Sheilajeanne

Thanks, Bob! Yes, will be using an iron. Don't have a heat press. Now, if only I can find a way to hide the ugly glue splotches on the outside of the back of the bag that happened when I glued the other liner pieces... Bye, bye glue splotches from now on!

I think this thread just save a tote bag project I made a huge mistake on. I lined what I THOUGHT was going to be the inside of the bag with lightweight pigskin. When it came time to assemble the bag, I realized the inside was going to be the ugly, fuzzy unlined leather, that had splotches of dye on it! I spent the night dreaming about how I could fix this. Nothing came to mind that wasn't going to be a huge hassle, and take up tons of time as well as restitching most of the bag. Even then, I would likely have bare suede showing at the top of the tote! Then, I searched for tote lining and came up with this! Walmart, here I come! I am still going to have to restitch 3 seams, including the most difficult one, where the 4 layers of the bag come together at the bottom, but meh, if the fugly inside of the tote is then hidden, I'm good with that! All 4 sides of the new liner will be stitched, so I don't have to worry about separation, even if the union between leather and liner isn't perfect. Is it more difficult to get this stuff to stick to fuzzy cheap leather than the smoother stuff? Will tackle a more sophisticated bag liner with my next project. Have FINALLY been able to find that Molly tote kit I've been searching for for so long! It turned out my friendly neighbourhood Tandy's in Barrie had 2 of them at the deeply discounted price of $67.00!! Oh, was I a happy camper on Friday!!

Julie, that 'small wood block' isn't going to be nearly enough if this hobby catches on!

When I started leatherworking, I just kept everything in the box my Tandy starter kit came with. Now that the things have gotten um...bigger...it's more complicated. If I am going to a class, I generally put the tools I think I'm going to need in a ziplock bag. I also make sure my project is protected from anything rubbing against it by sliding it into a separate bag. Everything I'm taking with me generally fits into a tote, like the ones used for shopping at the grocery store. I have a small plastic food saver that I use to store needles, thread and laces. Food savers would work for stamps, knives, scissors, etc. as well. Any liquids generally are tightly sealed in their own plastic bags to make sure they don't leak.

Is there a trick for burnishing the edges on soft, floppy leather? This is a piece of thinnish milled veg-tan, and I'm trying to do it by hand. It's going to be one of several layers for a bag. Should I wait until the bag is sewn together, and the thickness will make it easier?

Beautiful work! In that first picture, is the background around the roses painted with black dye, or did you use resist on the carving? If so, what kind of resist? (Eg., Super Sheen, Resolene, etc.)

Not sure what you mean by Bordeaux. Do you mean like the color of Bordeaux wine? Or maybe burgundy? Both are sort of a purple/red colour. Can you post pictures? Also, what sort of leather were you dyeing? Veg-tan?

Tandy still sells the kit. : https://www.tandyleather.com/en/product/dasher-handbag-kit If you can't find a pattern for it, maybe you could buy it. The nice thing about these kits is they are quite simple, and once you have the pattern, you can just keep reusing it to make your own. Of course, you will need to make your own templates of the different parts of the bag. From looking at the photo, you can see that the wrap around strap also serves as the gussets for the bag, and is just laced to the front and back of the bag. Looks like the back and flap of the bag are one piece, with the front being separate. Edit: Tandy has a free download of a bonus pattern for this bag. It doesn't show the other parts of the bag, just the flap, but it has a nice clear picture of the completed handbag which would be a big help if you wanted to try making one up without a pattern. https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/p-1986-dasher-handbag-kit-44365-00-bonus-tooling-pattern-ii.aspx

Sometimes the school would provide the covers, but again, they were made out of brown paper. The cool part of that was the paper was a good drawing medium, and you could personalize the covers with pictures.

We need a 'thumbs up' icon for this site!

Can you show us a picture? I'm not really understanding what you're saying. Generally, when i do letters, they are beveled all the way around.

