azrider

My first suggestion would be to go to Tandy and get a beginer kit, and a few books. Anything by Stolhmann is helpful. I haven't done firefighter shields, but my understanding is vegetable tanned leather, in saddle skirting thicknesses. The basic seven tools for carving will be in the kit. You will want a durable, waterproof finish for your shield. I am not familar with all of the Tandy finishes, so you may want to talk to the people at the store. The other thing you will need is a knife that can cut the leather. Springfield leather carries osborne round knives. I would recomend these over the Tandy ones, and you will have to sharpen all of your tools. The biggest thing to start out is practice. It takes a lot of practice to figure out what tools you need and how to use them. This forum is also the best place I have found on the web to learn. Welcome to your new addiction.

You can tool horse butts. It takes a heavier hit with a mallet, and keeping the leather a little more moist than with steerhide. Horsehide is naturally water resistant, so casing can be a challange. I get mine wet, and leave them in a ziplock overnight. Attached are pictures of five horsehide wallets I have made. I love the look of it when it is dyed, and you can't beat the durability. I use a 20-24 oz maul to tool, and have broken two plastic maker mark stamps in it. You have to hit it signifigantly harder. I also switched to a 4 inch thick granite slab about the same time I started tooling horsehide. The other challange is that the hard rolled horsebutts like Springfield sells will spit sometimes if they are not oiled enough before folding. I always wet fold my wallets now, to try to avoid it. Take a look at the last wallet picture, and you can see the crack starting on the bottom.

I just made a wallet out of this stuff. I used standard contact cement. Before I glued it, I went over every area the cement was going to be applied with a hairblade, just to give more surface area for the glue to bite. I wouldn't trust it not to come undone by itself, but it seemed to work well to hold for stitching.

I am still looking for a source of linen webbing for the second element on my strops. Any suggestions? I have made them with regular veg-tan, latigo, and horse but. Some people like more or less drag when stropping. One thing that some people like when selling them is to oil them for them with neatsfoot oil. People who don't do leatherwork don't have bottles of this stuff laying around, so might appreciate it. Many cut thought shavers want bare leather so they can use other compounds like shaving cream on the leather. I always try and ask

I have nothing to back this up with, but I think that the blade picks up stuff that sticks to it when doing cuts. I strop about as often as you do with my Henley blade. I have always assumed it is just to get clean the blade so it glides smother, rather than to sharpen. I had to do the same thing with ceramic blades. I have strops from different leathers, and the really dense horse hide seems almost like a finer grit compared to thick soft cowhide. It doesn't have much drag, but it seems to work very well to touch up the blade.

They call it a shop payment account, and you might have to dig a little bit. I know I was part of the pilot group of stores who were given a chance to try it. I figure any new method to seperate money from customers is something I should check out.

To the OP, Etsy is now offering direct payment through them without using PayPal. They are billing it as a better customer experience, and I can see that. They charge about the same fees as paypal, so you can now take credit cards without Paypal. I have had about six sales since they turned it on, and half of them have been through Etsy directly.

Thank you guys, that helps a lot.

Thank you for the reply, Pete. The problem I am having isn't making belts in a metric size, its knowing if there are standard sizes. The request for a quote was for "5 belts each in european sizes 90-105." It seems silly to make a bunch of belts one centimeter longer than each other, so I am trying to figure out if there are standard sizes in European belts, i.e. 90, 95, 100, and 105, so I can determine how many belts to make. I don't think I am wording the question well, but based on what he asked, I don't know how many belts he is expecting a quote for. I just didn't know if there were standard sizes belts are typicly made in Europe.

I am totally lost on European belt sizes. I had an inquriy from a German company, and need to figure this out. I have a couple of questions, if anyone here or from the other side of the pond can help. 1) Are the belt sizes every five centimeters? Such as 90, 95, 100, etc? 2) When some one tells me they need a 34 inch belt, I will typicly add 4 inches, and make the smallest hole on the belt at 38 inches. Is that the same with a 90cm belt?

The most common question I get is if it is Cordovan or "Shell Horse Leather". I get those mostly with strops I have made. I have started making dog collars out of the horsehide, but some people get disgusted by the thought of equine leather. I know its one of the best types of leather for the job, but thats hard to explain to non-leather people. I was just curious if everyone else calls it horsehide. The lost sales don't bother me too much, I wouldn't be able to change thier mind anyways.

