oldhat

Woah, nearly forgot to mention if you bring goods into the country from outside europe with a value of more than £15 you can be subject to import duty, however the punches from leathercraftools come to less than £15 so you should be ok, but please do not shout at me if they try to charge you, good luck

No problem Julie, forgot to mention though goods Japan is free postage, leathercraftools.com is not, however they still seem to work out much cheaper than goods Japan. I once heard that there are only a few manufacturers of leatherwork tools in Japan who supply to many different companies and looking around the sites it does seem to be the case, many of the tools appear identical with different names on them.Also Leathercraftools do deliver quite quickly as well. All the best.

Hello Nandy, i would say this is a great result as a first project and would have left it at that, but since you have asked for ways you could improve i assume you are wanting to learn. So first of all as already mentioned your edges could be burnished or if the leather is too floppy for that you could use some edge dye. Also where your strap attaches to the bag you might consider adding a rivet for extra strength , stitching alone can sometimes come away at these points.I would also probably have lined this bag with fabric to cover the internal stitching. You might even want to consider doing a beaded edge on the next one, they really do look nice. Good luck.

Hi Anna, i respect all your opinions , but would also like to suggest that if you have never tried waxed bonded poly thread like ritza 25, you might want to give it a go before ruling it out completely, Have you seen Nigel Armitages you tube videos about stitching , he uses nothing else and achieves very high standard leather products, please do not take my comments the wrong way, i am in no way saying what you are doing is wrong, i am just saying give the poly thread a go and see what you think, all the best. Oldhat.

Hi Jackbarba, with regards to the flesh side i often use tankote to seal it and lay down the fibres, apply it with a cloth and then wipe in one direction only to make the fibres all lay the same direction, then leave to dry. Again i would recommend a test piece to see if you like the result. Now i am in the uk so i cannot recommend leather suppliers for you, however when i buy really good quality leather the flesh side is normally that nice it is like suede and i tend to leave it alone because it is nice enough as it is, if the flesh side is very furry it is normally a sign of poorer quality leather, i have never used tandy for leather but have heard a few on here complain about the quality of some of their leather, maybe someone else can jump in on that one.You could also consider lining a bag if the flesh side of your leather is not very appealing to look at. Good luck with it and try to post some pics if you can, feel free to ask more questions if you need to, as i said i am no expert but i have some experience of making bags so i might be able to help.

Hi Jackbarba , to answer your first question yes glue the seams before stitching, this is what most leatherworkers would do although it will help to some degree with strength the main purpose of glueing seams on projects is more to hold the seam in position while it is being sewn, the strength comes from the quality of the thread and stitch .Your second question might get you a few different opinions, i can only give you mine for what it is worth but every leatherworker seems to have their own ideas about finishes and conditioners. I suppose the best way to answer would be to suggest a test piece. Most people agree that you should never experiment on projects without first trying things out on scrap. If it was me i would most likely just use a good quality leather conditioner on it. You might even want to contact your leather supplier to ask for advice and find out what treatments your leather has had. Hope i have been some help, i have been doing leatherwork for some years now but in no way consider myself to be an expert on it, so like i said maybe try out different products on scrap pieces first. Good luck.

Hi Anna, obviously there is nothing wrong with a little experimentation and by all means go ahead and try your sticky wax idea, however i do rather feel you are trying to fix something that is not broken. For most veg tan projects i have never found a need for such a product and to the best of my knowledge i have not known many other leatherworkers to talk about using it either , waxed thread being the norm. But as i said there is nothing wrong with giving it a go if you feel you want to. Good luck.

After throwing away hundreds of small scraps of leather which i always hated to do, it finally dawned on me what i could do with a lot of them. I often like to reinforce my rivets and poppers with small leather washers which i usually make as i am making each project. But now instead of throwing scraps away i make different sized washers out of them, ready for when i need them. Now all i need to do is find a uSe for the offcuts from making the washers.

