10FiftyFive

Koh-I-Noor is one of the best that still manufactures technical pens like this. They aren't cheap though. They come in sets or as individual pens based on nib size, but an single pen could run $25. I would recommend finding an art supply shop that has them in stock, bring in a scrap of leather, tell them what you'd like to use it for and ask if you can have a demo just to see how they flow and if it would function well for your needs

If you're looking for other refillable pen options you may want to look at a rapidograph style pen. They're used for illustration and drafting quite a bit, and have a removable chamber that you can fill/mix inks in for whatever purpose you have. They're expensive, and require some practice to work right (the pen has to be held vertical) but they make a nice clean consistent line and allow for custom ink use. I *don't* think they would work very well on the back side of leather, but would probably draw fine on the smooth face

I gotta say, I wish I'd had that before I had started at all Jim, great instructions and greatly appreciated! I'll most likely have more of these to make and will be changing my technique for sure moving forward. Didn't mean to snub you at all, just on a time crunch. Having someone like you, willing to take time and help someone completely new to a hobby while they're asking all the stupid questions is immeasurably supportive and appreciated

Thank all you guys for your help! I got a little impatient and went for it. I think it turned out alright for the first actual thing I've ever done in leather.. I do need to make 5 more of them, but I'm well on my way towards that and I'm glad it turned out this well. Since I know you guys like pictures here it is, I made the frog as well.

Thanks Jim! I kinda wish I'd seen that mountain man gear thread before I'd cut out all my bits and pieces.. I think I can still make it work though. I did plan on going with rivets for speed and ease though, so I don't currently have stuff necessary to stitch anything.

Thanks Jim! I got a bit too caught up in the moment on my first test run, and got my process out of order so I don't have a retention strap on that one... My leather seems dry, that's the best I can describe it since I don't have a whole lot of experience working any before. It's 8/9oz. On my test run I wet formed it over the axe head, and that got me a nice sharp bend on it, but I guess in my head I'm jumbling up my order of operations and not quite sure which step to do in which order. All my pieces are cut, main sheath, welt, and retention strap. I have copper rivet & burrs, and snaps already. I need to do the following Punch holes for retention strap Set strap/button Wet form head/strap Punch holes, (for main/welt, and retention strap) Sand edges even after it's together so everything is lined up Burnish Dye Set strap/snap Set rivets Oil/Soap/Wax I *believe* I should dye everything before assembly, and obviously it needs to be wet formed and burnished before it's dyed.. If I wet it after burnishing will that ruin things? If my leather is dry should I be conditioning it somehow before anything, and if so how? I don't want to get in the same place as I was with my first round where it's half assembled and I realize I can't get in to where I need to in order to set my next rivet. If I set the strap before wet forming, then I can't get everywhere I need to for dying/finishing, but if I don't I'm not sure I'll be able to get where I need to set the rivet properly with the tools I have. I know these are newbie questions and probably out of place for this post, I'm just thinking out loud and would greatly appreciate any help you guys can toss my way

Totally fair, I was making that initial post from my tablet so it was kind of a pain to resize images...

Hi Everyone, I'm new here, so I hope this alright. Learned a *lot* from lurking around a bit, and I'm fully diving head first into my first project, but I wanted to toss this up and see if there's anything I'm doing that's just an idiotic FNG mistake. I mocked up a 'pattern' out of cardboard, for what I'm hoping to make, basically a short fold over sheath with a welt and a snap strap under the beard of a small axe. I need to make 6 of them, have the leather that I think I need to make it happen (8/9oz) My plan is copper rivet and burrs to secure the whole thing https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipPUCAxarhTn6kScUjYHDMfRcsnu7XnvZmFbj_07 I guess I have a question for you guys on how best to get the fold on the top of the axe? as well as is there anything here that stands out as a stupid plan to begin with?

I know I'm new here, but Illustrator and CAD are both vector based, neither are inherently more accurate than the other, the fact that you can losslessly transition between the two is testament to that. True, by default Illustrator will display lengths only down to 1/10,000th of an inch, but you could also change your units and drop it to 1/10000th of a mm, or go even smaller down to 1/10000th of a point (0.00000013") That's probably more accurate than your monitor could display anyways. Does anything here really need to be more accurate than that? All of those 'quick' things you mentioned for autocad are just as simple, if not more powerful in Illustrator. If you're engineering, by all means, use an engineering tool. If you're designing, you should probably use a design tool. (I may be a bit defensive of Illustrator)