jdm0515

I went and looked at my glue pot with water based cement in it after seeing this and realized I have a similar thing going on. Must be from some kind of contaminants, definitely going to switch to a squeeze bottle now though

I just recently bought a new 9/16” diameter Barry King swivel knife, but didn’t try it out beforehand and realized once I got home that it is too wide and I want a smaller diameter. Looking for something 3/8” or 7/16”

I have been using the same glue for about the past year, and it seems to work well, and not cause that when used correctly. A few things to note are the usual with regular contact cement, thin layers work much better, wait until it is fully dry before assembling, and really press/hammer the pieces together. Another thing I have found with the water based contact cement is that it doesn't fully set for 24 hours, so I try to avoid doing much stitching/edge work if I can help it until that point. I have had a similar thing happen when I tried to finish the edges before it was set enough.

I'm looking for an anvil or piece of steel plate, mostly for setting rivets on. Harder to find for a reasonable price than I thought it would be. Anyone have anything they would be willing to part with? Or know of a good source where I can find one?

Free shipping to US, but $20 to ship to Canada?

So after waiting nearly two months and no sign of the chisels I ordered arriving, I got a refund from the seller. Kind of disappointed, I really hoped to be using them a while ago, and still haven't found another economical option. Does anyone have this set or any other chisels that they would be willing to sell?

I went ahead and got the safety skiver, I figured it was a cheap way to try this. i'm starting to get the hang of it, however, i'm not sure how to get the desired "feather edge" for rolled edges. Is it meant to be used parallel to the edge in one long cut, or a bunch of small cuts from the fold point to the edge?

I prefer the look of an unstitched rolled edge, but I don't know how the durability would be compared to just burnished. It's details like this that i'm a bit unsure about. I've only been doing this for less than a year, and the longest i've used one of my own wallets for is three months, so I don't really have a lot of solid information about long-term durability. I still would like to learn how to do a rolled edge anyways I think, even if it's not necessarily better, but i've spent the last few days comparing the options for skiving knives. This is where i'm not sure whether to spurge on a good head knife or french knife, or just go with something like a safety skiver, but then have to deal with replacing blades.

I have been making a fair number of wallets lately, and I have always just tried to burnish the top edges of my pockets with water and beeswax. This tends to look OK, but I have been wondering if skiving and doing a rolled edge may be a better option. I currently don't have any kind of skiving tools, however I have read Al Stohlman's Leatherwork Tools, so I have some basic idea of what to do, but I've never actually tried it. Most of the leather i've been working with is in the 2/3oz range, so its still burnishable, I just think a rolled edge may look a little neater. Figured I would post here to see if anyone has any input or advice before I rush out and spend money on stuff I don't need.

I guess i'll clarify a few things here. I'm from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, so getting anything shipped from the US is super expensive for some reason, plus our dollar is terrible right now so the conversion kills me. Secondly, that is a side angle view, its not actually that pointy at the tip, but definitely still came tapered to a fine point. I learned to sharpen from Nigel Armitage's video, and I just assumed that's how a sharpened awl looks, so I just polished it and went.

In my last order from Abbey England, I decided to add a few of the really cheap ($3-$4 or something) awl blades, as I was paying for shipping anyways. I thought it was a great deal when they came very sharp, just a quick polish and ready to use. That was until I used this guy for stitching a buckle on a belt through two layers of thick belt leather: Oh well, lesson learned. Does anyone have a recommendation for fixing this? Or maybe where I can source some reasonably priced hardened blades?

I was playing around with a few ideas I had for belts the other day, and I realized that a black permanent marker seems to be almost perfect for edge dyeing. It is very easy to control when applying, and seems to absorb enough into the leather. Has anyone else ever tried this? Am I missing something that will not work in the long run?

I guess its hard to say no at that price, $6 delivered for a 1/2/4/6 set. Hopefully they actually arrive and before too long, i'm always a little leering buying from China, but I guess its worth the gamble for $6

I've been using an overstitch wheel with a straight edge, then punching all the holes with an awl. It's worked for me so far, but i've never really tried much else aside from marking the spacing with a ruler before I got the overstitch wheel. I never heard anything good about that interchangeable wheel from Tandy, so I tried to stay clear of it. If it actually isn't really that bad, I may have to check it out

I am looking for pretty much any tools I can use to mark stitch spacing. I currently have only a 7SPI overstitch wheel, which works great, just looking for other sizes. My main problem has to do with the Canadian dollar currently, and shipping costs. Every time I try to find tools to order the cost just gets astronomical by the time it gets here.

It seems like every time I am making something, an unnecessarily large amount of time is spent waiting for contact cement to dry enough to bond the pieces of leather together. I have tried a couple different types of contact cement, the basic Lepage heavy duty, and 3M Ten Bond, which gives better results. I have also tried the permanent double-sided adhesive tape that Tandy sells, which I was very excited for, but the hold is far less than I would expect for something I would call permanent. It also was very sticky and gummed up my awl as I was punching holes. Does anyone have anything else they have found that works? I was sure the double sided tape was the answer, but that might have just seemed too good to be true.

Here is what I came up with. I found some walnut furniture legs at the hardware store, ready to screw in already. I only had a cordless drill to use it with, so I chucked it in and used a needle file and a chainsaw file to make the grooves, then finished it with sandpaper. It has a bit of a wobble to it, as the threaded shift doesn't seem to be in quite straight, but overall seems to work Ok. I'm realizing now that just the cordless drill may not cut it, I will probably need to find some kind of stand, or see if I can pick up a cheap drill press somewhere.

This is my first post here, although I have been an extensive reader of the forums for the last few months. I've really learned a lot here as I've been getting into leatherworking. I am looking for a burnisher that I can chuck in a drill, or a dremel bit to help speed up the process of burnishing, as I've done it all by hand with canvas so far. My problem is that, being from Canada, with the shipping costs and dollar conversion, it ends up being more than double the list price for me to order one online. Does anyone know of any cheaper options? I really don't mind paying for a quality item, it is just really hard for me to justify $25+ for shipping alone.