Hi Justin, i really do thimk a key fob is a great first project, although it sounds simple it does actually involve most of the skills you will need to go on to more complex projects. For example first off you need to design and make a pattern, then it needs cutting out,then dyeing, glueing stitching, bevelling and burnishing.You could even emboss it with a stamp or two if you wanted. Good luck.

Try these , same tools cheaper price. https://www.leathercrafttools.com/tools/end-punch/list.jsp I have bought many tools from here, and they have all been good quality, sadly i hve not bought the strap end punches so cannot help with that.

All very good advice above, also watch your tension when stitching, although it needs pulling tight it is still possible to pull too hard on some leather types, are you using bridle leather for you belts, if not this might help. Also agree that your stithing might be a bit close to the edge. Good luck.

Hi jaeiger, i think i can see one of the things that is affecting the look of the back stitches, it apperars that the stitching chisel is coming out in different places most likely due to you not holding it perfectly straight every time, this is something i used to struggle with in the early days. If you find this too hard to do then just mark a line on each side, than only mark the stitches without going right through, then use the awl to push through to your guide line.

If i really want a strap to stand up to some heavy use i would go for bridle leather in particular bridle butt, if you can get it in the colour you want of course.

Hi skullcanyon, do you thin the createx when you put it through the airbrush and if so what do you use as a thinner.

Hi uk ray, you do not say which type of paint you are using, i find the angelus paints quite good,sealed with resolene seems to work for me, however it might help if you described your process a bit more and what kind of work you are doing.You might also want to consider an airbrush.

Well gitsy, if this truly is your first project then i think you have found your calling my friend, nice job.

Hey double c , you just reminded me of when i was a teenager i used to have some salvador Dali posters on my bedroom wall, come to think about it now i might have been a wierd teenager as all my mates had pin up girls on their walls, oh well nothing wrong with being a bit wierd i guess. In fact most artists are a bit wierd so what the hell.

Just found Nigels video too.

Hi twells,this will not be the last time this will happen to you, i would say start again and treat it as a learning experience. We have all had to go through this process in order to learn, anyone who says they have never scrapped a project is a liar imho. Remember also to add enough extra length to the outer piece not just for the wallet to close but remember it needs to close when it is full of notes and cards. I learnt that one the hard way too, i made a lovely wallet that closed perfectly when empty, the first time i put about £200 in it did not want to close properly. I normally add about 15mm extra to the outer to allow for the bend, i also add extra on to this as well because i like to do turned edges as well. I f you are a beginner leave that for later though. You might also consider making mock ups out of paper or felt or even cheap vynil to avoid wasting expensive leather in the future. Hope this helps a bit. Good luck. This Ian Atkinson video is good too if you have not seen it, also try typing in Nigel Arnitage videos in to you tube i seem to remember he has also got some good wallet making videos as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNXfMC0SqP4

Hi JLS,i agree with your comments completely, painting by numbers is not art because you are not putting your own thoughts and ideas into the piece as someone else has decided what is going where so i suppose they would be the artist in such a case. I am not sure if the op is meaning that it is only art if it is pictoral as you say, hopefully they will jump in and let us know. Most people would consider a sculpture to be a piece of art, so surely we are sculpting leather, making us leather artists. When a child paints a picture is that art, i suppose some would say it is art, just not very good art, but then we get into the world of what is good art, i suppose that would be a whole other very long thread/debate.Was jackson Pollock good art? well i am not sure we want to go there

Nice to meet you splinters.

Hello Chris, i am not entirely sure i understand why you have asked this question, but i will have a go at giving you my take on it. To me a piece of art is something created by a person that expresses that individuals personality and is created usually as a one of a kind piece, so to me most of the pieces or probably all the pieces on here are by that definition works of art. So i guess that makes most of us leathercrafters leather artists.Just my own view of course for what it is worth.

Hello, i am new to the forum so i thought i would introduce myself, i have taken up leathercraft again in my older years, i used to do a bit when i was younger too, now i have more time to dedicate to the craft. I am looking forward to meeting everyone and learning and sharing knowledge .Bye for now.