LeatherNerd

I don't have that book (yet). I have "The Art of Hand Sewing Leather". This is the method I termed the "gopher hole" method: Did you mean that? Or perhaps the slitted-and-then-slicked-down method like this? (Note: These images are Copyright © 1977-2013 Tandy Leather, used here under Fair Use Act; mods please advise if I'm out of line.) What's a speedy stitcher, and how does one get a "long enough" needle? (I suspect my assumption that needles only ever come in "the one size they come in" is about to be dispelled?) This... actually makes a lot of sense. So, stitch a box and invert it, then affix later? Actually a tube would work fine; cut one end into a flap, fold under and stitch it on first. That's the bottom of the pouch folded and affixed to the holster (but not to the pouch). Glue the tube up along the holster, and then sew the top edge of the tube where you can get at it and bam, long, hard-to-sew pouch assembled and affixed. Given that these are military issue and thus need to be mass-produced, I would be completely unsurprised if there was an assembly line process with one person making pouch tubes all day, another affixing them to the holster, a third sewing the holster closed, and a fourth affixing the closure hardware. And that's not counting the people stamping/cutting out the patterns. You know... the more I think about this the less "hell bent" I am on hiding the stitches... Thanks! Dave

Yes, please! I attached the eyelet and stud before dunking because the main point of the lining was to cover the eyelet so it didn't scratch the knife. I did attach the cap and socket to the flap afterwards, but the piece was still sopping wet from the dunk, because I wanted the wet-form to dry in the snapped-closed position. Alternate approaches are much appreciated. I was worried about sliding an anvil inside for fear it would damage the tooling on the backside of the case. Will definitely start sealing my snaps before dunking. They're cheap Tandy nickel-plated soft steel. Fun Fact / Blooper Reel: I now have two of those knives because I ruined the first one making the case. Oh, I wrapped the knife plenty and it came through nice and dry, but I clamped the edges of the case to try to crease it into being more form-fitting. The clamping squished the handle closed AND bent it so far that once I pried it open, the lockback would not engage and the blade could not be coerced into folding back up. I flipped the handle and clamped it in reverse to remove the bow, then I slid a screwdriver into the handle and twisted. This opened the split but ALSO gouged huge divots into the handle which turned out to be VERY soft aluminum. So then I had to grab the 600 grit paper and sand the insides and outer edges... the result was a knife that opened grudgingly, tended to nick the handle when closing, and had a blade retention clip that could no longer be locked in place. They're $4.95 at Home Depot, so I picked up a replacement this morning.

Dwight-- THANK YOU! I glued, lined, stitched... and then DUNKED. The piece wet-formed BEAUTIFULLY. Keep in mind that I'm an amateur and this is my first sheath ever, but I absolutely LOVE it. Thank you! I'll be using this technique in the future for sure. Dave

Hi All, TL;DR: Is there a non-painful way to hand-stitch a hidden seam on an article you can't just stitch and then turn inside-out? I'm musing about making a holster for my Browning Buck Mark .22 target pistol, and there's just something about WW2-style holsters that enchants me--the big foldover flap, integral mag pouch, etc. Most holsters of this style follow this generic pattern: Notably, the mag pouch is creased and then stitched quite closely to its edge, no doubt by machine. Yesterday I came across this image for a Czech Army holster, and I notice that all of the seams are tucked under: I have done a pocket or two using Ann Stohlman's trick of poking a tiny "gopher hole" in the outer layer every 10 stitches or so, so the needles can come up and through, but you keep the hole hidden by turning around and stitching right back down through it. As you get further from the gopher hole the awl and needle must pierce at ever increasing angles, so eventually you jump ahead another 10 stitches and make a new gopher hole. Right now the only way I can think to hide all of the seams is to stitch one side open-faced, then fold it over, stitch the bottom through the open side, and then gopher-hole the last side. Is there an easier way to do this? Thanks! Dave

AWESOME! Thank you! Yes, I'm planning to line in a similar fashion, but with Eco Flo Water-based Contact Cement. (I *think* that stays cured once dried? If not I'll grab some barge.) I was worried that getting water into the leather would be hard through the cement. Did not occur to me to wet the leather from the *outside* as well. Thank you!

