bikermutt07

The strap cutter from Tandy will be fine. It will work much better if you can polish the blades though. Hard to imagine sharpening such a tiny thing but it will reap benefits. I hated mine and threw it in a drawer until someone suggested sharpening it. Now I like it fine.

Look at all that space, you could even sneak the dining room table back in there for company.

We have some nice vendors to work with in this hobby.

As to your question, let me ask a question. How old are you? Have you done lots of physical hands on work during your career? I am in my early 40's and have done lots of physical work with my hands. I started playing with leather about two and a half years ago. I learned very quickly that my hands can't handle tooling. From my wrists to my finger tip I get immediate fits from stamping. Lots of pain. A hobby should be fun, not painful. So, I quit with the tooling. One more question. Are you casing your leather prior to stamping? And another, are you using veg tan leather? If you answer no to these two questions, that could be a big part of the problem.

Great job.

New prices from reputable dealers are pretty consistent and established. Solar Leather is in Dallas area (you want dealer service available). While he isn't an advertiser here, he does chime in quite a bit to help people out. He is a dealer for cowboy, who does advertise here.

I wanted to help, but I haven't made one either. I'm not any sort of machinist. I was thinking any curvature less than 90 degrees should be good for the cutting area.

That's great.

You have. There are some pinned topics in the sewing machine section. It has a wealth of knowledge ready for you. If you can't find the answer there feel free to start a thread. There are lots of experts posting here, including several dealers. When you post a new thread though, give the server a little bit to update. Otherwise you end up starting multiple threads. Good luck and keep having fun.

If I was just starting again, this is what I would do. I would spend about 50.00 on a starter tool set from Amazon. Cheap tools, but it will give you a starting point. Then I would add a set of 4mm stitching chisels and some .8mm tiger thread, both also available on Amazon. You just spent about a hundred bucks, and you got a lot of toys. The chisels and thread will work a nice range of smaller goods. From wallets to knife sheaths you will be covered. .02

I use photo resizer from the play store. My pictures are fuzzy in my posts but that was due to using a cheap LG phone. Got a new phone today, so we will see.

Im not real good at explaining this but here goes... if you are reversing the holes you have to reverse the stitch also. Ian Atkinson has a video on neatening up the saddlestitch. Watch it a few times. It's only about 12 minutes. After you master it, you will see what you need to do to reverse it. Good luck.

These are great.

Howdy, dog collars are an excellent item to start with. I encourage everyone to start with small repeatable items. Start with a shoulder and a strap cutter. This will allow you to hone all the techniques on the least amount of leather. When you botch one, it doesn't cost much. Also, you can do several at once. This is a lesson I didn't learn until I was in it for a bit. I was making one off items and then jumping to something else. I was never happy with my final results because the basic s.o.p. was not taking root. I would forget a step or my burnishing wasn't good enough, etc etc.... Good luck and enjoy yourself.

To be totally honest I haven't done a belt yet. But I have done several bracelets working up to a belt.

Sharpening it will help immensely. Just bevel a piece of scrap. Rub on some rouge or polishing paste. Then run your beveller backwards down it several times.

It looks pretty good. I am no expert on skiving, but I bet the cutting mat is giving you problems. The glass allows the blade to glide across it where a mat will cause the blade to dig in and grab. As far as the angles go just make them on a 45 degree and keep practicing.

Grey Ghost Graphics makes them. On another note, please allow the system a minute or so to update after starting a thread. This thread was posted 4x. Thanks, and have a great day.

I Love it. God bless the Great Republic.

Oh, ok.

Is that a typo? I didn't know anybody made one that small.

What size chisels did you get? The .8 looks good in those holes, the .6 looks too small. All of my small items are usually sewn 1/8 from the edge.

I visited the site and not even the picture of burgandy Latigo looks like burgandy. It looks like you said muddy brown colored. Just vote with your feet. Sorry his bullet proof front page guarantee wasn't honest. A little off topic, but... We learn lessons all the time that cost us money. When I'm around a new employee if they ask to borrow 10 bucks, I gladly loan it to them. It is a cheap way to find out about a person.

Very clean looking. Way nicer than what I have done in wallets, so far. Is that calf leather? Thickness?

I just recently purchased several irons and chisels from there. I haven't gotten to use them yet, though. I have had the co link 4mm set for awhile and like them fine. Maybe a review is in order for the future.