fredk

When using my clamp thingy I sew right to left and away from me/near to far

When I make these hats using soft thin-ish [about 1.3mm thick] upholstery grade leather I eye-ball the stitching. Usually I don't even mark the stitching line. The leather is so soft I use a sharp glover's needle, sewing from the top down firstly then [hopefully] using the same holes back to the top and tie off the thread. Roughly 10 minutes per seam hand sewn. The seam is on the inside, no-one really sees it or inspects it and as I've gone both ways with the stitching any irregularities in the spacing is covered up

When I did a sheath for a skean, which is similar, I followed the details of some sheaths found in archaeological excavations. Firstly, I made a wood copy of the blade, plus about 8 inches longer to hold it by. I wet formed the leather around the wood blade and brought the two edges of the leather to meet along the 'back' of the blade; not the thin back but the wide 'back'. The two edges were turned outwards at right angles, like this - ] [ and then the two edges were sewn together, very closely to where the leather turned out. The leather was still damp during sewing. After sewing the leather was again wetted and it was made to conform to the blade better. The excess of the ] [ was carefully cut down close to the sewing and what was left was rounded over and burnished Doing the point neatly was a real bugger though An alternative to the ] [ was to just butt the leather edges together and sew it up using a X stitch hth

A creaser will do the same job as wing dividers. I prefer the dividers for making the stitching line as I can get more pressure onto the leather, the dividers can open wider (not necessary at all really) and I find their adjustment is finer. On my dividers I filed one leg shorter so that there is more of the longer leg following the edge of the leather. On my creasers there is very, very little difference between the two legs, and even after filing one down they just don't work as easily as the dividers Heating the creaser is like using a steam iron on your clothes, the heat helps make the impression more permanent

1. I've found that some of these pliers don't have the teeth sufficiently hardened, thus they can be easily bent, to varying degrees, giving a poor straight line. And its not a case of the cheapest being bad. I've found both cheap and expensive ones which had the problem. In fact my ones that I have now were quite cheap - under £10 a pair ($15?) 2. On some items I make a stitching line, top and bottom with a wing divider. Just an impression in the leather, then I put the top teeth into the line and by feel I can make sure the bottom teeth are in the bottom line. Over lap by at least one tooth, preferably two. If I'm in a real hurry I chance it and have no over lap. 3. On the Navigator's board, there was a 3mm MDF panel enclosed by the leather. I just put the plier's teeth up against the board. The board edge kept my line straight. I make other things in which I enclose thick card as a stiffener and use the pliers in the same way. yes, horses for courses. I don't make holsters or sheaths, just bags, belts, beanie type hats, light-weight stuff so my pliers work very well for me, but their maximum cut is about 4mm (10oz), they struggle at any thing over 4 mm (10oz). Also they are only good for as far as they can reach from the edge of a piece of work, about 25mm / 1 inch afair. On the Navigator's Board, the pocket, bottom right, the inside stitching line was pre- done with the pliers then an awl through the main piece after the pocket was glued down

The antique gel I use can get through several coats of a 'resist'. On my game boards I have to put on five / 5 coats of resist to stop the antique staining the squares. Even then the top layer of the resist is stained. I clean off most of the resist back to clean leather then varnish again. Its because both the antique and resist both have the same base carrier; the antique dissolves the resist slightly. I think the OP is not putting on enough resist

Each to their own way For a lot of my stitching I use these pliers for making the holes. They are really fast in use. I can go around the perimeter of a book cover for an A6 book in just about 2 minutes [I've timed it]. A few minutes longer for a cover for an A5 sized book Available with 4 teeth/prongs and 2 teeth/prongs the type of book cover I'm talking about Also used on the perimeter of this Navigator's Board. It took only a few minutes to punch all the holes

Just a couple of thoughts; 1. are you really loading it on? not just a wee bit on a cloth and rubbing it on? 2. it sounds a bit like its soaking into the leather, so its density of colour is weakened. Perhaps another, really heavy coating, will improve it

Basically, what you are doing is what I do to make a game board I glue the leather, either veg or chrome tan, to the flat board then when thats dry I glue the leather to the edges. No pulling or stretching, just rolling it over with a brayer to ensure a good glue stick Chrome tan on the board with a veg tan playing area glued on top

Go back to that Tandy store. Be brave; tell 'em you're only a raw beginner and ask them to show you what you need to know.

Did it? or did it just not come out the way you expected it to? We've had others on here who had 'problems' with dyeing. Some dye spilt on the leather, or not evenly applied et cetera After some encouragement those crafters took another look at what they had and turned that 'ruined' piece of leather into a unique OOAK Sometimes you just gotta look beyond the norm and see the piece in an artistic light

You can make those sanding sticks yourself very easily. I make my own for plastic modelling. Just need a sheet or two of grit paper, double-sided tape and a load of lolly/flat popsicle sticks. Costs about a few $$ to make 30 to 50 sanding sticks

A thought; would a riffler work? I must try to find one of mine and try it

There is one commercially available, has been for over 30 years. Called Jennican. Kinda hard to find now tho. Last place I knew which had them was W.Hobbys in London I used to use a few when I worked on my own cars. For occasional spray painting etc without having to get the full-rig spraying equipment out

Nice, But I'd suggest trimming that pointed end on the cover flap to a more rounded shape. That point will look very grotty after some use

Basically , but I'd go a bit differently. Used diluted/thinned dye. A dye of a darker shade than your main colour. Then make several applications working towards the edge so it get the most applications and thus more dye

And there I've been using 50 grade grit paper on a stick to do my job

Try sponging it down with a solution of distilled vinegar and baking soda

Is this the style you want? Not the exact one, just a sample of the shape

Try cutting one from nylon or HDPE. On the end of a short bar, to fit into a swivel knife I know these ain't a beader, they are 'bevellers, but the same principle works Like this; I don't have any machine tools so they are made in two parts; the head and the shaft. The shaft, which is a good fit for my swivel knife, fits into the head and is pinned to hold it, you can just see the pin in the third photo. The head is HDPE and carved and filed to shape. They were dead easy & quick to make The cost of material to make about 10 of these cost me about £5 afair. In use I just run the beveller back and forth along an already bevelled line and it smooths it. I reckon a beader would work similarly; make two parallel grooves and run the beader over the top with a leg in each groover

The old fashioned way to sharpen tools with a groove cutting edge was to rub jeweller's rouge well into a length of string. Tie one end of the string to something solid, pull the string tight and run the cutting groove back & forth along the string

I got buckles like that from Le Prevo. They don't sell them anymore but email them and ask if they might still have one or two

Is the pad two layers? I wud try some thin sheet aluminium double-sided taped to the top piece and covered by the bottom piece which has been sewn on. Aluminium, from a cleaned drinks can and about 2 inches wide

Distance between jaws when closed, not holding anything = 0, a big fat zero, nada, nowt Open to accept a small item such as a wallet, about 1 inch For bigger items max = about 3 inches, 2.5 inches will do