Outfitr

I know you said you wanted to sew them but a real time saver for something that is completely hidden are the little staples that Tandy sells. No skiving either just butt the leather together and staple. They're tough little staples and I use two, can't imagine they'd ever fail. I poke holes for them first with my stitching awl which matches the staples perfectly.

A good steep beveler will help also.

Nicely done!

Absolutely beautiful!!

Those are nice!!

Looks good, should last a lifetime. Something thick like that with a welt that's not flat I use my drill press and have a small block of wood that the bit goes into with the edge of the wood fairly close to the bit, all clamped down of course with the drill press vise. That way I can hang the bulging part over the edge of the wood to level out the stitching area so it's perpendicular to the bit. Also I use a well worn burned off small wool dauber to dye edges to get a crisp edge line, especially important with black dye against light leather.

Another trick I use is to dab my index finger and thumb tip on both hands with a tiny bit of Barge and let it dry. Most times it gives just the right amount of traction if the stitching is a bit tight and avoids plier use.

I hand stitch a LOT and use tiger thread almost exclusively. I pierce once about 3/4" up from the end pull it down to the eye and stitch away.

Dye then tokonole with glass slicker. Unfortunately I pretty much use a liner all the time which costs me about 4 hours of stitching on a belt but there's nothing like the look of nice hand stitching on a project.

I finally got the belt back to lengthen. This is what I came up with. I'm happy with the results.

You're right about belt sizing. It can be so frustrating. I just tell customer to drag out a belt they have that fits well and measure that belt from the bend at the buckle end to the hole that they are using on the belt. I then take that measurement and duplicate to the middle hole of new belt. Usually works well until the above mentioned situation where they measured their old belt wrong. I don't know, seems like it's a pretty easy task to take one measurement as per simple instructions. Oh well. Just came in from the shop where I was practicing my first belt extension on scrap leather. I think I got a plan. We'll see.

OK thanks everyone for your suggestions. I did think about stretching it but not sure about that. Right now I'm not sure exactly how much length it needs...I'll have to get back with customer and nail that down. I suspect it's not much because he was wearing it for a while. I think I'll get the belt back and start the surgical procedure soon. I'll keep you posted.

Where would you cut the belt exactly..where the buckle slot starts? The liner on the belt extends all the way to the buckle end and of course is stitched too. So then the 7 oz. piece you suggested I assume you would fold over, stitch together, and cut a new buckle slot to make a new end and sandwich the other end to top and bottom of old belt?? I end my tooling before that end of the belt so just some dye and finish would work. Dang I hate to cut that belt. But then what good is it if it doesn't fit....it's got personalized initials on it of course.

Does anyone know of a good way to make a belt longer? Ok so I recently finished a customers belt, full floral carved, lined, hand stitched. Few weeks later customer says belt too small even with another hole can you make it longer? I explicitly explained over and over how to measure for the belt including a drawing. They gave me a number and I made the belt. At first they said I made it too small but a remeasure insured that I made it exactly as I was suppose to according to the number I got. I panicked a little at first thinking I may have screwed up but I always make a note listing the customer and all the info I need and pin it above my work bench until the project is complete. I probably check and recheck the belt length a dozen times so I was sure it was correct. Turns out they measured old belt wrong so I'm really not obligated but feel bad and want to help. It was an expensive belt. And it was their request to somehow make it a little longer. I don't know....looks like another belt in my near future.

This is what I usually do. I purchased a bunch of clear plastic templates a long time ago for all different widths of straps and they work great for centering. I just scribe the hole and use a punch for the ends and a sharpened wood chisel for the straight sides. Some day I'll buy some good quality oblong punches.

Thanks so much. I use whatever leather I have on hand. I think these are maybe a 5/6 on top and a 3/4 liner or two 5/6. I do the same on the holder too. Although makes for quite a bit of stitching.

I started lining and sewing all the coasters I make now and they stay very rigid and flat.

Really nice work. Those odd shape blades are tricky.

Beautiful. A true work of art.

Great looking belt and I'm sure the quality matches. I see it is stitched..is it lined? Charge plenty, that's the only advise I can give you. There's so much junk out there, let the people who can't or don't want to discern the difference buy 5 junkie belts instead of one good one. JLS is sooo right about "hand made" vs a machine. I mean who cares if it results in the same quality. With that said I make "100% Hand Made" stuff and I charge for it. I am fortunate because leatherwork for me is kind of a full time ....hobby. If it sells fine. All my friends and family have a lot of really nice stuff. I try to make hand stitching a real important artistic/visual part of most of my projects so I charge a lot more for them too. And that does depend on the project. A belt actually is hard to justify hand stitching. I make Case trapper knife sheaths and they are all different from floral carved and painted to basket etc. You can buy a pretty darn nice one online for $30. I charge WAY WAY more. Are mine that much better?? Well they'll last a lifetime and they look better. They also sell so maybe.

Thanks. I feel that these bevelers give me the depth and relief I was looking for. Certainly a work in progress.

ok, here's some coasters I've been doing....nothing special......and no, not gonna show old stuff ha

That flag is really good. Great design and paint work!

Here's some examples of stitching I just completed on some coasters. Two different coasters front and back. The two were stitched exactly the same except for thread size. The first is .8mm tiger thread and the second .6mm. Although I'm ok with the way the first one looks I thought it looked a little chunky and decided to try a smaller thread which I think looks much better. Let me know what you guys think.

There's literally 100's of different ways to perform the saddle stitch....stitch towards, away, front first, back first, needle under, over, cast over, under.....etc. So I was having same issue, nice on back and kind of straight on front. Got tired of watching videos that for some reason didn't give the same results for me. So I went out to the shop and started stitching lines with different technique. Finally I got one that looks nice on both sides. It also has a lot to do with spacing, thread size, needle size, and holes. For this example I use a high quality angled pricking iron 3.38mm spacing and punched all the way through, .6mm tiger thread, no awl. Stitch towards me, angles are of course sloping down towards me, right hand side is front, front needle first, grab needle with back side needle and place it under front needle forming cross, push back needle through bottom of hole while holding the thread front and back to the up side of the hole, pull needle through (not all the way) and cast thread by grabbing the side of the loop closest to you and pulling it down under the needle and towards you and pull the needle the rest of the way through the loop. Hope you can follow, works for me. I can post a pic of stitching if needed.