YinTx

Close up looks better than a close up of mine would. Did you bevel before you textured/back grounded? I have a padfolio I made, that I have been carrying around for nearly 2 years, from a single layer of 5 oz leather. It seems plenty stiff enough for me, I can rest it on a knee and write in the pad without it flexing too much. 10 oz plus liner plus a stiffener must be like carrying a board around! YinTx

Also, surprised that 10 oz leather needed a backing board? I would have thought it was plenty stiff... YinTx

Man, that is sharp! You've got that basketweave going good! I like the color combos. Not sure about the cut marks showing up, might need to see a closeup for anyone to make a solid guess... YinTx

I just watched one of their work along tutorials, and was more than a bit surprised at the techniques being taught, such as marking stitches one at a time with a single point pricking iron, on a stack of leather on top of a marble slab with a giant dead-blow hammer. How could any beginner hope to get consistently spaced and angled stitches and not wreck their iron with this technique? Mike's comment about could ring true here. Please, OP, get some reading in on this site and watch a large variety of videos from very skilled crafts people before you go teaching this one. Unless, you just want to have some pre schoolers hammer some marks in round keychains. That shouldn't be too difficult to teach and let em run with! Just my .02, worth the price of admission. YinTx

Not sure if this is the type of template you had in mind, but https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com has a lot of stuff for free... and for sale. YinTx

I've ordered from them in the past, but only via phone call. You might try that. YinTx

That is fantastic! Love it. You create the design yourself? YinTx

That rocks! I don't think I could keep that basket pattern straight in my head, let alone on leather. Love the hidden pen holder and the blue liner. I like the finish on the spine: I thought it was bridle leather until I read your description. What color did you use to dye the body? Any antique at all? YinTx

Thanks for the info. And from what I am reading, if you are concerned about your metal, don't store it in leather. IE, if you have a nice pistol or rifle, don't store it in a leather holster? Stormcrow, I think I failed to mention: Nice roll! I tried to make one a while back, it was a complete failure. Haven't had a chance to try it again. But for sure I will take a look at your design and construction before I do! YinTx

I mentioned this to my brother, thinking veg tan would be better, and he just laughed at me. Proceeded to show me several of his pocket knives that were in decent veg tan sheathes, in a safe that has dessicant, and the brass bolsters were GREEN where they touched the leather. He said from now on it is kydex or nylon sheaths. So now I am confused. Which is it I should be using? Veg or chrome? Or neither for metal? YinTx

9tpi, Does the magnetic holder impart any magnetism to your tools? I must confess I like the idea of having tools neatly organized, in sight, and out of the workspace, which a magnet strip seems to do well. But the thought of having my tools picking up any stray filings and leaving them on my veg tan when it's cased has me stuck. YinTx

My condolences, Kiwi. YinTx

Picked up a plough gauge, spare knife, hammer, a bookbinder's leather paring knife, and a smaller paring/skiving knife. Spent the afternoon working them over with my stones and stropping them, they seem pretty good. Wish I had remembered about the round knife, I could have included it in the same shipment and likely saved some $$ on shipping. Not too sure how to use the paring knives, they don't really skive great - or I don't know how to get them to skive great yet is probably more like it. They all seemed to have about a 30 degree bevel on them, pretty rough but cleaned up ok. YinTx

I just got some other great stuff from these guys, but somehow missed they had a round knife. Anyone use it that can provide some feedback on how it well it performs? YinTx

I agree. Couldn't undo it at the time tho. Haven't had a chance for version 2 either! And thanks for the compliment. YinTx

Don't have any skirting though! Mostly Bridle.. and chrome tans, and veg tans. YinTx

Thank you, and you probably don't know the half of it. This was done with a set of irons I had someone hunt down for me in Taipei and shipped here. Took nearly 6 months to get them in my hands. Still don't have any Blanchard Irons, still curious about them, hope to get a deal on some one day. I think there is a photo of when I started collecting irons in my tools section of the photo gallery... not sure, will look again. YinTx

Don't try to follow my logic and understand my pricking iron collection at the same time... YinTx

Just did some calcs, looks like about 3.3 sqft of bridle leather, and about 1 sqft Chevre Chagrin. There is other leather in there for stiffening, etc. that you don't see, and doesn't include lost leather that comes from trimming and not using sections like belly, etc. Hope this answers your question. Thanks for the compliment also! YinTx

...form follows function... thus, a thing of beauty. also, in the eye of the beholder, etc. Do tell on the performance cars.... YinTx

Some of us do have all kinds of leather, and willing to sell some as well. But I imagine most don't wish to compile a list of leathers available, and a suggested price for each. If you have a color, type and square footage you are looking for, and a price you think would be fair, be specific and you'll probably get a bite. YinTx

That came out pretty nice! Is the back section two layers? Or is the leather finished on both front and back? YinTx

Your knife is a beautiful work of art as well, by the way. Kind of the custom leather belt vs. Wally world belt comparison I suppose.. once you try the super nice leather belt I make, you won't want another cheapo Wally world one! YinTx

I test drove one for about an hour. It was a smaller one, and yes, it was nice. I had only been tooling for a month or so before that, so I realized I needed my tooling to actually make money for me before I could justify laying that kind of $$ down for yet another tool, especially when I already had 4 different ones - albeit all Tandy versions, I was able to cut leather and work. I even did the wallet with tiny tiny tooling with my large 3/8" heavy thickness swivel knife. On top of that, I think before I lay down a lot of money for a blade and knife combo, I need to understand which diameter shaft and length of shaft best fits my needs. Seeing that folks have sharpened a screwdriver and gone to work, or use a utility knife instead of a round knife and get to work making things, makes it even harder to spend more $$ on one. Yeah, I want one. Might be a few years before I convince myself to get one. Having a hard enough time convincing myself to buy a 1/4" thin blade for $20 when I have already cut flowers the size of a quarter with the big blade I already have. I think we all to often get bitten by the "I need this better tool" bug, when we could make a perfectly useable petal lifter with a free screwdriver. (Which works better than my $40 petal lifter that I had to fix brand new anyhow). Also, it's tax time, and I see how much I have already spent in the last year on this craft! YinTx

I hadn't thought about "casting shadows" when doing acorns.... might make a big difference on my next set! I have 4 swivel knives that came with a bunch of stuff I bought at the same time, 2 of them don't really swivel, one is a filigree knife so I haven't used it much, one is a really big knife, and two are cracked ceramic blades, so the big knife is the one that gets the use. The swivel is ok, it's a Craftool Pro. Your leaves have a lot of details in them, right down to the leaf liner. I think I might have a pattern for a belt similar to this, I'll make a belt out of it and try to pay attention to those details, maybe my acorns will come out better. I've done some leaf work, shown on a separate thread, they are a lot different from yours. Acorns not so good on mine I think. Your border bead is absolutely perfect all the way around to. Admirable work! Was that simply carved with the knife, or did you run a border tool around it? YinTx