fuyuko83

Thanks Mr. Zalesak! ~Janice

I'm late to the party on this one - but I wanted to say THANKS for this video! It greatly reduces my knife intimidation! I'll probably be making lots of leatherwrangler references on my Christmas list...

Thanks everyone! I don't mind learning how to sharpen them properly. It's just that I'd rather not get the equivalent of a cheap kitchen knife that cuts a tomato and is never the same again... That's a good point about holding an edge vs. the difficulty of sharpening. I've thought about starting with a not that impressive knife, just to practice sharpening etc. The problem is that if the quality of the knife itself is making it very hard learn, it's going to be very frustrating very quickly.

So I'm ready to tackle the next level of leathercraft: the round knife. I've been reading the threads on here about the steel qualities, edge geometry, etc. and I must say these details along with the care and feeding of this tool make it sound pretty intimidating... I'm not unduly impressed with the Tandy selection, so I'd rather do my due diligence and invest in something nice. Any assistance would be vastly appreciated! I want something with a slightly smaller handle, as my hands are not man-size. Also, after reading Al Stohlman, I don't especially want a blade larger than 4". I work on mainly smaller scale accessory type projects, so I don't need a giant blade anyway. Except that I would like to be able to skive. This is an investment for me, so I'm prepared to scrape together the $100-200 for something I don't have to struggle to sharpen after only one use. Ideally, this would be a knife I can lovingly make a sheath for and keep for many years of leathercraft work. I'm self-taught, and I don't know many local leathercrafters here in Houston - so I rely on you all for your expertise! By the way, I see that humidity is the downfall of non-stainless knives, and Houston is certainly humid! Thanks in advance for any recommendations you can give me! ~Janice

So I managed to break my Tandy sewing punch. I do use it quite a lot, and on everything from suede (garment and otherwise) to tooling leather (up to 4ish oz). Somehow I've bent the strip that serves as the 'spring' part, and it's about to break in half. I can see that it is attached with a screw, but I don't have high hopes that I can buy a replacement part. Not that it's Tandy's fault - but should I buy another $40 punch from them, or invest in a different brand like Osborne? I could use your wisdom! Thanks

Oh - thank you so much! I was despairing of ever getting a reply =) Now I just have to source some lightweight felt.. At least my customer is more than willing to pay for the materials!

Hi all! Sorry if this subject has been treated before - I poked around and couldn't find any info. Someone has commissioned me to make a stuffed pony plush for them, and I recently made one out of (what I assume is) about 3ish oz cowsplit suede. A friend of mine gave me a pile of suede she found, and so I made something from it. This was my first time working with suede. I just proceeded as if it was any other leather, and I used the handpunch and leather sewing techniques. Mostly I used the baseball stitch. The problem is the person who just commissioned me is a vegetarian, and would prefer I look into faux suede materials like Ultrasuede. Has anyone worked with this stuff before? I don't do garment sewing - so it needs to be hefty enough to use the handpunch + baseball stitch. Also, if it's too flimsy I'm afraid there will be puckering at the stitches. Then again, because the project is such small scale, if the 'temper' is too tough it won't want to wrap and hold a shape. Am I making sense? Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! My previous pony project is in my gallery, if you'd like a visual reference. Thanks so much for your time! ~Janice

So you go through all three (doh, four) layers then? Thanks for the advice and picture =)

Hi all! I'm new to the forum - so hello =) I've made a few leather projects, but usually small-scale - nothing 'epic.' I'm trying to make a simple waist-cincher for my Renfest costume. I'm working with vegetable tooling-leather. I've found lots of stitches for joining pieces back-to-back, for instance belts, etc. But aside from the 'butt' seam, I can't seem to find techniques for stitching two adjoining pieces, at least with any sort of strength. I wondered if I could use a narrow strip of leather and sew both pieces to it - achieving a 'topstitched' look. I figured it would create a sort of faux-boning for the cincher/corset. Is that feasible? Is there a better way? Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks for your time! =) -Janice