TranscendentalTopiary

Bugger. Hopefully something gets thought of for it

Share if you find a link to the "anvil" please

How do those dome top rivets hold their shape when you're peening the other side? Those look really nice. I never really liked the peened side or the flat back of copper rivets and burrs

Those are amazing pieces! Yeah my first line of thought was more costume armor than functional (larp, renfaire etc) but figured if I'm going to do it i might as well do it right also it turns out that i'll have the clientele in the sca who want leather armor where i dont have clientele in the larp/faire scene. Maybe once i build a reputation I can start doing costume stuff too

Good thinking!

I'll see if any of my tools would work for hot stamping. I think all i have are bevelers and backgrounders tho

Don't have the supplies to hot stamp atm. Funding is a bit limited so I'm trying to keep costs down and still move forward with projects

Yeah, apparently oven drying doesn't take very long at all. Guess that idea is out. Using the anvil should work just like using granite to tool over, just not as comfortable and a bit fiddly lol. I think your head piece looks great imo

I was unsure how quickly the leather becomes hard once the baking process begins. I know when dipping in hot water/wax it remains pliable until after it has cooled a bit. I was hoping the oven meathod would be similar but now I'm thinking it isn't, or that the window where it is warm and soft - cool and stiff is too small to get any tooling done. I was thinking to do my tooling on my anvil horn to keep the shape made from forming and still have a solid surface to tool over. Also using oven mits to handle the hot leather. No one seems to do it this way, so I'm guessing it doesn't work. How long are you keeping it in the oven for? Will try a couple ways of doing this whenever tandy has a sale on their leather and will update Thanks!

Dipping it wont work for larger pieces, I'm going to have to paint and bake it. Doesn't the leather stay soft until it cools from being in the oven? So until it's fully dry and cool it would still be toolable right? Trying to avoid attaching tooled leather onto the hardened leather as it'll increase the cost of the finished product, on the other hand you can put the tooled portions onto a new body if the hardened leather ever gets damaged in fighting. The guys in my sca have been known to dent steel pretty good.

I need some info on how to go about tooling leather that will be hardened for use as armor in sca heavy fighting and combat archery. No one in my local sca tools their armor so I'm not getting much help there, I've also spent probably a few hours both on search engines and searching this site looking for info but haven't found the answers to my specific questions. I plan on taking my cut pattern piece (~10 oz veg tan) and getting it pretty well soaked with water then shaping and baking it in an oven at around 180°f. When the leather is no longer soaking wet but still damp (comparable to properly cased leather) I'll remove it, do any sk and tooling, keeping the shape, then put it back in the oven to fully dry. Once dry I'll paint on a few layers of wax reheating between coats until the leather is fully saturated with wax. Does this seem like the proper way to tool leather that will be hardened? I want to know what to expect without wasting too much leather. Other meathods I looked into seem like they swell and shrink the leather quite a bit and you loose definition in your tooling. Just not sure how fast the leather hardens up when still damp out of the oven to get started on the tooling. Another option i thought of is hardening the leather and doing my tooling on a separate thinner leather that wont be hardened and stitching that onto the hardened leather, just not sure if stitching holes would compromise the durability of the armor with repeated abuse. Thanks for any insight on this, it's greatly appreciated

Thanks everyone! I got into making different items as Christmas gifts from tandy kits. Tomorrow is payday and I am planning on buying a half shoulder and trying to make a wallet from scratch. Totally different tooling designs from the celtic ones. Still working on pricing but with these great tips i know I'll get it all figured out

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll be playing around and I'm in no rush to sell anything, but selling one to cover the cost to make myself a couple would be a nice idea since the materials arent exactly cheap

I had debated using stamps, going to look at the selection and mull it over. Thanks

Sorry i posted pics in other areas of the forum, didn't want to barage the site with my pics Heres the pouch http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=66700#entry434501 Heres the deck box http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=66482&hl=