Hi All, Making a knife sheath, where you stitch the front and back together, and then the back goes up and over and folds down with a closure to connect to the front. I'd like to glue and then stitch pigskin into the sheath to line it 100%, but after than I want to wet the veg-tan leather through the pigskin so it can be wet formed by forcing the knife into the sheath to stretch it. So, is this an awesome idea or an awful one? Normally I'd just try it and learn from the experience but if the experience is "the project gets wrecked" I would be very sad. I'm confident I can wet the leather through the pigskin, but not confident I can wet it through the pigskin AND the layer of contact cement that'll be holding it on. I could glue the pigskin just at the stitching, but I worry it will pucker. Anybody have any ideas? This is mostly an aesthetic choice, but pragmatically I'm just trying to cover the back of the Line 24 snap to keep it from scratching the knife, and if worse comes to worst I can leave the grain of the leather exposed and just recess the snap. Thanks in advance! Dave

If I can't sleep, I get out of bed. Bed is for sleep, not for lying awake. If I'm totally wrapped around the axle with leatherwork, I'll get up and go do some leatherwork. (The quieter stuff, anyway, because marriage and stuff.) Yes I have some rough mornings where I reeeaaally pay for it, but I've found that paying for it in full a few times really does motivate me to tell my brain "yes, this is fascinating, but do we really want to pay for this in the morning, or sleep now and pick this back up in the morning?" As I get older, my brain lets go more and more easily. I usually have amazing ideas in the shower the next morning because I'll have been dreaming about it all night. I often have ideas as I'm falling asleep, and then I stay awake worrying that I'll forget. I can't count how many mornings I've woken up remembering that I had a GREAT idea last night... but not what the idea itself WAS. So the next time I have an idea, I lay there, fretting that I'll lose it. The solution here is staggeringly simple: notepad and pen by the bed. Reach over, write it down, drop the pen, fall asleep. All my nighttime breakthroughs have been really weird--err, I mean highly creative--like "surfacing" the entire backside of a 3x5" piece of leather with about nine coats of edge paint to completely cover the stitching. The really hard geometric puzzles, like building a box case with multiple compartments inside it out of a single piece of leather, and figuring out how to "unfold" the box to get a flat, one-piece pattern, I generally have to be fully awake and sketching in my journal for.

Are gloves generally a good way to get a clean resist like this? My dye jobs keep coming out all blotchy. "Ya can't fix stupid." :lol:

HI! I'm a novice leatherworker living in Saratoga Springs, Utah. I'm trying to learn as much as possible. Obviously I can't really offer any skilled labor (yet), but if you're working leather anywhere within a few hours of Utah Valley, I would love to come spend a day in your shop sweeping up, cleaning shop, and taking care of the annoying menial tasks that keep you from focusing on your art. I would do this just for the opportunity to generally watch the business of your business happening. If you have a few minutes now and then to show and teach, so much the better. I get out to Columbus, Ohio about once a quarter for work, and can take a day to drive out to meet you if you're within 2-4 hours' drive. Scheduling this might be I work in software so my schedule is very very flexible. I can come out any day Mon-Sat if I can schedule the time off in advance. P.S. If you have customers coming in and out of your shop, let me take this opportunity to say that I am well-groomed, bathe regularly, friendly and professional. (Hey, if I ran a store and you offered, I would ask before letting you come hang out at my shop all day!) Dave

Thank you! I think the concern was that it would go rancid in the leather itself, while stored open and exposed to the elements. Then again, rancidity is usually caused by anaerobic conditions; being open to the air makes oil evaporate or tar up, not go rancid. And 50 years is a heckuva a shelf life--enough to make me consider that the customer who had some go rancid may have had something else on his leather go bad. ...OR he could have bought some poor-quality stuff. Either way Neatsfoot oil is back on the menu, and I'll be making sure to buy trusted brands like Fiebing's. This stuff goes on and then stays on for years and years, so it's probably one of the worst products to try to go cheap on. Thanks!

Welcome! You're off to a great start. Rounding your corners smoothly will add a lot to the overall appearance of the project. I'll third what 50 years and electrathon said: use a template if you can. If you're making your holes with a diamond-hole chisel, move down to the 2-prong chisel as you go around the corner. This will give you an even curve instead of a straight shot across the corner. Beveling and burnishing the edges of your leather is an almost imperceptible change, but one that will make the whole project look much better. My very first leather project had the same kind of inch-long stitch marks on the outside of the cover. Mostly I've learned to change my designs so they won't have that, but recently I had a case that had partial stitching on the outside that was unavoidable. To make it look even, I just went ahead and stitched all the way around the edge of the cover. On the inside you can see that I'm just stitching cosmetically, but on the outside it looks like a nice even outline. Work on consistent tension when you're pulling your stitches tight. If you don't have a stitching pony, try one; you'll never believe you ever survived without one. For me the trick to consistent tension was to actually ease up a bit. I was pulling way too hard on some stitches. If you concentrate on a firm steady pull as you tighten each stitch, you'll avoid the "clumping" effect. Also going up a size in stitch spacing can save your sanity. I used to do everything at the smallest spacing because I thought it looked better. Now I've found that larger stitches done evenly look better still. That's just my opinion, though--you'd have to try it to see and if you don't like it, don't do it. Drink Coke, not Pepsi. That's not opinion, that's SCIENCE. Welcome and good luck! Can't wait to see your version 2!

