battlemunky

High quality, simple. Perfect. Another nice batch Sir.

Pics would be nice too. If it didn't soften after you soaked it, it may not be veg tan. Also, if it is veg tan and extremely hard, it may have had some treatment done to it and seeing it may help us to help you.

Also, you may want to go with a less steep angled grind to begin with, it'll help keep you from going too deep when you start cutting. There are a few different trains of thought on carving and one of them is to "cut less/bevel more" by our own @immiketoo. Now, Mike is ridiculously talented so there is a ton of merit to this philosophy. Trying to keep from cutting too deep and exposing core leather is what the gist is and then using bevelers and modeling spoons more. Give the below video a good view and see if that appeals to you and then think about the blade choice.

I just hand stitch it all. Maybe if I ever go full time leather worker and need to keep to a schedule I'll get a machine or run up on a ridiculous deal. Until then, I'll hand sew

Mine was a pocket sheath and turned out to be downright dangerous. I modded it a few times and ended up tossing it.

Beautiful. I like your old barn wood photo booth too.

Excellent job on the stitching actually. Being your first project, you are light years beyond where I was with my stitching. Mine held together....that's about all I can say.

Good to hear! Guessing he was at Camp Devildog in NC, yeah? Combat training was pretty fun, guessing he just went through that. Shooting really cool guns and making things blow up. I went during the winter and we froze pretty bad, didn't sleep much. A few grueling forced marches, some advanced land nav, and some boring simulated wars. Basically it was a lesson in how to stay awake when not being allowed to get rest and walking long distances with your feet bleeding. Let him know there are people out there rooting for him that he's never even met! Semper Fi!

If you can sharpen you should be good @CutThumb but the leather is a lot happier with a properly polished blade. I go the extra for my leather sharps. But yeah, if you are accustomed to sharpening for wood, you should be pretty set for leather. You feel a difference. Actually, it'll be a good lesson....take whatever swivel knife you end up with right out of the package to some scrap leather and feel how it works, then do the same thing after you hone it and polish it. Even in between, try it and feel how the blade progresses. Edge quality is noticeable when carving wood; it is RIDICULOUSLY noticeable when carving leather.

Yeah, @Mattsbagger may have hit the nail on the head. Keep things modular, which that organizer does, because my shop too has changed a lot. Fluid. Be like water. -Bruce Lee

Looks like pig to me. Can't tell if it's vegtan or other though. If it took dye really well, likely vegtan. Sometimes pig has a bit of a different smell to it as well.

I'd hold off on the 2nd coat of NFO @Marietje unless you have several days to ensure it dries. Some folks do exactly like you did on the first one and skip the pre-dye NFO. It isn't a rule or anything and it will likely only make it a little bit softer. Your original bag above looks fantastic. I can pretty much only agree with everyone else, your choice of dye color and that contrast with the black stitching is great and the whole thing is just a lovey piece of work. Regarding your strap edges, the way I do mine is I sand them very close to where I want them, then use water the first run of slicking, then a thing coat of gum trag for the second slicking, then dye, and sometimes I'll go back and hit it with some beeswax. I can't wait to see the next one

lol Dr: Hughes: Just approximate the chicken to be a sphere. Good points @Matt S!

That looks awesome Plink. I made one for just a multitool and love the boxed look. Your bottom corners look a LOT better than mine does.

2000 grit sandpaper to get it good and close to sharp, then green strop compound on a strop to get it the rest of the way. Took about an hour but I like how it performs now.

I just remembered this; we had a place we were renting a few years back and the workshop under the stairs was rigged up by the old guy who left the house to his kids that then swiftly sold it. He had all sorts of things mounted like this (see attached). I was thinking of making some shelves on my bench that would accommodate something similar but haven't gotten around to it. The jars could be had very cheap or free if I let my wife know to hold onto them. Just tossing out another idea. Could maybe even mount them on the underside of your bench out of the reach of knees, etc.

I have the cheap Harbor Freight organizer boxes. Not ideal but serves the purpose since this is hobby level. If I was doing it for a living I'd find a much better wan than those. That Home Depot link looks 1000 times better than my HF boxes.

Johanna, how is your Jarhead doing? What is his MOS?

Make two kiradashi if you do @KennethM, you don't want to use the leather one for wood or else you'll be busy fixing the edge all the time. You want your leather knife edges (of all kinds) polished mirror smooth and scary sharp.

You are welcome! I have a rotary cutter and a few other types of knives but honestly what I end up using more than any of them is an Olfa snap blade knife. I guess Exacto would be very similar. I also use a regular old Stanley utility knife but do prefer the snap blade knife to that. Link to that knife is below. And the scalpel being a pretty fine blade likely flexes a bit as well and that'll lead to some variance but quite a few people use them. There isn't a huge need for a high dollar knife if/until you get deeper down the rabbit hole or you just want to. As long as the leather is getting cut and it isn't messing up your work is all that needs to happen. https://olfa.pl/en/product/olfa-a-1-1793283183

Zippers aren't nearly as magical as I always thought they were having used a few now and are pretty straight forward. Cut the slot for the size zipper you have and carefully glue it. Make sure you have it right side facing the way you want it, etc., lay it out before hand and make sure its the way you want it to be. Then sew it in after gluing. The insert, I'm guessing, is sewn onto one of those interior pieces we can't see very well from the pics. It looks hidden though, so maybe the inner lining of whatever the outer piece sews onto?

Sounds to me, from having done it a hundred times myself, like you aren't keeping your knife completely straight. The good news about it is when you do your edge work it should remove most errors like that. A little bit of edge beveling and some sanding and slicking and you won't see it anymore. Also, cutting more and more leather will help too but I don't know if you'll ever really get away from small deviations from hand cutting. If you are capable enough with your blacksmithing and have a press, you could always made a set of dies that you can then press out some pieces and it'd get you all uniform all the time. Welcome to the forum!

That turned out great!

Yeah man, that looks great!

Whatever you call it, you killed it. It looks great!