So i finished the deck box and dice pouch for hubbys mtg cards. He went to his friends house to play a game and his friend wanted to know how much it'd cost to purchase one. I told him $30 for a plain one, $80 for one that's tooled. That was friend pricing. My materials are $30, i need to at least cover that much. As a novice I'd like to get $10 an hour to tool but this pouch takes 15 hours to design, carve and tool. Assembly, dying and burnishing is almost another 2 hours. Thats a deep discount for a long time friend but it's still up there for his budget so he declined for now. If i were to sell these as they are with my time and materials they'd end up being $200. Heres where i dont know what to do, similar items sell for $75-$90 depending on the seller and inticacy of the designs. Am i taking longer than i should to tool because im still a novice? Idk how much faster i can really tool even with more experience. The boxes I've seen aren't as intricate as the ones ive made so there is that. I can take off the design on the backside and use the rivets that hold the box together to secure the dice pouch to the box turning 2 items into one and still bringing cost down. (The pouch costs like $20 to produce, materials and time) I can simplify my designs so they don't take so long to tool which would also bring down cost, but in the end would i still end up with a decent looking item? The ones I've seen look very plain compared to the ones i made. I might make one with enough changes to keep the price at $80 and see what our friend thinks of it. He and his son play at a couple places with a bunch of other players, if he likes it i can see if he'll buy it for the cost of materials and bring along my business card when they go play to hand out to anyone who asks about the box. At least it'd get my work out there instead of being hardset in my price and not selling anything and have no where else im advertising or displaying these items for sale. Veteran opinions welcome because i just dont know

Me too please, piqued my curiosity

Working on it

Thanks I didn't have to splice it, years of macrame got me pretty good at estimating the length of cord I'd need, but I'll keep it in mind next time i lace just incase i need to splice. I am thinking to add a run around the top of the pouch to add stability when opening and closing the drawstring. Just need to get the grommets set so i can figure out hole spacing. (Waiting for paint to dry... ugh, rain isn't helping things go faster) Your tip about not splicing on a corner helps. I assume the same applies to starting and ending a run on a corner, which i hadn't really thought much about how i was going to do it so i probably would have started on one corner and worked my way back to it. Thank you so very much for helping me avoid that mistake!

Round holes, flat lace, so there is a bit of play. Working with what i have until i can get $ to buy one of those chisels. Interestingly enough the tutorial i watched had round holes and flat lace too. I pulled a little tighter than just snug to help avoid slip as this will be a heavily flexed joint. Next one i wont do that, it looks off

So i found a decent tutorial on double loop lacing and tried my hand at it. The beginning and end get tucked between the 2 peices of leather i laced together and pulled up and thru a few holes down and trimmed. Im afraid with use they slip and the lacing will loosen and the joint will fail, or that it'll slip and become an eyesore. Do you guys do anything to the ends? I was thinking a drop of pva might be enough to hold it in place since its flexible when dry, strong and bonds well to leather. Opinions?

Theres been at least one other person in the store, I'd say about every other time I'm in there. One guy was making an awesome cthulhu mask out of vegtan. Hopefully they are making enough money to cover rent, i just might cry if they close.

Yeah I'll take every strip off the hook to find the nicest one. Some have scratches or wrinkled areas, thin spots, dirt marks. For $50 a pop i want to be able to use every inch. Pretty soon I'll be stuck with the strips i didnt pick unless someone else is dwindling the supply of the same size and length belt leather but i kinda doubt it, its the thickest one they have and i know it wont fit thru my belt loops so i doubt many ppl are making belts from it. Not sure what else it'd be used for, im using it to make storage boxes for decks of cards

Yeah the tandy that opened up in CT is about an hour drive one way from Groton, shipping is probably cheaper than the gas to travel back and forth

Thanks for the welcome yeah i wasnt fond of the idea of ordering and shipping for leather, im very tactile, i need to see it and feel it especially at $50 a strip