LOL! Brings back fond memories of school days, where we were expected to protect our textbooks with covers, and brown paper bags were the go-to material! Yeah, I'm an old fart....

Craftool is the Tandy brand. The brownish block is a whetstone for sharpening the swivel knife. These six tools are the basic tools needed to start leathercraft as a hobby: a backgrounder (104) beveler (198) camouflage stamp (433) seeder (the small round stamp) veiner (the narrow crescent shaped tool) and pear shader. The tool numbers keep changing, so I can't match the last three up with a stamp number.

I don't know how, but I got that bassackwards! I use the mallet in my left hand and the stamp in my right!

So glad to hear it! Looking forward to seeing your new work! As for your question, I am a lefty, and use the mallet in my right hand and the stamp in my left. I use the swivel knife in my left hand, of course. But the other way around for the stamps would also make sense for me, as placing the stamps correctly requires a fair bit of dexterity. So, basically, it's whatever YOU feel comfortable with.

Alpha, that's definitely something I could use myself! :D

That's because I had trouble finding the right picture! I've found it and posted it now. And yeah, I fully understand what you said about not telling your other half!! I've spent a ridiculous amount of money on this hobby! The hammer that comes with that kit is a piece of junk. I used it as kindling in my woodstove, and replaced it with the one you see in the above photo. That and the stamp with the defect on its face were the only things in the kit that I can complain about. The kit came with 8 weeks of free lessons, and by the time the 8 weeks was up, I was completely hooked on leatherworking.

Raksha, that is exactly the same kit I started out with a couple of years ago. I am still using the tools it contained, though I have added just a few more stamps to my collection... One of the pear shaders had a small defect on its face, and Tandy replaced it with no questions asked! Yeah, just a few more stamps....

That does look somewhat better. But I agree about needing a better knife blade. Something looks odd with those swivel knife cuts. Compare them with the ones above by ABHandmade, and you will see the difference.

Needless to say, I don't think you will ever use this dye again. I've heard nothing but horrible things about it on this board!

I needed a specific weight of leather for a project, and the young guy at Tandy's who was helping me pulled out a leather thickness gauge, and made sure I got what I was looking for! NO EXCUSE for not being able to give a customer that information!! And a gauge can be a lot simpler and a lot cheaper than the one shown above! https://www.tandyleather.com/en/product/leather-thickness-gauge C.D., that green alligator print looks really cool! Can't wait to see the finished briefcase!

1) Make sure your knife is properly sharpened and stropped. A dull knife will stick in the leather 2) The moisture content of the leather could be part of the problem - the knife will stick if the leather is too dry 3) When beveling, the beveler has to go with the edge right in the line you've cut with the swivel knife. You should tilt it a bit so the whole tool face doesn't touch your leather and leave a mark 4) Suggest you check on line for basic leather carving videos that can help show you proper technique. Nothing beats actually seeing someone else do it. This one will give you a good start: 5) It takes quite a bit of practice to learn how to control the swivel knife. Get a few pieces of scrap leather, and use them to practice on. Don't give up - anything worth doing takes time to master!

But of course! Verry nice work! (Had to roll the 'r' to imitate a Scot's accent... )

Since schutzhund is a sport I enjoy and take part in, I should probably concentrate on that as my niche. Most people who do dog collars do the fancy ones for small dogs, and that is not something that interests me. Still trying to find my niche, though. I really enjoy the creative aspect of leather carving, and that's not something you can do with collars, leashes and harnesses!

I have zero interest in guns, having never owned one, if you don't count the cap pistols I had as a kid! (Dating myself here, I know...) So far I've made dog collars, leashes, coasters, wallets, belts, and bags. Planning to make a purse next and an eyeglass case. Oh, and my cellphone case didn't turn out as well as I liked, so a new one is in the works. When I get more confident, I may try wet-moulding some cases. I would also like to do a water bottle holder for hiking, and maybe try a 'bum bag'. The one I use when I am walking my dogs has several features I'd like to improve on! Also in the works is a dog harness for protection training, similar to this one: