I found it via Google. If you don't know already you might find this website interesting. It includes a guide & links to lots of re-enactment societies http://www.historic-uk.com

I've found the Husky knife via Google, it looks like a replaceable blade craft knife. In Britain we often call these Stanley knives after the best known brand. I think you call them box cutters in USA I notice it is a folding knife, which would make it bigger and probably clumsier. I suggest you get a fixed blade model such as the Stanley 199 or 199A, though there are other makes The blades are sharp, but can be improved by sharpening them yourself, because you will polish them, and reduce the shoulder of the bevel; in fact the more you sharpen them the better they seem to get You will need a fine stone; oil, diamond or water/ceramic, whatever you fancy, and a strop. Make your own from oddments of wood & leather, this will be just about the easiest piece of leatherwork you will do. Get some jeweller's rouge or proper honing/stropping compound; it's not that expensive, and a bar will last for ages. There is loads of advice about sharpening & stropping on this forum and on YouTube. In fact the key to good leatherwork is to have razor sharp knives, whether fixed or replaceable blades You could also consider other knives, like a clicker knife or a Japanese style kiridashi - search Google and YouTube. There are other types, it's a bit of trial and error really to find what suits you Whatever you get, you will need two knives - one just for leather, and a general one for opening parcels, sharpening pencils and so on; it's purpose is to make sure you use the first knife exclusively for cutting leather Mark out the pattern with a scratch awl, followed by a light cut with the knife. Concentrate on getting the shape correct, not on a seriously deep cut. Once the shape or outline has been set you can then make deeper cuts, and the blade should follow the pattern you have made. You may need to tidy up the edges with sandpaper I assume you are using a proper cutting mat I started out using a Stanley knife and resharpened the blades as they became blunt. Over the past few months I've been using a Japanese style leather knife for straight cuts & gentle curves, and a kiridashi for tighter curves

I mostly make sheaths which have relatively sort runs of stitching. If I see that a problem or mistake is starting to occur I unsew/unpick/ tease out the stitching with my round awl or a dart head. Straighten or pull out that thread with your fingers or through beeswax and you can carry on sewing without a join I sew leather by hand, but I also sew tents, rucsacs, and outdoor clothing by machine. Whether sewing leather or fabric, if I need to cut through stitching I use either a stitch ripper or a number 3 Swan Morton scalpel handle with a number 10 or 10A blade

This supplier has Fil au Chinois and other European brands of linen thread. http://www.kurzke.co.uk Besides full reels she has sample packs of 5 and 10 m . This supplier has Campells Satin Laid Linen Thread http://www.marchand-medieval.com

Thanks. I've read your message, and you're right, the supplier's website is all in Chinese so I'll look out for Etsy Perhaps you could post on this forum when it is available, I'm sure other members would be interested It would be interesting to compare it with Fil au Chinois

It looks good, I prefer linen thread to synthetic, even the much recommended Tiger thread But - please can you tell us how to get it, I can't find it on Google. Do you have a supplier in Britain? And prices?

I've never used a Poundo board, but I understand they are made from thick, resilient rubber You could try using a hot knife, like a cheap vegetable knife heated in a gas flame. But let's see what other members think of that

Options - Get some good quality stitch nippers Use a scalpel or craft knife with disposable blades Get a wood carving knife with a suitably shaped blade. You will need to sharpen this now and again

There are about 10 to 12 pages of leatherwork on YouTube, each with bout 20 videos; watch as many as you have the stamina for, you'll soon pick it up. Sounds like you're already working through the relevant sections of this forum Keyfobs are good, Tandy sell a packet of the rings quite cheaply. They can help you learn pattern making, cutting out, saddle stitch, edge bevelling, edge burnishing, dyeing, stamping, and generally getting used to leather and the tools.

I've just re - read my post This part should be obvious, but lets clear up any possible misunderstanding When I wrote about lubricating the prongs with beeswax I meant, of course, as you knock the chisel through the leather, and not when you polish them with abrasive paper Use the buffing board dry or with water I've just searched YouTube for 'leather covered walking stick'. there are 3 or 4 videos that look relevant, but I haven't watched any of them

That chisel looks good value, but I think there could be a problem or misunderstanding You can sew leather with thread, and the chisel needs to have prongs that have a diamond shaped cross section, and set at an angle to the body of the chisel You can also sew leather with thin strips of leather, called lacing or thonging. The chisels for this have prongs with a flat section, like very small rectangles, and are set flat in line with the body of the chisel I can't quite tell from the picture, but it looks to me that this is a lacing chisel, which is not what you want. I think the word 'diamond' in the description just refers to the tips, which is confusing. Check with the supplier before you buy. Just tell them what you want to do, and they should advise you accordingly. I'd say prongs with 3 mm spacing Whatever chisel you get, it can be improved by polishing the prongs, especially the cheaper makes. Make a small file or buffing board by gluing some 500 or 600 grit wet & dry paper to a sliver of wood like a lollipop stick. And lubricate the prongs on a lump of beeswax as you use it In the short term you can hit the chisel with a steel hammer, which you may already have, but eventually this will damage the end of the chisel. You should use a soft hammer, like plastic or hide. Don't get a cheap rubber mallet, they will bounce and be difficult to control. Don't hammer on your cutting mat. I use a plastic kitchen chopping board about 12 mm thick Don't be tempted to wiggle the chisel around as you remove it, as this will distort the leather and possibly bend the prongs. Use a small length of wood to hold the leather down and go for a straight pull; the polishing & wax will help Depending on the thickness of your leather you might find that the prongs do not make perfect holes, in which case you will need to do some extra work with an awl, but cross that bridge when you come to it. I was going to reply anyway, as I don't think you can get 3 - prong chisels, you'll have to get 2 or 4 If you are going to make wrist straps they will be more comfortable if you bevel and polish the edges. Search YouTube and this forum for advice on that

I recently did the same thing with an old knife that was made in Sheffield, and the company ceased manufacturing in 1955 All the knife really needed was a good clean up & sharpen, but the sheath was in very poor condition so I made a new one. I could tell that although the knife was well made the sheath was just a basic commercially made one, which was another reason for replacing it - you can do better yourself Search YouTube for 'making a leather knife sheath'. There are lots of videos; those by Ian Atkinson/Leodis Leather and Jacklore are good, but the more you watch the more ideas & advice you will pick up. YouTube and these sections of this forum will show you the basics - Getting Started; Tools; and Hand Sewing. Tandy is the best known supplier for hobby leatherwork, but I'm sure American members will be along to give you more advice I use 3 to 3,5 mm veg tan leather to make my sheaths. To start with, Tandy's ready waxed nylon thread will be OK. I suggest you browse YT & this forum to get an idea of what & how, then visit a Tandy store to see what they have to say. You don't have to dye the leather; natural veg tan that has just been oiled or greased can look attractive, and will gradually acquire its own shades & patina Do not be tempted to get a Tandy beginners kit for tools & equipment as it will have things you don't need, and conversely there will be things you need that it won't have. In particular, the 4-in-1 awl isn't very good, you're better off getting a fixed blade awl, and a few other tools as you need them You might like this forum http://edgematters.uk

What a lot of messing about for something that could be done faster, better, & easier with a hole saw or a punch

Now we can see the size of it, it's even more impressive!