Sheilajeanne

So, I'm trying to saddle stitch a chequebook holder kit I bought from Tandy.... The long edge of the holder has 36 holes, as does the liner. The pocket that holds the chequebook has only 33! What do I do? Spent over an hour last night trying to figure it out, and having to go back and rip out my stitches....

Holes too big?? I only wish!! Some parts of my current project require lacing through 4 layers of leather! I can't get the lace through by hand, and have to clamp the 2-prong needle with a hemostat (surgical clamp) and wrestle it through. Even then, it takes considerable effort! Can't watch movies. I'm hearing impaired, and have to be able to read the closed captioning... I don't see any reason why harness stitching with waxed thread wouldn't work just as well, and be a heck of a lot easier and faster! Or if I wanted to get really lazy, I could just whip stitch with the lace...

I've bough several kits from Tandy, and they all seem to require the double loop lacing technique for assembly. I'm getting better at it, but it's very slow and hard on the fingers. The laces twist despite my best efforts, and for the thicker sections of the project, I find I need to use a hemostat clamp to pull the needle through the leather. Thank goodness I have one...otherwise, I think my fingers would be bleeding! I timed my efforts today, and it took me an hour to lace just 7" of a project that requires 32 inches of lacing! Any suggestions for another technique I can use for assembling these items? I have 2 clutch purses and a shoulder bag, and all 3 require lacing around the ENTIRE perimeter of the project!! I much prefer sewing to lacing. Would harness stitching be a viable alternative?

Okay, I have finally found something from Tandy that totally, irrevocably, sucks beyond all belief! I ran out of tracing film that was included with my beginner's kit. Bought a 36 inch roll while at my class (8 weeks of free classes are included with the kits...great deal!) The stuff is made of the slickest, slipperiest plastic imaginable. The only way I could hope to transfer the design to the leather was to put threads through the lacing holes of my project and tie the film in place! Even then, it slipped a bit, and I frequently had to check it and readjust the position! Not only that, the pencil marks I made while tracing the design from the instruction sheet were very faint and hard to see. The next time I'm anywhere near Michael's or a fabric store, I am going to check out their tracing paper! Heck, plain tissue wrapping paper would have been better than this junk! Two other lesser beefs: many of their wallet and purse kits are on special right now for Christmas, so I bought a couple. Unfortunately, I didn't check out what tools I would need until long after I got the kits home. Each kits uses different tools, and very few of them are the 6 basic tools you get in the beginner's kit. Talk about tool-itis!! I am now up to 30 stamping tools, and today I found I need yet another tool (a snap setter) to finish the clutch purse I'm working on! One of the purses includes 2 different floral designs for the exterior. Each of the designs uses a different set of tools, with very little overlap. One design required me to buy 11 tools, the other 10! My instructor was in the store when I was buying some of them (and complaining bitterly about the number of tools and the cost) and he helped me weed out the ones I really didn't need. Second beef: I am finding using the alphabet stamps a real challenge. There is a faint dot on the bottom of the stamp to help you get the letter facing the right way when stamping. In spite of that, I've managed a few mis-stamps, and many stamps that weren't lined up properly with the other letters I was using. It didn't help my efforts when I discovered (after the fact, of course!) the dot on the letter 'n' was at the TOP of the letter, not the bottom! Guess that's what happens when the goods you sell are made in China, where they are not familiar with our alphabet!

I tried stroking the marks left by the beveler, but the surface of the beveler was too rough, and it was abrading the leather. I imagine this only works with a smooth beveler. I got one of my smooth figure modelling tools and used that instead, with some success. I am really starting to think the key is not having the leather too moist, then the beveler doesn't cut too deep, and tool marks are kept to a minimum.

That is REALLY good work for a 3rd time piece! I've been at it a few months, and am still struggling to eliminate bevel marks. Any good videos out there I can watch? What I try to do is bevel very lightly on the first pass, then go over it again after I've done some work on some of the other details. Advice/comments welcome!

Okay, I can't seem to get the quote function to work for me, but I am replying to the posts on the previous page about Tandy catering to beginners, who often don't stay with the hobby, and who would be discouraged if they had to pay top dollar for professional grade tools. Also, Bob mentioned seeing Al Stohlman's very unsophisticated tools in the leathercraft museum... EXACTLY! I got my start in leatherwork at around the age of 12. I made my own tools from the innards of an old pocket knife and I forget what else. I took apart an old holster from a cap gun (remember those?) I'd had as a kid, and made several projects with it before losing interest. My total investment was a few pennies for some sewing needles that broke as I was sewing. (OF course, they weren't harness needles!) I am now starting seriously into leather work, and Tandy is the only store I know. I bought a beginner's kit, and am working on the 8 weeks of free classes that come along with it. I find most of their stuff is reasonably priced, except for some of the items like the quartz slab and poundo board, which are $40 and up, even with my wholesale membership. (I run a dog boarding business, so I qualified for that.) I went to Home Depot and bought a granite tile for $9.00 that works just fine as a work surface for stamping, etc. and if it breaks, I can replace it quite a few times before I get to the cost of what Tandy wants for their slab! One of my stamps has a burr on the pattern, and I've ruined an oblong punch and a hole punch by using them on the wrong surfaces. The stitch gouger is a PITA, as the blade won't stay in position (set screw keeps coming undone.)The only tool that is REALLY a piece of garbage is the wooden mallet that came with my basic beginner kit. The more expensive kits have poly mallets, for good reason! I managed to get a poly mallet on sale for half price ($20), and I'm happy with it. The wood mallet is soon going to be used as kindling in my fireplace. Other than that, I'm too green to really comment on the tools, but our instructor is top rate. He brought in some of his projects to show us this week, and we were all going 'WOW' at the quality. We have some naturally talented people in the class (which he keeps to a maximum of 8, to make sure everyone gets enough individual attention.) I can understand why he didn't bring his work in to show us during the first few weeks, as we would have been totally discouraged, and probably dropped out! He used to go the rounds of leather craft shows and competitions, and you can see how he would have done very well there. So, my feeling is it's a great place to start, and see if the hobby is for you. If you stick at it, yes, you are probably going to want more sophisticated and better quality stuff. Same goes for pretty much ANY hobby! The staff is extremely knowledgeable, and if they don't know the answer to a question they will refer us to someone who does (usually our instructor....they will say, "That's a Bill question!") Although absolutely no pressure has been put on us to buy more tools or leather, many of the students do stay after class to do exactly that, and Bill or the other staff members are always more than ready to help. Even when Bill was showing off his work yesterday, with his main goal being to introduce us to what we can do with dyes and stains, he made no effort to market their products. If you asked him directly, "How did you do this?" he would tell you what tools and dyes he used, but he didn't run and grab them off the shelves, though he easily could have! I am looking for better tools so I can cut my own projects. Yeah, that swivel knife sure is useless, except for carving patterns! Is a utility knife like a box-cutter (Xacto knife)? And is a round knife the half moon shaped blade with a handle in the middle of the non-cutting surface? What other tools am I really going to need? I have a skiver, and a stitching gouge. The skiver (cheaper one) is okay, but you have to be really careful with it, as it often doesn't cut evenly, but with a second or third pass, you can usually get the result you want. Do I really need a corner cutter?

Hi, I'm just getting started in the craft, and would very much like to attend a show to get ideas, and see what everyone else doing, especially the masters! And, of course, it would be a good place to learn more about the craft. I live in Ontario, Canada, close to Toronto. I'd be willing to travel to shows in the north-eastern States if I had to.