I was in my local leather store a few weeks ago, and I asked the girl in the shop if Neatsfoot oil was made out of real Neets. Without blinking an eye, she said "Yes, but only the highest-quality stuff is 100% made from their feets." In the serious part of my visit one of the guys at the shop told me he had heard from a customer that their Neatsfoot oil had gone rancid, and that this can happen with any other kind of natural oil conditioner. Logically this made sense to me, but in practice, some of ya'll are just puttin' that stuff right on there! Are you mad?!? He recommended that I go with Aussie Conditioner because it was a beeswax-based conditioner; no mention if the oils in it were natural or not. (For all I know I could be rubbing beeswax and 10W40 motor oil into my leather goods.) So! Leather experts: does Neatsfoot oil ever go rancid? If so, can it be prevented, e.g. with regular maintenance, or perhaps applying a sealing top coat?

Ha! I love it when function informs form with such style like this. I was thinking "wow, that overlay along the top of the barrel is a great stylistic addition". Only now that you've said 1/8" steel rod can I see the rounding in the leather. Very nicely executed!

Absolutely gorgeous!

Forgive the heresy, but for tool slots I just can't beat the stretch of the V-word. If and when I make a "proper" tool roll (complete with a tooled mosaic all over the back, etc) I will probably use 5oz veg-tan as the backing and 2-3oz suede, or some other soft, pliant leather for the tool slots. But... yeah... if I need to add a fourth panel, I already have an 8.5"x11" piece of faux alligator ready to go, and I have just enough of the V-word left to do one last set of tool slots and coverings. I'm not young anymore... BUT I STILL NEED THE MONEY

Not so! The center and right panels are built to the same pattern and can be extended with a fourth, fifth, etc, indefinitely. When I fill the current panel, I'll grab another sheet of 8.5x11 backing, sew tool slots onto the front, and then stitch it onto the rightmost edge. Each time I do, I have to cut the rivets off the belts and move them to the new farthest edge. If you look carefully at the back, you can see the holes where the belts used to be riveted. My last move of the belts, I widened the holes and put in Chicago screws so I wouldn't have to cut off any more rivets--I could just punch new holes and move the belts over. I can only throw myself on the mercy of the court... I WAS YOUNG AND I NEEDED THE MONEY

We really do call it the "Big Ugly Nasty Ugly" tool roll. "So ugly they had to name it twice!" OOOH! "Frankenroll". I like it! I'm compensating for someth--actually, you know what, this joke ends up with me being the punchline. Nevermind...

For the record: slathering wet cement on the back of damp leather and then tooling it before the cement can set... doesn't work. More details as I try other experiments. It occurs to me that I am doing a set of practice toolings (the same design over and over) so I could probably cut a window in a piece of cardboard, slide the leather under it, and attach that to the stone, then carve inside the window. Not a generally workable practice but for repetitious stuff, it maybe could work. What I'm hearing is that this is sort of like casing leather: it's a well-known problem and everybody has a different way of doing it. I'll experiment. Thank you!

I just posted this to my "Always Be Carving" thread (in the Critique forum) where I'm seeking continuous feedback on my carving skill, but I realized that I really am proud of this so I really am going to show it off. Attention Fellow Newbies: I am about to brag about something that really sucks! Critiques are certainly welcome, even if the only critique you can think of is "suck less.". This tool roll works well but looks awful because it's made entirely from scraps and I've built it over the past 4 months--and I started in leather just 5 months ago. So the quality does actually improve as the tool roll grows in size. Any tips or advice are most welcome. I just want to sort of prepare you for what you are about to see, which is that this roll is all about "function over form". I know it's ugly. Here's the post: I don't think this should go in "Show Off!" but I don't see a "No, Dave, Noooo!" thread, so here you go. I saw George Hurst mention a tool roll project in one of the Tandy Premium videos and thought "Heyyyy, I know how to do that already." I grabbed some spare upholstery vinyl and made a tidy little bundle: the brown/gray/black panels in the lower left. Then I bought 15 more tools all at once. Liz suggested instead of lengthening the roll, I should make it a "double decker". So the upper left black panel was added, also out of upholstery vinyl. Then I bought more tools. And more. And more. By this time I was doing dyeing experiments on entire pieces of 8.5"x11" alligator-embossed leather, and waste not want not, right? So I added the center panel (with gray tool slots), and then about a month later added the rightmost panel (with black tool slots). I ripped off the "legend" from the center panel when I added the rightmost panel because the steampunk gears needed to be moved down to the bottom row to balance the top/bottom roll diameters. Organization? HAH! They're basically in the order I bought them. Some day when my tool-itis slows down I'll go back and make myself a"nice" tool roll, and I'll organize the cams and the shaders and the bevelers each with their own kind, but until then... well, I sort of know where everything is. In this thread (The "Always Be Carving" in the Critique My Work forum--Ed.) I have done all my carving practice with JUST the tools in the lower left GRAY PANEL ONLY. That's the Tandy "Magic 6" plus a Mulefoot. (Well, plus the swivel knife and stylus on either side of that panel. Oh, plus the V707 veiner stop, that's second in from the the very top right.) So yeah. Lots of tools in there, so lonely, calling out to me... but I want to get my technique down first. I'll probably "play" with other tools soon but I don't want to branch out into other tools until I'm sure I'll learn more by doing so, rather than develop bad habits by using a tool that covers my mistakes. Confession: I am inordinately proud of this tool roll. It's ugly as hell and I know it but it's mine and I made it and it works perfectly. Pragmatically speaking it is perfectly adequate. It's so ugly that only a mother father could love it, but I do. P.S. Not that anybody cares besides me, but I do so shut up: Rolled up tight, in its current size and loadout, it's almost exactly 12" long and 4" in diameter, and weighs 5lb 10.6oz. Unrolled length is 27.5". This gives it a density of 2637kg/m3, so it will sink in molten aluminum (right before it catches fire), though it will float in aluminum bromide (without catching fire, though the vinyl might melt). It will also sink in molten Cesium (or it would, if you could get enough of it together and melt it without it exploding upon contact with moisture in the air, so you know what let's skip the Cesium). In fact, about the only reasonable molten solid to sink this in might be molten sulfur. At 115°C the vinyl might melt, but if, hypothetically, you were carrying this tool roll near a brimstone vent by an active volcano, and you dropped it into the molten brimstone, it would sink, but it would be just fine. I would still understand if you chose to leave it there and get yourself to safety though. I mean seriously what are you even doing trying to tool leather next to an active volcano? Priorities, people, priorities! P.P.S. My favorite 2 things about this tool roll are 1) everything fits snugly enough that I can sling the unrolled slab over my shoulder and carry it from my office to my workbench, and 2) the glove snaps along the top. They force the top flap to tuck and crimp instead of flop out as I'm rolling the bundle. They were my wife's idea just a few days ago and they're already my favorite thing.

That... seems pretty obvious in retrospect. Thank you! Do you tape/cement directly to your slab, or do a piece of board? I'm worried that a piece of stiff cardboard might absorb some of the tooling impact. Then again, what am I worried about? I have the little 1' square quartz block from Tandy. I can turn THAT just fine. I'll just tape or cement directly to the stone, and then clean thoroughly after removal. Thanks again! Dave

I'm sending you my shipping address. You only need one, right...?

Interesting. I've got the Craftool set and I like it, but I would venture to say that this is because I don't know any better--in fact the last time I was in the store the sales guy told me not to ever try the nicer quality ones until I'm ready to start hating my Craftool kit. I know that when I try it I will suddenly see what a load of crap I've been putting up with, but for now I don't have anything to compare it to and I must protect my blissful ignorance until I have my pennies saved up.

Hi all, I'm pretty new to tooling, and I notice that when the pros do their tooling they tend to work on big pieces of leather and they stay nice and flat while they're being tooled. I'm working on tiny things like fobs and patches, and about halfway through a project I find the leather curling up so bad it starts slapping the stone when I hit it anywhere but where I'm holding it down. I apologize if this is a well-answered problem--I've tried searching this forum but didn't find anything. Any advice or tips would be appreciated. Dave Example attached. 8oz leather, approx 2.5" x 5", halfway through tooling.

That's awesome. From the responses I'm getting it sounds like they're manufactured with very wide tolerances, which means that the occasional one may come off the line tuned just right. Did yours come from Tandy, or a different mfr? Mine has zero play left/right, but without the shim it plays up and down over 1/8". The first time I dialed it way out to cut into some 12oz leather, I placed it on the leather and the blade vanished up into the case. The beveling on the blade is pretty variable as well. I reground mine to have a slight upward bias, so it always tries to float up out of the leather, never slip down into it. That way if the shim slips and the blade plays, I get a thinner cut rather than a ruined project. I do notice now that to operate my metal v-gouge I have to maintain firm downward pressure to keep the blade down in the groove. I actually like this as I can tell by firmness if I'm making a clean, even cut. I bought the wooden-handle style of v-gouge and it arrived last week. I haven't tried anything other than test cuts yet, but so far it's about sixes compared to my well-ground and tuned metal gouge. If I am able to grind and tune the wooden-handled gouge it will be the clear winner, but the very first thing I noticed about the wooden-handled one is that the blade assembly is a force-fit into the handle with a ferrule. Taking it in and out every time I want to fiddle with it just isn't going to be an option. I'll just have to wait and see, I guess. They make square jeweler's files just for sharpening this type of tool in situ, so dunno. Too many variables, I guess. Right now if I want to make a clean, predictable cut, I'll reach for my shimmed and reground metal v-gouge. Go figure, eh?