Olle P

Yea, I could be more clear. Referring to the case where the uppermost layer is removed just to reduce the visibility of imperfections. If users want embossed or brushed (nubuck) surfaces, good for them. I prefer damaging the surface (by tooling) myself.

"Top" or "full" grain makes little, if any, difference. With the right selection of raw hides a tannery shouldn't need to bother messing with the upper layer of the grain. I began doing leathercraft about a year ago, and half a year ago I realised the advantage of using locally produced instead of (Latin) American leather. Swedish cows typically have: No branding marks. (Marking is done by tags on their ears.) No scratch marks from barbed wire. (Pretty much no longer in use.) No nasty insect bites. (No insects of such types live in the cool climate.) In my mind chromium tanned leather is a second rate product every day of the week. Its main advatage is being cheap, the second advantage is a fairly good resistance to abrasive grinding before looking worn. Disadvantages are: It's toxic. Remains should be treated as chemical waste products. Not good for tooling, embossing, burnishing. Not good for hardening. Must be dyed at the tannery. Looks awful before dyeing and is difficult to dye later on. Mechanical properties are also questionable (but definitely not much different) compared to vegetable tanning. (*) A football being "tough"? Depends on what you mean by tough... The ball isn't subject to much wear and tear during its relatively short life span. It does have to stand up against a (mostly) constant stretching force from the bladder within. The seams must be strong enough. Then there's the odd hard kick it will see every now and then. Any one piece of ball surface won't be subject to many kicks though. I can think of a couple of other uses for leather that see much more abuse: Punching bag. (The area that gets hit.) Shoe outer soles. Cover on the toe steel dome on protective work shoes worn by for example construction builders and brick layers. Belts used for driving industrial machinery. (These were made from a type of leather called "remläder" in Swedish, I don't know the English term. I now use that type of leather to make regular waist belts and straps.) Boarding on boats trafficing the icy waters of the North Atlantic. (Cow hides and salt water is usually a vey bad combination, but it used to be very common in Ireland. See "Brendan Voyage" for reference.) (*) A direct comparison between chromium tanned leather and leather tanned using traditional oak bark tanning showed oak bark being supreme in terms of surviving abrasive grinding. (Source: Timothy Severin, "The Brendan Voyage")

Skiving the edges down a bit will reduce that challenge.

Being located in Europe it's a must to handle both the US Imperial (not to be confused with the slightly different British Imperial) and the SI systems interchangeably. A lot of the litterature is written in USA, using imp, while European retailers often provide product information in SI units. What seems like the only globally adopted standard is to sell leather by square feet when sold by size.

I have this very same problem, trying to get the right gusset length. Measure the outer circumference: - Each time I measure I get a different result. - Requires the front part to be cut before starting with the gusset design. Count the number of holes: - Can work for large diameter shapes, like the bags above. - Won't work as well for tighter radii since either the gusset then will need to stretch quite a bit or (better) you need to place the stitching holes further apart at the corners. - Requires the front part to be almost finished before starting with the gusset. Not that good for drawing patterns before touching the leather. Add to this the implications of wanting a gusset that's more complex than a straight rectangle. - Tapered at the ends and/or with pockets and such mounted onto it.

I made a button and found that the strap does sit firmly in the hole, once tightened. Northmount's advice should work!

I suppose the trick is to keep the hole through the button narrow enough to squeeze the strap. I'll try it!

Then the button won't hold together. If it's unclear, this is what I'm working with: The strap is an integral part of the button and by locking the strap after pulling it through the button core the button is prevented from unrolling itself. A solution I've found from similar buttons is to have the strap split (lengthwise) into two that can then more easily be fastened where needed.

Seems appropriate...

How should I use a rivet to fasten the button? (Got plenty of those!)

I encourage you to do the design yourself! What you ask for is simple enough for that. Any "modifications" required to an existing design will be less difficult if you do (design) it all from scratch. You will also be more proud, skilled and confident when you deliver the finished bags.

Surely someone here have come across a/the solution for my problem...?

I've learned quite a lot by watching videos on Youtube. Ian Atkinson and Tandy Leather for example have several informative videos. Then I've also read a few books. Took me about three months after starting with zero knowledge to get confident enough to do just about anything I want and can afford. (It also took me some $3,000 spendings on tools and materials to feel I have most of what I need.)

Increase the distance between the buckle and keeper. A 10-15 cm "flap" won't be held down when the keeper is that close to the buckle. I have 3.0-3.5 cm between buckle and keeper on my belts. (Have the keeper closer on my hat band, but then I rivet instead of stitch the buckle in place.)

I've done some airbrushing, mostly on R/C car bodies though. First I used a very cheap single stage airbrush, and it was a pain to use. Each time I stopped spraying for ~30 seconds (or more) the device required disassembly and cleaning (which took about five minutes) or it would first splutter and then stop spraying completely as the acrylic paint hardened at the nozzle. Then I got a double action airbrush, much like the G44, and it's okay. Needs much less maintenance during work! For my leather work I've this far only used it to apply R.O.C. S20 Leather gloss. I went from sponge to airbrush in order to avoid smearing the previously applied colour(s). The S20 is runny like water, so the process is very simple. I consider using the airbrush for (Eco-Flo) dye as well, when applied to larger surfaces. That dye is also very runny, so I don't expect having to thin it out just for using an airbrush.