I have been making a lot of things out of the vegetable tanned horse butts from Springfield and Horaween. One thing I have been trying to figure out is how to explain the leather to customers who are not leather people. Horsehide is the term I use, but sometimes they have questions. I let the know that cordovan or shell leather is made from the cheeks of the horse, and the strips I work with cross the back bone just in front of the rump of the horse. Are there specific terms that should be used to discribe this leather? I have seen it listed online as Horse butt, butt strips, north of cordovan, or just horse strips.

Also check out Maine Thread. They have waxed thread for hand sewing, in multiple thicknesses. I have used quite a bit of thier stuff.

I use 2-3 oz for the interior, and 6-8 for the out side. Its not a thin wallet even when empty. I started with this pattern, and have modified it a bit. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=20414 Once you do a couple to see how the construction goes, you can modify the sizes to what ever your customer wants. I used a smilar design to make a full sized trucker waller, 11 inches by 5 inches. It had twice the pockets as Kate's pattern, and the customer was pretty happy with it. He was specificly looking for something not made of "soft and supple leather."

Thanks for all the feedback. To clarify a few points: These would be used by someone who was released by the Dr. to drive after having open heart or lung surgery. I had a double bypass in about 2 months ago, and chose to use one of these when the Dr. said I could drive again. Testing mostly completed. I personally accept the risk that it will prevent the seat belt from working as intended if an accident occurs. Honestly, someone who had a surgery where their chest was cut open will be pretty hosed if they get in an accident no matter what kind of seat belt they are wearing. An air bag deployment would likely break my sternum right now, and for the next few months. Seat belt or no. The only purpose of the strap was to move the belt away from the incision, to reduce the amount of pain caused by the seatbelt. Those moments where you hit the brakes because of a dog on the road can be very painful if the seat belt locks over the incision. I can use this no matter what car I am in, and it adjusts quickly for either a passenger or driver. Its not about making it softer over the sternum, its about trying to get the whole seat belt away from the area. I am 58 days out from surgery at this point, and am still in pain when I sneeze or have any kind of pressure over the chest. What I am getting from the responses is pretty much what I was afraid of. No good deed can go unpunished, and if someone was using one of these I made and was in an accident, they or their family could come after me for damages. As much as I would like to think they would be grateful for not having as much pain while driving, since I have an actual business for my leather, I can't take the chance. I think this will be something I will offer to people I know personally, but won't donate a bunch of them to the hospital. I wonder how the companies that make the ones for pregnant women avoid the liability.

I recently made something but had a question about it. When a person has open heart or lung surgery, they use a pillow to brace their sternum together as it heals, since there is no way to put a cast on it. When they are first leaving the hospital, they use this pillow under the seatbelt strap in the car. After six or so weeks, the Dr. allows them to drive again, but they can not use the pillow while driving. In order to keep the seat belt strap away from the incision, I made a strap about 16 inches long, with two snaps. One half can be hooked under the bottom belt, one can be hooked over the top one. It keeps the top belt on the shoulder, but pulls it down so it doesn't go across the incision. It works really well to make driving less painful. I wanted to make a couple of dozen of these, and donate them to the group that makes the pillows for the cardiac patients at the hospital. My only worry is that since they change the way a seat belt fits, could I get sued if someone gets in an accident, and the seat belt doesn't work as well as it would otherwise? Below is a picture of the strap. If you know anyone recovering from a bypass or any surgery where their chest was opened, they might appreciate one of these. Feel free to use the design.

I went to the website and looked at the information. What I always have trouble figuring out without buying something is how untreated vegetable tanned leather will react to a product. Would anyone who uses this stuff be willing to share how it reacts on carved leather, can you dye it first, can you oil through the finish? Is this mainly used for chrome tanned items, like jackets and furniture? Leatherimages, any pictures of stuff you use this on?

No, I haven't done any grain corrections. I cut away scars and such, but just use the natural grain for mine. I found gdliechty@alliedhightech.com that sells oil based carrier poly diamond that can be used to charge a strop, but it is sold in 16 oz containers. I bought some diamond powder last year, but its messy to get into the leather. It does a great job when it is in there though. I got mine from www.diamondtech.com for a straight powder.

