Pkay

I became interested in leatherwork when a demonstrator at an exhibition in Brighton said I would never be any good at it in 1973'ish. I moved to Cornwall to explore surfing then I moved to the Moors where I met a leather worker who made black jacks and was equally dismissive about the possibility of me being a leatherworker. My partner bought me a kit for my birthday and after making and selling a couple of clutch bags I realised that I could slide right into leatherwork as a hobby. Then I replied to an advert for a craft cooperative starting in North Devon and we moved there. I had to learn from day one and I did learn quickly. I even had help from visiting saddlers who were on holiday but showed me how to saddle stitch much more correctly than I had been doing. I made everything that could be made from leather from holsters and belts to bikinis. When I went back to Brighton my parents gave me a foot measuring gauge and a last, also a few hammers. Then they explained that my great grandfather had been a cobbler in the north Laines area of Brighton. So it appears to run in the family.

Welcome ! And look forward to seeing them.

very neat work, look forward to seeing the finished article.

nice piece of kit. Probably best kept as an antique. try and sell it to a saddlers/cordwainers museum so that everyone can enjoy it.

Tooling generally depends on compressing some of the thickness of the leather to make the pattern. So ! the thinner the leather the less it will tool. If you go thin you can push from the underside to make the tooling more 3D. To make the pattern last you can fill the back !!

looks like horizontal blade adjustment problem. Find some gash leather the thickness you want to thin then adjust the blade contour and feed. check then readjust.

nice blade and the sheath is well thought out. May be worth using a matching thread colour until you perfect stiching. What did you make the blade from ??

I am planning on retirement but I always had leatherwork in reserve as you are correct that some people go stir crazy when they retire. I remember my first kit in the 70's but once I tried 3mm + leather the patterns really become 3D. Keep at it you will be amazed what you can do.

And when machine sewing leather you need a different needle shape to sewing man made fibre. For leather the needle is diamond shaped and sharp to cut through the leather. With man made material the needle is round and pushes the fabric aside. You could do worse than hand stitch these last bits.

That has come out really well was their enough pink for the customer. You did like that basket weave tool didn't you !

very neat stitching and was the goat skin pre dyed ??

do you have a mix for brewers pitch ?

Thanks for sharing that. I have spent a lot of time looking for a sealant that is not toxic.

you may be able to add a horse shoe of leather which will form the base of your saddle using strips of leather.

I respect you sticking to hand sewing, the main reason I moved to a basic singer was that I was running a business. I found my machine would stich up to 5mm of leather which would save me a vast amount of time when lining belts or making bag inserts. I enjoy hand stitching a lot..