fredk

The only stuff I've had success with is lacquer thinners, aka cellulose thinners I usually use a ball point pen to mark leather, but those marks are either cut away, skived away or they mark gouge lines - see the pattern The very worst to use is an indelible marker, aka a Sharpie. Even when you remove the ink the mark comes back as a ghost through you dye and finish

I got some from Le Prevo and it seemed ok. It was only used on a few odd projects but I had no problems with it. I got and used silver and gold. Scroll down just about half-way on this page; http://www.leprevo.co.uk/hides.htm

And why would you not be proud of your first sheath, made all by yourself? Now, this is where ye need to think ahead - where are you going to put that 'makers' stamping? On the HLS or on the sheath back? cos the front is all nicely tooled. On the HLS or sheath back, its best to do the stamping afore ye sew it all up closed

I think you are finding, as many of us have found out, 1. making an item from scratch is like a 3 dimensional jigsaw without either instructions or the box picture to guide us 2. its worse than chess, you need to think about things many stages ahead and plan on them, doing them in sequence when you least expect to have to do them 3. for every 'how do I?' question you'll get dozens and dozens of answers, and all can be perfectly correct

I'd say they are pretty much the same on all my belts. I do sometimes make the billet end a couple of inches longer for fat guys. Their weight, thus their waist size, can vary a bit more than thin guys, so an extra few inches to let that belt out a bit more also. I mainly use buckles which have a keeper made into them, so on the buckle end I don't need to fuss about a strap keeper eg, this sort of buckle http://www.leprevo.co.uk/photos/14724-40.htm

How far have you got with this: This suggestion needs doing before the front is sewn on. 1. cut a piece for your hanging loop strap (here after, hls ), make it the width you want and about 7 or 8 inches long* 2. cut one or two 'spacers' the width of your hls and about 1/2 inch high 3. sew one end of your hls thru the spacers to the back of the sheath, with the rest of the hls going upwards 4. bring your hls up, around and down past the part you sewed and sew that end to the sheath, about 1/2 below where the spacers end is sewn. 5. you now have a sheath standing-off from the hls * hls = say 1 inch from sewing point to top of sheath, up for about 2 inches, curve over 1/2 inch, then down 2 inches, plus 1.5 inches past the first sewn point = 8 inches

Most excellent 'Pre-distressed' - some people just like that look At lower school no-one wanted to be seen wearing new denim jeans,

On the buckle end I just taper long enough to take the smaller buckle and a fold over to main wider part, so thats about 2.5 to 3 inches. On the billet end I narrow about 6 inches or maybe 8 inches max and I have a steep curve up to the wider section

Put in the spacers. Angle the tops a bit to guide the blade into the sheath On this copy of a 16th century sheath the knife has a 1 inch wide blade. I cut spacers to the main shape and to narrow the blade area down to 1 inch wide. In this case the spacers are also the welts, but the same idea holds

did you remember to take photos to share with us?

I've got the pattern from 'DieselpunkRO' This one : https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/637482329/plague-doctor-mask-pattern-diy-pattern?ref=related-1&pro=1 He does a number of different styles. His instructions are to sew from the head towards to the point of the beak along the bottom join then from the tip to the eyes along the top join. He also does some very good instructional videos I've the pattern pieces cut out, I really must translate them onto leather

What are you ordering now? 2 ways; 1. order belly leather, than is usually very supple, but it can be stretchy as well 2. tell your supplier that you want supple and not stiff. I have a good working relationship with my leather supplier, Le Prevo, and I can tell them what I want and they sort it out for me

Yes, quite often, where glue is not always required. I use tape meant for ordinary sewing as its cheaper than rolls labelled 'for leather' I keep, 3mm, 6mm, 10mm and 15mm widths in my 'sticky stock' box

I think I found these photos you speak of and I think the person who posted them has managed to lock them into place in the 'Gallery' I think you/we should contact Johanna or someone who has the suitable permissions to remove the photos

oh, ok, but I don't see them either

I don't usually see the adverts across the top because I have installed an ad-blocker. I can choose to show the adverts if I want to see them, or not

yes it is and also kitchen cutting boards. That plastics place sells it in sheets from 1mm upwards in thickness. I use 6mm, 10mm, and 16mm thick

Would HDPE or Delrin work for you? Thats what I use under my shape cutters (I'll not raise them to the level of clicker dies, ) I'm only cutting out, (stamping out), small shapes from up to 1mm suede or pigskin for bases to put on games playing pieces I get my sheets from this place: https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/gfgplasticsltd I've never really damaged a sheet yet. I buy a lot of nylon, delrin or HDPE sheets from them as I use the sheets for all sorts of odd jobs, like sticking wet & dry paper to for a flat sanding surface

All stamping should take time. When you use a bar and hammer, walk the the stamp. 1st hit, centre to locate it, then tip to top left, hit again, tip to top right, hit, tip to bottom right, hit. tip to bottom left, hit. Finish with another centred hit. All this takes more than 20 seconds. The time is needed for the leather fibres to become fully compressed and retain that compression. If you just press down briefly and release the fibres can reshape themselves a bit after release of the pressure on them Try it this way and you'll find you get sharper more permanent impressions

The grey one; https://tandyleather.world/products/craftool-pro-hand-press?_pos=3&_sid=2f2862f43&_ss=r I preferred the grey one as I bought the adaptors for the 3D/2D stamps for it https://tandyleather.world/products/press-dies-for-hand-press?pr_prod_strat=copurchase&pr_rec_pid=4602824392839&pr_ref_pid=4602666549383&pr_seq=uniform Not many people do this; ~~ its not just about pressing the stamp, the leather needs to be cased just about right, and leave the pressure on for about 20 seconds or more Would you believe that no place in my country had an arbor press of any size. Only one was willing to import one. It was large and was 12T pressure and was going to cost around £600. Tandy had theirs on sale so I got it for about £180 Nonsense. The Tandy is 1.25 T and if I don't carefully adjust its depth to press I can, and have, punched a stamp right through 3mm thick l leather. Just the other night I tested a self-made resin stamp on 2mm leather. I didn't use the press nor a hammer, I just pressed it down hard on the cased leather and held it there for about 20 seconds. I got a very decent test stamping, not great but passable

With the Tandy press I can screw the end of the ram up or down so I bring the ram down to the leather and adjust it so that the stamp is just pressed into the leather by a few millimetres. I also use various thickness of delrin sheet as a base

I have and use the Tandy press. 1.25T pressure afair. More expensive than a bog-standard arbor press

Short answer, yes you can. even shorter answer, yes I never made shoes or boots from new, just repaired plenty and I used the same leather I used for making bags et cetera I found that belly leather, about 1.5 to 2mm, was good for wet forming over the last for the vamp

I was in Hobbycraft today and tried to check out one of their card cutting presses. I say tried, cos they were out of stock. However, a nice young lady went and searched out the information required. This is for their machine priced at £54. https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/sizzix-big-shot-die-cutting-machine/606169-1000 Cutting width is 15.6 cm Cutting depth is 1.6 centimeters, so I was waaaay off I reckon this has potential. I'm for ordering one of these machines I already use some of the card cutting steel templates for impressing into leather. Here is just one example, the knitting things, not the letters*. You can buy literally thousands of different pictures in different sizes for only a £/$ or two through ebay * I got the angle wrong on this one, the knitting looks too much like a flag, but the lady still liked it and a correction from me, I kept calling this a 4 piece set, its only 3 piece and its his number 4 set. I got the numbers mixed up