I have been experimenting with strops for a while. I make different strops depending on what they are being used for. I have five or six hanging by my bench. I have a very nice straight razor, but don't use it often enough to be good with it. I tend to think of strops like I do sharpening stones. There are different hardnesses and compounds you can use to get a great edge. For many people, the main purpose of the strop is to remove the burr after a blade has been sharpened. This can be done with vegtan, harness, latigo, or horse strip leather. I haven't used cordovan due to the cost, but I have one on the way from Horween to find out. Most people's perceptions of how the strops are not right either. Here are a few things I figured out:· Draw: How much it "feels" like the leather is gripping the knife when it pulled over the strop. Horse strips have very little draw, soft latigo has quite a bit more. Most people can feel more draw on the softer leathers, so they think it is doing more. A hard horse hide will remove the burr faster than a soft latigo, but people like the feel of the latigo. Paddle vs. Hanging: For tools and most knives, a paddle strop mounted to a flat piece of hardwood works best. Hanging strops are used almost exclusively for straight razors. Hard vs. soft leather: Hard leather works great for razor or chisel grinds. For a convex grind with the last part of the blade that is rounded, a softer leather works better Compounds: A strop is used to align the micro ridges in the steel. Once a compound is added to a strop, it is a final step in polishing and sharpening a blade, and will polish these away rather than align them. My charged strops have an aluminum oxide/ silicone wax compound from here, green polishing compound, and red polishing compound. (There are also diamond powders and pastes that work really well, but they are a pain to use.) I finish with a different strop that is oiled about twice a year. All of these strops are mounted to hardwood boards. The flesh side of leather takes compounds and holds them better than the grain side. The grain side is the best side for stropping with no compounds. I have found that using a couple of different strops for my knives means less time spent on sharpening stones, as the compound charged strops do some very fine grit sharpening. If someone is looking for a strop to use on leatherworking tools, I would suggest making several and seeing what will work the best for your tools.

I will have to try it with neatsfoot oil. I have tried mixing dye with olive oil multiple times, and the dye is always suspended, and not quite in solution. Is the feibings dye alcohol based? I added the soap one drop at a time and shook it, and kept adding drops until the the oil and alcohol were mixed well.

So I have tried a few times to get dye into solution with oil, and try and dye the leather that way. One of my chemist friends suggested adding some soap to the oil, and then adding the alcohol based dye. This actually binds the alcohol and oil together, along with the pigments. I used olive oil, Angelus Dye, and palmolive dish soap. I did a few diffrent pieces to try it out, and was pretty happy with the results. It seems to take some of the pigment into the leather, which evens out as the oil evens out. Just wondering if anyone else has played with this, and what they might have found?

Thank you for making great burnishers, and taking the time to explain how to use them through email. I finally got the moisture/ soap/ wax mix right, and its makes a huge difference in my finished work. Hope you are able to keep doing some of the fun stuff.

One of the big disconnects I still have is what I think something should be priced at for retail, and what people are willing to pay. When I broke down all my prices I was wanting to sell stuff at, I realized I was doing the work for under $3 an hour. There is a great series of articles in the Leather Crafter's and Saddler's Journal right now about how to properly price your products. They are based on a book, and it is worth getting. I found if I have my retail prices set correctly, I can sell at 50% of that for wholesale, and still make money from it. (Not that I am there yet, but I am getting closer.)

Buying better leather will help, but even then you still have to clean up the back of the belt if you aren't going to line it. For dog collars and belts where they are single layer, first I will finish the top and the edges. If I am dying the back, that is the next step. Once those are completely dry, I will take a damp sponge and wipe the flesh side of the leather, then start applying saddle soap with canvas. Make sure what ever the grain side of the leather is resting on will not mark it up. Use the canvas to work the saddle soap into the leather, and smooth out the flesh side. Let it dry for a day. Once completely dry, add a finish. I use minwax water based polycrylic in clear satin on the back side of my belts. (For woodworking.) This drys in under 20 minutes, is flexable, water resistant, and holds up well.

If you fold it over the sharp edge of the stone, you fold it the oppisite way of how it will be going when its done. So for a case, I would put the grain side on the stone, and fold it over, then when you use the edger, you would be remvoing leather from the flesh side. I can't take credit for the idea. Its in one of the Leather Cases books by Stohlman.